Pasta Carbonara

Some girls like chocolate. Me? I like (LOVE) cheese.

When I'm stressed, cheese is my go-to. We are smack in the middle of finals, and all I want is cheese. Because this my blog and I never lie to you, I'll tell you that I sat down at the dining room table this afternoon after final 2 of 4 and just dunked crackers into goat cheese I found in the fridge.

Anyway, I need to find a more functional way to enjoy cheese, so I made this dish last Saturday for some friends who came by for dinner. I had a dish similar to this at a local italian restaurant a few months ago, and I haven't been able to stop thinking about it. I knew there was a way to make it lighter and cheaper, so I did.

I adapted the recipe from the skinny alfredo sauce I made back in February, threw in some grilled chicken, bacon, and peas, and we were set!

Here's what you need...

Sauce:
6-8 cloves of garlic, minced (I used my food processor)
3 tbsp butter
2 tbsp flour
1 1/4-1/2 cup of 2% milk
2-3 tbsp of lowfat cream cheese
2 cups of fresh shred parmesan cheese (reserve 1/2-1/4 cup for topping)
fresh chopped parsley
black pepper to taste

Additional ingredients:

About 1/2 box of whole wheat pasta, cooked and drained
1 cup of frozen peas
5-6 strips of bacon (baked at 350 for 20 minutes - perfect), crumbled
1-2 grilled chicken breasts (we just seasoned with a light dusting of adobo and fresh cracked pepper), cut into chunks
Breadcrumbs

Here's what you do...

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. I used my oven safe pan, but you could use a non-oven safe pan and pour it into a dish to bake later. Saute your garlic with your butter for about a minute. Add flour and stir until combined. Then, add milk. Start with 1 cup and add gradually as needed.

3. Let the milk warm up and thicken the sauce - about 5-7 minutes. Add cream cheese, parmesan cheese (don't forget to reserve some for topping), parsley and black pepper. Stir until everything is melted and combined.

4. Add pasta, chicken, peas, and bacon to your pan and stir well to combine. Top with leftover parmesan cheese and breadcrumbs.

5. Bake for 20-30 minutes, or until it's bubbling around the edges and brown on top. Enjoy!!

This turned out SUPER well. Plus, there's peas in it, so it's totally healthy. 

See you on the other side of finals when I'm no longer living on soup and...well, soup.