"Creamy" Alfredo Sauce over Fettuccine with Broccoli and Mushrooms

     Yeah, yeah, you have seen this recipe on Pinterest...but you haven't actually tried it yet, nor have you found the way to get it to ACTUALLY taste like Alfredo sauce or what to pour it on top of ;) Am I right? Of course I am, I'm always right.....unless I'm trying to bet on racehorses, but that's a completely different story bearing no relevance to the kitchen!!

I present to you:  
     Cauliflower Based Alfredo Sauce!
          (Carnivorous boyfriend approved)

Some neat facts about cauliflower and why it's better for you than heavy cream:

•  One cup of cauliflower contains 77% of your daily requirement for vitamin C, 2 grams of protein, and 3 grams of fiber
• Vs. 1 cup of Heavy cream with contains no fiber, and only 2% of your daily vitamin C, though it does boast 5 grams of protein
• Cauliflower is very low in Saturated Fat and Cholesterol
• Vs. 1 cup of Heavy cream with contains 55 grams of saturated fat and 326 mg of cholesterol....I didn't expect it to be so scary...just wait till you read the calories though
• One cup of cauliflower has only 25 calories
• Vs. BAM! 821 calories per cup, eeek!
• It is also a good source of Thiamin, Riboflavin, Niacin, Magnesium and Phosphorus, Vitamin K, Vitamin B6, Folate, Pantothenic Acid, Potassium and Manganese.
• It's delicious. BAM. 

So leeetsss geeetttt cooookin'! 

Ingredients  

(Serves two)

For the sauce:  

• 8 cloves minced garlic
• 2 tbsp butter
• 1 head of cauliflower, chopped into small florets
• 7 cups vegetable broth
• 1 cup whole milk 
• 5 oz. shredded parmesan 
• salt and pepper to taste

For the pasta:

• 1 head broccoli chopped into small florets
• 8 button mushrooms chopped
• 4 tbsp olive oil
• 1/2 lb. of fettucine noodles
• some more of that good old salt and pepper

Necessary kitchen stuffs:

• Large pot (for boiling noodles)
• medium sauce pan
• medium sized skillet with a lid (or make one out of foil)
• Slotted spoon (maybe not necessary, but handy)
• Blender

Ready, set, pasta.

1.  In the large pot boil enough water for your pasta noodles. Once boiling, proceed to throw said noodles into pot. Check on these guys every once in a while till they are done.
2. In the medium sized sauce pan, bring the vegetable broth to a boil. Add cauliflower and cook until easily pierced with a fork. 
3.  In our medium skillet, turn the heat on LOW and melt the 2 tbsp of butter. Cook the minced garlic in the butter until unbearably delicious smelling. DON'T brown the garlic or it will take on a bitter taste. Once garlic is done toss it into the blender.
4. Check on your noodles. See you forgot didn't you...
5. In the same skillet, turn up the heat to medium low, add a healthy dose of olive oil, the mushrooms, and the broccoli. Cover with a lid or foil, stirring occasionally. My main goal with this was to simply heat them throughout to preserve optimum nutrients, so you might turn the heat down after a short while. 
6. Check your noodles AND your cauliflower. 
7. If noodles are done strain and return to large pot (I like to drizzle a little olive oil in the pot beforehand to make sure they don't stick)
8. When cauliflower is done transfer to the blender with a slotted spoon. Keep the remaining veggie stock handy!
9. Add your milk to the blender and 1/2 cup of veggie stock at a time. Feel free to play with the ratio of these ingredients to gain the right consistency. 
10. When the mixture is moving around in your blender easily, dump in that cheese. You may need to adjust the consistency again after this step. 
11. Now have fun seasoning that!  I've found that going heavy on the black pepper really brings out the flavor we're trying to imitate in this recipe. Also, be sure to serve this sauce while it's still warm or it looses it's awesomeness.
12. Combine sauce, noodles, broccoli, and mushrooms! Top with any remaining parmesan and enjoy :)

Egg and Asparagus Pastry Puffs

     I have this terrible habit of going to Half Price Books and buying half the store and never reading 

any of the books I buy....it's tragic I know. However, this habit does not seem to apply to cookbooks, particularly cookbooks with pictures :) Yes, I must admit...I'm a complete four year old when it 

comes to books with pictures. 

     On my last trip to Half Price Books I came across this fantastic treasure of a book called  

Step by Step Vegetarian: The Perfect Guide to Meat-Free Meals. Pictures! Pictures everywhere! So 

far I've made 2 recipes from it, and holy hot dang! Had to share this one with you, it's absolutely 

heavenly and relatively affordable. Hope you guys enjoy!

Ingredients: 

(Serves 4)

• 1 large ready to bake pastry puff sheet (I used Pepperidge Farm, one sheet)
• 1/4 cup milk
• Approx. 24 slim asparagus spears
• 3/4 cup tomato sauce
• 4 eggs
• 1 cup mozzarella cheese (optional)  
• Salt and pepper, to taste
• Parchment paper, or foil and some nonstick spray
• Baking sheet
• Rolling pin (optional, see step 1) 
• A smallish cup, a coffee cup should work fine
• Medium sized sauce pan/pot

Step-by-Step, dudes and dudettes:

1. If your pastry is silly and not an easy to use Pepperidge Farm pastry, you may need to roll it into a flat-ish rectangle approximately 14x8 inches. Then cut this into four smaller rectangles. 
2. Preheat oven to 400 degrees fahrenheit. 
3. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper, or foil and a heaping dose of nonstick spray. Lay out your freshly cut rectangular pastry dough and prick the surface with a fork (to allow the heat from the oven transfer through the future yummy, buttery, flaky layers of the pastry, and more importantly so it looks like a cute little rectangular dalmatian) Brush lightly with milk and set in refrigerator to chill for 20 minutes. 
4. Bring some lightly salted water to a boil in your medium sized pot. Rinse your asparagus, and chop off the woody so that they are just slightly shorter than the length of your pastries. Boil the asparagus spears for 2-3 minutes, remove just before they become tender. Drain and rinse the asparagus in cold water. 
5. Once your pastries have chilled, spread the tomato sauce from the middle of each pastry out to almost the edge. Bake in the preheated oven for 12-15 minutes, you want the pastry to be puffed around the edges and pale golden. 
6. Remove from the oven and sprinkle with mozzarella. Arrange the asparagus on top like a little asparagus corral around the edges. The asparagus will act as a fence for that unruly egg you're about to put on the top.
7. Next, one at a time, crack an egg into the small coffee cup and slide the egg into the asparagus corral. Proceed to sing weird old western songs to yourself to aid in this process. 
8. Return the pastries to the oven and bake for at least 10 minutes or until the eggs no longer wiggle around every time you hungrily open up the oven door to check on them.
9. Season with salt and pepper and make a feeble attempt not to burn your mouth as you scarf them down.

Creamy Tomato Soup [VEGAN]

My friends inspired me to do a 4 day liquid diet cleanse recently. I'm bad about getting around to these things on my own because, well...they suck. I was browsing the soup aisle to see if there was anything vegan I could eat that didn't include any starchy veggies, yada, yada. There was NONE. So I read the ingredients of my favorite tomato bisque and decided to give it a shot. And what do you know? This soup was the 

BEST THING I'D EVER TASTED 

 IN MY LIFE!!!  

It tasted like cheese. Like sweet, sweet parmesan and asiago cheese. I had to be sure it wasn't just hunger hijacking my taste buds so I made it again and yup, still awesome. Hope you guys enjoy. 

Ingredients

1 Avacado

4 Tomatoes (heirloom are best)

1/2 Of an onion

3 Cloves garlic

1 Tbsp or more of fresh oregano (you can use dehydrated but it just isn't the same)

 Salt/pepper to taste

It's so easy

1.  Scoop the seeds out of the tomatoes and chop into chunks a size that won't anger the blender gods

2.  Cut up your onion, avacado, and garlic cloves in a similar fashion

3.  Throw all that, plus the fresh oregano, in the blender until it reaches desired consistancy

4.  Stir in your salt and pepper

5.  Heat on the stove top in a medium saucepan stirring often (the stirring often is because this stuff pops alot if it heats up too quickly....never really figured out why that is)