Low Fat Fettucini Alfredo

3/4 cup chicken broth
8 whole cloves of garlic
1/3 cup sour cream
1 cup parmesan (use the real stuff)
1 lb fettucini

In a sauce pan, add the chicken brother and the garlic.  Let it boil for about 15 minutes, or until the garlic is soft and somewhat mushy.  Pour the garlic and broth into a blender and blend until all of the garlic is chopped up.  (To prevent the blender from exploding because of the hot water, take the plastic center out of the lid, then keep the whole covered with a towel or wash rag.)  To a bowl, add the parmesan cheese, broth/garlic mixture and the sour cream.  Whisk until smooth.
Fill a large pot with water and bring to a boil.  Add about one-half to one teaspoon of salt to the boiling water.  Add the fettucini.  Cook until al dente; until it's only got a tiny bit of a crunch to it.  Drain the pasta and add a little bit of olive oil so the pasta doesn't stick together. 
Pour the sauce over the pasta and toss it together.
You can add all sorts of things to this: lemon juice, basil, peas, all sorts of things.  It's a lot healthier (and far easier, in my opinion) than real alfredo sauce, which uses butter and whole cream.

Blackberry Cobbler

Ingredients

• 4 cups blackberries
• 2 cups sugar, divided
• 1/4 cup water
• 8 tablespoons butter
• 1 1/2 cups self-rising flour
• 1 1/2 cups milk
• 
  

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Combine the blackberries, 1 cup sugar, and water in a saucepan and mix well. Bring to a boil and simmer for 10 minutes. Remove from the heat.

Put the butter in a 3-quart baking dish and place in oven to melt.

Mix remaining 1 cup sugar, flour, and milk slowly to prevent clumping. Pour mixture over melted butter. Do not stir. Spoon fruit on top, gently pouring in syrup. Batter will rise to top during baking. Bake for 30 to 45 minutes.

*This is adapted from a Paula Deen recipe for peach cobbler.  If you want peach cobbler, simply substitute the blackberries for peeled, sliced peaches and add 1/2 cup of water to the saucepan instead of 1/4 cup.

Lemon Basil Pasta

1 lb pasta of your choice: linguine, fettuccine, penne
1 tsp salt
1 lemon
1 pint heavy whipping cream (or half and half)
1 cup Parmesan cheese, fresh is better but the grated kind is fine too
Handful of fresh basil

 
Add salt to boiling water, then add the pasta and cook until al dente. Reserve about a 1/2 cup of the pasta water.  In a bowl, add the cheese and whipping cream.  Slice the lemon in half and squeeze the juice into the cream/cheese mixture.  For more lemon flavor, zest the lemon peel and add it to the mixture.  Chop most of the basil and add it to the bowl.  Taste the sauce to see if it needs salt (not too much as the pasta was cooked in some) or more lemon flavoring.  Place the cooked pasta into a large bowl and add the sauce, tossing to coat.  If the sauce isn't creamy but rather sticking to the pasta, add some of the reserved pasta water to the bowl and toss again.  Garnish with a couple of basil leaves.  This is also really good with a few slices of cooked bacon thrown in.

French Bread

1 1/4 cup warm water
2 TB softened butter
3 cups white flour (or 2 white and 1 wheat)
1 1/2 tsp sugar
1 1/4 tsp salt
2 tsp yeast

Add, in above order, to bread machine on dough setting. After complete remove dough and roll into rectangle. Then roll bread into loaf shape and place on baking pan to rise. Let double in size (usually about 45 minutes). You may make the traditional slices on the top at this point, or not. Brush top with egg white. Bake at 450 for 15 min.

Banana Pudding

  Mix next 6 ingredients in sauce pan.
2/3 cup sugar
4 T flour
dash of salt
1 (14 oz) can sweetened condensed milk
2 1/2 cups milk
4 egg yolks (reserve the whites)
  Cook over medium heat stirring just about constantly until thickened (it will set up even thicker during chill).


2 tsp vanilla (Add to thickened pudding)
1 Box of vanilla wafers
6 bananas
  Arrange 1/3 of wafers in bottom of 3-quart serving dish. Slice 2 bananas and layer over wafers. Pour 1/3 of pudding over bananas. Repeat layers 2 more times. 


Egg whites
1/4 cup sugar
  Beat egg whites, while adding sugar slowly, until soft peaks form. Top the layered pudding. Place under broiler to brown. Chill.

Layered Cornbread Salad

10 slices bacon (make extra at breakfast and set aside)
  crumbled, or chopped with the handy chopper
Cornbread
  1 1/2 cup corn meal
  1/2 cup flour
  2 TB sugar
  4 tsp baking powder
  1/2 tsp salt
   1 cup milk
   1/4 cup veg. oil
   1 egg
   Bake at 425 for aprox. 18 minutes
1 pkg. of Ranch Dip
1 cup sour cream
1 cup mayo
  mix and chill in fridge

2 cans of pinto or Ranch Style beans (drained)
  Add next 3 ingredients together
2 or 3 large tomatoes, chopped
1 bell pepper, chopped
4 or 5 green onions
  (bulb onion is fine, green shoots aren't ripe when tomatoes and peppers are)
2 cups (8 oz) grated cheese
16 oz or so of frozen corn kernels, thawed

Crumble half of cornbread in large (very large) casserole dish. Top with half of the beans. Next layer half of chopped veggie mix, bacon, corn, and finally cheese . Repeat layers once more.

Blackberry Ice Cream

2 pints of fresh blackberries
Juice of 1/2 lemon
1/4 cup sugar

1 1/2 cups half-and-half
1 cup sugar

5 large egg yolks

1 1/2 cups heavy cream

Add blackberries to a medium saucepan with 1/4 cup sugar and lemon juice. Cook over low heat, covered, for 20 to 25 minutes. Drain using a fine mesh strainer, pressing berries to extract as much juice/puree as possible. Set aside.

Heat half-and-half and 1 cup sugar in a separate saucepan over low heat. Turn off heat when mixture is totally heated. 

Add heavy cream to a separate bowl.

Beat egg yolks by hand or with an electric mixer until yolks are pale yellow and slightly thick. 

Temper the egg yolks by slowly drizzling in 1 1/2 cups of hot half-and-half mixture, whisking constantly. After that, pour the egg yolk/half-and-half mixture into the pan containing the rest of the half-and-half mixture. Cook over low to medium-low heat (depending on how hot your stove gets) until thick, stirring constantly. Then pour into the bowl with the cream. Stir to combine.

Add blackberry juice/puree to the cream/custard mixture and stir. Chill mixture completely, then freeze in an ice cream maker until thick. Place container in freezer to harden for an additional two hours. 

Recipe from Pioneer Woman