Easy Alfredo Sauce

Healthy Dinner Kids Want to Eat

One thing all three of my kids can agree on: they like pasta. While finding a meal option everyone will eat proves challenging, we end up eating a lot of pasta dishes. My kids particularly love Alfredo sauce, also known as white sauce in our house.

I got tired of paying lots of money for small jars of sauce that didn’t feed our family of five. I also didn’t love the high fat and low nutritional content of most store bought varieties. Once I went looking, I found a great recipe on 40aprons.com that uses cottage cheese to provide a lower fat, higher protein alternative. Best of all, my kids prefer it to the jars and packets and ask for it regularly.

You’ll need low fat cottage cheese, grated parmesan cheese, skim milk, cornstarch, salt, pepper, garlic, oregano, and basil. Those nine simple ingredients make a flavorful yet popular sauce to top any sort of pasta, which takes less time than going to the store. In only 15 minutes, you can make a batch for yourself.

• 1 cup skim milk
• ½ cup lowfat cottage cheese
• 1 tbs cornstarch
• ¼ tsp salt
• 1/8 tsp pepper
• ¼ tsp garlic powder
• ½ cup grated Parmesan or Romano
• Dried basil to taste
• Dried oregano to taste

Add all the ingredients and blend until smooth. Pour mixture into a small saucepan. Cook over medium low heat until heated throughout and smooth. Let cook on low heat for five minutes, stirring occasionally. Let the finished sauce sit for a few minutes, with or without the pasta added, to thicken. This recipe makes enough sauce about half a bag or box of pasta. If you want to use fewer dishes, blend all the ingredients with an immersion blender in the pot. 

I like to add broccoli, chicken, or both, but it works well with just about anything. I usually make a double batch for our family of five with three kids under ten. It isn’t unusual for us to eat the entire bigger batch, though we sometimes have a bit remaining. We even mix leftover bits of Alfredo sauce with tomato sauce to make a pink sauce as well.