Homemade Skinny Fettuccine Sauce on Trader Joes Garlic Noodles

Every now and then I like a store so much my inner 3 year old just wants to skip through it.  However, being a very reserved human, I just have to skip in my head.  All through Trader Joe's, I was definitely skipping in my head.  It was my first trip since the one in Louisville opened, and it will definitely not be my last...

Thank God I found a paid internship, right?

Anyway, we were perusing the store as I wanted to get some almond meal for future macarons until I get my food processor.  I would like to take a moment to call shenanigans on Rainbow Blossom (another natural food store in the area) for wanting to charge TWELVE DOLLARS for SIXTEEN OUNCES of almond meal.  Trader Joe's had it for four bucks.

Point is, I went there for almond meal and I came out with noodles, a super cute reusable bag, almond meal, and a newfound store love.

When I opened the bag of noodles my sense of smell was met with a strong but fantastic garlic and herb profile.  I knew that a cream sauce was just the ticket, and had been at my sister's house a few weeks back when she made fettuccine using Greek yogurt. With AMPLE amounts of Greek stocked in my fridge, I knew I had just the right set of ingredients to make it happen.

Ingredients:
-1.5 TB butter
-1.5 TB flour (aka, heaping TB)
-3/4 C milk (I always use vitamin D milk)
-3 ounces Chobani Plain 2%
-1/4 C parmesan cheese
-Optional dash of garlic and similar if you are putting these on plain noodles
-Salt to taste

Melt the butter in a pot on a mid range heat setting.  When it is nice and melty, pop in the flour and stir, stir, stir.  If it starts to get all bubbly just take it off the heat for a second while you are stirring it and turn your heat down just a touch.  Add in the milk, parmesan, and seasonings and continue to stir.  Let it cook for a few minutes, stirring, until it starts to thicken.  Remove it from the heat, add in the Greek yogurt, and stir well.  You do not need to put it back on the heat.  You may find that you need just a touch more milk to thin it back out, as Chobani Greek Yogurt is incredibly thick and luscious.

Give it a taste and add a little more cheese or salt if needed.  Also consider sprinkling on more parm after you have mixed this in with your pasta noodles.

And of course, I topped mine with fresh cracked pepper.  My father, the scorner of all "pepper dust" and true lover of pepper grinders, would be proud.

I used the sprinkly parmesan cheese dust that you find near the cold cases of pasta sauce, and I would just like to recommend using a real version of parmesan.  Like perhaps the grated stuff.  This was just all I had on hand at the time.

This recipe makes probably enough to top about 2-3 servings of pasta, depending on how heavy you load your sauce on.  With the amount of sauce I put on my noodles as you can see in the picture, I could have gotten at least 3 if not 4 servings out of the sauce.  The rest is currently in my refrigerator and will likely be used on some tortellini this week for lunch time. 

From what I know about sauces, it should freeze just fine as well if you have leftovers and don't want to use them just yet.  I freeze a lot of my sauces in ice cube trays and transfer them to plastic bags when they are set.

But between more pasta, white pizza, and a dipping sauce for breadsticks, there should be absolutely no trouble in going through the rest of that container.

You can use fat free Chobani if you like, just be aware that you may need to add a little more cheese or seasoning to get it exactly where you want it.  Either way, there is a SIGNIFICANT drop in calories from using a heavy cream based recipe.

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