Category Archives: Vegetarian

Egg Noodles with White Truffle Cream Sauce

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One day, I’d like to discover a huge trust fund that’s been hidden from me my whole life. I will bathe in black and white truffles, brush my teeth with foie gras, exfoliate my face with Caspian Osetra Caviar… maybe I’ll take a casual weekend trip to The Fat Duck or something. I’ll bring friends and family with me and at the end of the meal say, “nah, nah, I got it.” But for now… truffle oil will have to suffice. I’ll buy the dried version of Chantrelles and eat tobiko off of the California rolls my friend usually pushes aside. Life is so hard.

Truffle oil makes me feel like I’m rich without greedily taking away from my wallet. I love how a few drops can go such a long way. One of my favorite things to do on a lazy night is boil pasta, mince a few cloves of garlic, grate up some Parmesan and drizzle with the oil. Quick, easy, elegant, and scrumptious. A great tip that I picked up is that there is a big difference between pasta and egg noodles when using truffles. Egg noodles have a very silky texture, compared to pasta where it is much more starchy and chewy. Silky textures and truffles are truly a match made in heaven.

And getting into heaven is not hard at all. You only need a few ingredients:

Ingredients:
8 ounces Egg Noodles
3/4 pint Heavy Cream
3 tbs White Truffle Oil*
3 tbs Butter

Top with:
Grated Parmesan
Chopped Chives
Salt and Pepper

*I found this truffle oil in TJ Maxx’s homegoods sections. Most food specialty stores will have it, sometimes Stop & Shop has it too.

Directions:

1) Boil a pot of salted water for pasta

2) Mix butter with white truffle oil

3) In a saucepan, bring heavy cream to a simmer. Add truffle oil and butter mixture and let it melt. Season with salt and pepper and mix.
( I sauteed garlic and ham first, but optional)

3) Add egg noodles to boiling water. Cook until tender. Reserve 1/2 cup of pasta water and add noodles to cream sauce.

4) Coat the noodles with cream sauce to absorb the flavor. If the sauce is too thick, add some of the pasta water to have desired amount of thickness.

5) Plate pasta.

6) Sprinkle grated Parmesan on top and garnish with chopped chives.

Bon appétit!

Prep time: 25 minutes
Level: Easy
Servings: 2 people
Total Cost of Recipe Amount: $11
$13 white truffle oil bottle
$5 Parmesan
$3 butter
$3 chives
$3 heavy cream
$5 egg noodles (16 oz) 

Faux Ice Cream with Strawberries & Red Wine Reduction Sauce

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Man. I know for a fact that if I don’t enjoy my food while I’m eating healthy, I will drag race to the nearest Stop & Shop to grab a tub of Helluva Good Onion Dip and a bag of Cape Cod chips. It’s like being surrounded by fire and you’re panicking trying to find the fire alarm! Dramatic, yes. Same feeling of relief? Oh, fo’ sho’.

This recipe saves me every time I feel like pulling that fire alarm when I crave cold, creamy, slowly churned ice cream. So Ben & Jerry, I sincerely apologize for leaving you guys, but I’m sure we’ll meet again in the future. Your calories are just too expensive and my expenses are quickly piling up! I’m sticking to my faux ice cream because it costs me only 200 calories with 0.6 grams of fat.

So what’s the secret? Frozen Fat Free Cool Whip. It’s cheap, convenient, and all you need to do is freeze it to get an ice-cream-like texture. It’s ridiculously easy, I promise! Just look:

Ingredients:
~1/4 Fat Free Cool Whip of container, frozen
1 cup strawberries, halved
2 Truvia packets (or another sweetener like Stevia)
1/2 cup red wine
1 cup water

Directions:
1)   Take cool whip out of freezer
2)   In a sauce pan, combine strawberries, sweetener, red wine and water on medium heat. When sauce is boiling, immediately reduce to low heat and cook until reduced to desired thickness (~5 minutes)
3)   Scoop out a quarter of cool whip from the container into a bowl and pour sauce on top
*If sauce is too thick: add water and simmer until satisfied with consistency.

Enjoy!

What are some of your favorite life-saver recipes?