Spinach and Mushroom with Yogurt Alfredo

Last week I went to the store and bought a giant tub of Greek yogurt. I figured it's a healthy breakfast item and I am trying to eat more healthy. However, the tub advertised that it's "great for cooking" so I decided to try and make an Alfredo sauce with it. Note to self: next time make sure you buy plain Greek yogurt instead of vanilla flavored. It turned out sweeter than expected, but definitely edible. This is the result.

The smell of mushrooms, onions, and spinach cooking together  made me really hungry.

Looks like regular alfredo to me

Finished product in the pan.

Ingredients

• 1/8 medium onion thinly sliced
• 4 oz baby bella/cremini mushroom thinly sliced
• fresh spinach (as much or as little as you like)
• 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 3 tbsp shredded parmesean cheese
• 3 tbsp fat free Greek yogurt
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• 1/2 tsp dried basil
• 1/2 tsp dried oregano
• salt and pepper to taste

Procedure

1. Cook the onion in a large non stick pan with the olive oil.
2. Add the mushrooms to the pan when the onion has begin to turn clear/see through. Cook until mushrooms have started to shrink and loose some water. Stir occasionally.
3. Wilt the spinach in the pan. Add the garlic powder, basil, oregano, salt and pepper to the pan. Mix /stir occasionally.
4. Add the cheese and yogurt when the spinach has completely wilted. Mix well
5. Serve mixed with pasta or over pasta.

Shrimp Scampi

Soundtrack: Stone Temple Pilots, Album: Purple

Technically, I made this for breakfast since I didn't wake up until about noon today. I found a recipe at http://southernfood.about.com/od/shrimprecipes/r/bln81.htm, halved it and added onion to it. It turned out delicious! I am glad I added onion. I usually don't order shrimp scampi at restaurants because it's so easy to make at home. Making this dish reminded me how much butter is in this recipe, which I plan on cutting in half next time I cook it. Seriously, 8 tablespoons of butter is a bit frightening to see melting in a large skillet. Scampi is pretty much all butter with some white wine. Also, this dish reminds me that parsley is definitely not my favorite herb and is best in small doses. On another note, I put on Purple and started the dish and finished cooking when the CD ended. I'd say that's quite a feat. Now I know that I cooked for exactly 46 minutes and 59 seconds. That's 46 minutes and 59 seconds of good cooking and awesome 90s rock/grunge. I felt like I should have been cooking something like mac and cheese or a pizza to go with the music instead of shrimp scampi.

Spaghetti alfredo and meatballs

I wasn't expecting to make something worthy of a blog post for dinner tonight and then I remembered that I had all the fixings for alfredo sauce even though I didn't have fettuccine noodles to go with it. I sort of winged the recipe and it turned out pretty good though now I realize that stroganoff and alfredo have a lot in common as far is creamy white sauces go. Honestly, I'm not sure if I could tell the difference between alfredo and stroganoff. I guess you could say that alfredo is more cheesy and stroganoff is more sour creamy.

It would have been prettier if I had fettuccine noodles, but I think it turned out great with the materials that I had.

Mushroom Alfredo
Ingredients:
~8ox sliced mushrooms
~1 tbsp butter
garlic salt and pepper to taste
1 oz cream cheese
1/4 cup grated parmesean cheese
1 clove garlic minced
1/2 cup milk
1/2 tsp corn starch
basil and oregano to taste (optional)

Procedure:
1. Melt butter in sauce pan at medium heat then add garlic and mushrooms.
2. Cook mushrooms in butter and garlic for approximately 3 minutes.
3. Add the rest of the ingredients and stir regularly to make sure everything is melted and well mixed.
4. Cook mixture for about 10 minutes to let flavors mix.

Beefy Stroganoff and green beans

I just realized that I haven't posted in a month. Things haven't really been busy, but there really wasn't anything noteworthy to post. Yesterday I was bitten by the cooking bug after taking a short 4 hour nap. I made a grocery list and an hour and a half later I returned from Publix about $90 poorer, but totally thrilled. I didn't care that I spent so much money on only two weeks' worth of food or that it was 10PM and I still hadn't eaten dinner. I didn't want a quick meal. All I wanted was to get cooking. I'm glad to say that I was satisfied with the result.

The recipe for the beef stroganoff was from one of the Publix Apron's recipe cards that you can get for free at the store. I changed the recipe a bit, using half the amount of beef but putting in extra mushroom and onions. The green beans were something I had lying around was was seasoned with garlic salt and pepper. I'm going to really enjoying eating the leftovers.

On another note, I have some rather awesome Publix inspired meals to share in the next few days.