A food that I almost never ate as an omnivore that I have ironically embraced in its vegan form is alfredo. (Another is mayonnaise. I guess I am a silken tofu junkie!) I had fettucine alfredo a few times, always just heated up out of a jar, never made from scratch. For some reason, after being vegan for about six months, I got a huge craving for this creamy comfort food. I tried a number of different recipes, but none of them quite hit the spot, and one of them was downright nasty. So I gave up for a while. Then, for Christmas 2010, I got the book
Vegan Comfort Food by Alicia Simpson and thought, what the heck, I'll try again. She has two recipes, and I tried the easier one. And it was heaven. Creamy, cheesy, fatty heaven. It's been our go-to alfredo recipe ever since, and while I don't think any other alfredo will taste quite as good, it's that fatty part that has me concerned. The recipe calls for 1/2 cup of oil. Since we usually end up eating half of the recipe each, that means 1/4 cup of oil just in my serving, and that's 400 calories of pure fat. Now that I am tracking calories and attempting to cut down on added fat, this recipe just doesn't work for me every day. Does that mean I will give it up completely? Not on your life! But maybe now I'll have it twice a year instead of once a month.
I prefer my alfredo sauce over rotini with a lot of pepper.
After making the smart decision to cut back on my alfredo consumption, I was hit with the realization that I would have a pretty hard time giving up on alfredo completely. Fortunately, I have
Happy Herbivore's e-cookbook, which features a low fat, oil free alfredo. I remembered trying it before and thinking it was okay, so I tried it again. I must have had to adapt or leave out a few ingredients last time, because this time, it turned out to be great! It isn't completely traditional-tasting (one of the ingredients is nutmeg, which I think turned John off it completely), but I thought it was a very good low fat recipe for a creamy, cheesy pasta sauce. It definitely satisfied my craving for creaminess and nutritional yeast (yes, I crave nutritional yeast; I love the taste!). I'm not sure if this recipe appears in the new Happy Herbivore cookbook yet (my copy is not in my hands yet), but there is a similar recipe on her website, if you google "Instant Vegan Alfredo."
Even less guilty with a green salad drizzled with homemade maple-mustard dressing!
The healthier eating and daily exercise is paying off pretty well so far, since I've lost about 6 pounds in a little over a week. I am getting kind of fatigued with the calorie tracking, because between my job, tracking food, and blogging, I feel like I'm on the computer all day. But it is definitely worth it to see the numbers on the scale going down, and feel my energy level bursting through the roof, since that is usually far from the case at this time of year when it's dark and cold.
I'm going to sign off and get cozy for another big snowstorm tonight. Hope you are all staying warm and enjoying your night!
