Low-Calorie Tofu Alfredo Sauce

Today, I decided to make something healthy yet satisfying for dinner. Since I haven't been shopping in a while, I had to try to make something using the bare ingredients I had on hand, so I experimented and made tofu alfredo sauce...which came out rather...odd. I'm going to post the recipe I made with suggestions for improvement in parentheses. This is what happens when you try to make alfredo without cheese. :/

Ingredients:
- 1 package of Soft Silken Tofu (no problems there)
- 1 cup of vegetable broth. (I used garden vegetable broth which gave the sauce a orangey hue and I would recommend using plain old veggie broth here. Also, I would probably only use 3/4 cup since the sauce was a little thin)
- 3 tablespoons "I Can't Believe It's Not Butter - Light" (again, no problems)
- 1/5 cup garlic powder (No! No! No! - I only used it because I had no Parmesan cheese. Next time, I'd definitely fry up some cloves and wait until I had Parmesan to make this).
- 2 wedges of Laughing Cow Light Swiss cheese

- 1 box of Rigatoni pasta (or whatever kind you enjoy)
- 1 box of frozen broccoli florets



Directions:
1) Cook the pasta and defrost the broccoli.
2) While both are cooking, combine all the other ingredients in a blender and mix well, until a creamy sauce is formed.



3) Transfer the sauce into a medium sized pot and heat to pour over pasta and broccoli.



It was edible at first but I did not want to finish it. This is a recipe I definitely have to play around with a bit more. Once I have my Parmesan, I will try again. After all, it would be amazing to find an alternative to the fatty original Alfredo sauce. To be continued!

Three Vegetable Penne With Tarragon-Basil Pesto

Courtesy of Rachel Ray and (as usual) modified a bit.

Recipe:

1 pound whole-wheat penne pasta
Salt
1/2 pound asparagus, trimmed of tough ends
1 small zucchini
1/4 pound, green beans trimmed of stem ends
1/4 cup pine nuts
1 cup basil, 20 leaves
1/2 cup tarragon leaves from 10 to 12 stems
Handful flat-leaf parsley
1 lemon, zested
2 clove garlic
1/2 cup shredded Parmigiano-Reggiano
Coarsely ground black pepper
1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil


Some of my ingredients

Heat a large pot of water to boil for pasta. Salt the water and add pasta to cook to al dente or, with a bite to it. Cut asparagus spears into 2-inch pieces on an angle. Cut zucchini into matchstick shapes. Cut green beans into 2-inch pieces on an angle. Add vegetables to pasta after penne has been cooking about 5 minutes. Cook veggies and pasta together 2 minutes.

While pasta cooks, toast pine nuts in a small pan until golden, then cool.


Place nuts, basil, tarragon, parsley, lemon zest, garlic, cheese and a little salt and pepper in a food processor.


Turn the processor on and stream in the extra-virgin olive oil until thick sauce forms. Scrape pesto into large, shallow serving dish.


Add a ladle of hot, starchy pasta water to the pesto. Drain penne and veggies and add immediately to pesto. Toss to coat pasta and vegetables evenly. Adjust salt and pepper, to taste.


Serve with extra grated cheese to pass at table.


* This was so absolutely delicious. I was a little scared making the pesto but it came out beautifully. I have some leftovers. I think tomorrow I will make another batch of pesto, just to freeze and have on-hand for any sort of pasta occasion. Yum!!!