Healthy Fettuccine Alfredo

This dinner came about when we were about to leave town to go to Colorado and I felt like I had "nothing" in the fridge.  Well I am really glad I was forced to dig deep into my resources because it was excellent!  John especially loved it, because I don't think I've given him pasta with any sort of cream sauce in 2 years.  What?  I don't want his arteries clogged any more than he does!

Fettuccine Alfredo is usually dripping in butter and cream, and I knew that wasn't what I wanted.  I started searching "healthy" fettuccine alfredo recipes and realized there are a lot out there.  Luckily I had a random carton of half and half in the fridge, as well as some leftover steamed broccoli, and was able to put together a really good meal in no time!  There are many ways you could doctor up this dish - a lot of the reviews said people put chicken in the dish to make it heartier, which I think is a good idea, but really this dish was plenty of food.

This recipe, as all pasta recipes, makes a lot of pasta.  I halved it because we only had about half a box, but am posting the full recipe below.  I also added cooked broccoli - feel free to add what you want!

Healthy Fettuccine Alfredo

Recipe Source: myrecipes.com, originally from Cooking Light

Serves 6

Ingredients:

1 box fettuccine

1 tablespoon butter

1 1/4 cup half and half

3/4 cup grated parmesan cheese

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

Directions:

Cook pasta according to pasta directions.  Melt butter in a sauce pan over medium high heat.  Add the half and half, parmesan cheese, salt, pepper, and cook for 2-3 minutes.  Be sure to stir constantly or the sauce will be lumpy!