Squeaky Gourmet Cream Sauce w/ Mushrooms

Well, we all love it. We all have had cravings for a creamy topping on pasta–even if you won’t admit it.  That rich smooth silk of a cream sauce clinging to the pasta and coating our mouth with exquisite flavor and textures. When you give your life over to a healthier diet, a cleaner way of eating foods, you give up that experience. You walk around OK with not having a rich pasta meal because you know your arteries and your body deserves to be treated with more respect than those belly bloated pasta-fairs. However, the tickle in your brain returns at times when you see those commercials on TV before bed seducing you with the cream coated olive branch.  Your reward response in your head is tempted and you think “Oh yes, a creamy delight indeed!” . They leave you dreaming of rivers of cream sauce, mountains of pasta–all you can eat and more! So, the internal battle begins, lunch at the Italian American buffet or that lunch you  packed last night. What are you to do?

Well, 1–shut off that TV at night and read a book before bed and 2–prepare this wonderful cream sauce ahead of time and reward your body with being prepared!

The typical calories found in a cream sauce per serving (1/2 cup) are on average 500 calories. WHAT? It takes 500 calories extra to your diet to add on a pound of fat a week–roughly. For a person weighing 150 pounds, they would have to walk QUICKLY for 104 minutes to burn that off.  Our cream sauce will leave you satisfied and it is under 12o calories per 1/2 cup serving. WIN/WIN!!

Clean Sauce
serves approximately 8
8 ounces reduce fat cream cheese
2 cups low fat Greek yogurt
1 ounce grated Parmesan cheese
2 cloves garlic-crushed
2 Pinch Sea Salt
Black Pepper to taste

In a sauce pan set on medium heat place the cream cheese and stir until it is melted, add in remaining ingredients and heat through while stirring to prevent burning. Serve hot.

Flesh that is easy to flake apart with a fork indicates this is cooked.

Before I began my cream sauce I cut a large spaghetti squash in 4 and seeded it. I then placed all 4 parts in a large pot of boiling water and cooked the squash for 20 minutes–until it could flake off with a fork.

Spaghetti Squash Magic

Here is the final product of the squash–hot and waiting for any sauce. See how wonderful it looks? My husband is a bog pasta lover and this squash honestly does the trick for him!

Creamy Chicken "Pasta"

Finally I sautéed up some chicken breast and added that to the cream sauce to create the final dish. The possibilities are endless for the sauce. Consider it a base for anything you want to create. Over potatoes, over broccoli,green bean casserole,meatballs–think outside the olive branch!

Squeaky Gourmet Cream Sauce