Sometimes (Alright, Most of the Time) We Lighten Up a Recipe

Ever get completely ready for something, then check your email once you walk out the door and realize that your event was cancelled?  Well that happened to me Sunday afternoon with my soccer game, so we made a grocery list instead!  I mean, I was already wearing my shinguards and socks and only needed to put on my cleats and pre-wrap headband (a must for the wispy hairs!).  We brainstormed a few great meals for the week and headed into battle - I mean the Upper West Side Trader Joe's on a Sunday afternoon in the city.

Trader Joe's (TJ's) at peak times is hectic.  There are times when there is a line waiting to get into the grocery store as if it were a night club.  In spite of this, we love it.  You do perfect the art of shopping there over time and it really is best if you go in pairs.  We embarked on our adventure mid-afternoon, me still wearing all my soccer gear except for the shinguards, Jeffy not wearing a jacket with 20+ mile per hour winds - the usual.  We had a mostly successful trip except the Jewish flatbread we normally use for pizzas was sold out, so we had to improvise with naan.  We survived.  No worries.

The first recipe of the week I wanted to share was our Cauliflower Alfredo Pasta with Broccoli and Chicken.  Instead of a super heavy recipe using a whole stick of butter, a cup of heavy cream, and two whole cups of grated Parmesan like this delicious looking one by The Pioneer Woman, Ree Drummond, we used cauliflower, skim milk, and less than half that amount of Parmesan.  I love cooking with cauliflower because it takes on flavors so well and who would not want to enjoy a vegetable "prized by the court of King Louis XIV"?  Maybe France would have been in better shape if the court shared some of the health benefits of cauliflower with the Third Estate instead of building the amazing, but entirely too extravagant Palace of Versailles, perhaps that little French Revolution thing (you could learn more about here....on my class website from last year!) would not have been quite so bloody.  It would have probably still happened, but sharing healthy veggies would have been a kind gesture.

Alright, back to the actual cooking.  This recipe seems very involved, but it really is not at all.  You start by either cooking the cauliflower in some salted water (salt adds flavor!) or steaming it until you can pierce it with a fork easily.  While that is cooking, you season some grilled chicken and toss it on the grill/Jorgé (our trusty George Foreman), then cut it into bite sized pieces like this:

Jeffy did a nice job grillin' and choppin' the chicken!

Once the chicken is underway, you boil a pot of some more very salted water to cook the pasta in and steam or cook the chopped broccoli in lightly salted water.  When the cauliflower is cooked, you blend it/food process it with a little salt, pepper, two tablespoons (six less than the heavier recipe!) of butter, milk (skim works!), and 3/4 cup shredded Parmesan (instead of two full cups).  Briefly cook this purée with a chopped shallot and combine the sauce with the pasta!

Our combined pasta and sauce mix looked like this:

Combined pasta and sauce, pardon the messy stove!

Top it with chicken, broccoli, and a few more pieces of Parmesan and you have a deliciously filling meal that is less than half the calories of the original recipe!  Our final product looked like this:

We used the sauce and chicken for two nights worth of food and cooked brown rice spaghetti as our pasta of choice on night two with some asparagus (we had eaten the broccoli already on its own by the second cooking!).

Here is the recipe:

Cauliflower Alfredo Pasta with Chicken and Broccoli

(Serves 12 - 16 depending on how much pasta you eat!  We used this for two separate nights worth of meals!  You can easily halve the ingredients if you want just one night.)

Ingredients:

- 3 packages (12 ounces each) cauliflower, or about two medium heads of cauliflower, roughly chopped (going in blender anyway)

- 2 tbsp butter (we always use salted because we like it for our popcorn!)
- 3/4 cup milk (we used skim)
- 3/4 cup shredded or grated Parmesan (we used shredded - it's going into a blender!), plus more to top with
- shallot, chopped

- 3 large chicken breasts

- 2 tbsp olive oil

- 2-3 large stalks of broccoli, chopped

- 2 packages of pasta - we used Gemelli on night one and brown rice spaghetti on night two, but any pasta that holds sauce a little works

- salt

- pepper

Directions:

1.  Begin by either steaming the cauliflower or cooking it in salted boiling water until it can be pierced easily by a fork.  

2.  While the cauliflower is steaming, season both sides of the chicken breasts with olive oil, salt, and pepper and grill until cooked through.  Cut the chicken into bite sized pieces and set aside.  

3.  Cook the pasta in heavily salted water to package directions minus one minute of cook time.  Drain and keep about one cup of pasta water for later.  Return the pasta back to the pot.  

4.  Cook the chopped broccoli in lightly salted water or steam it until it can be easily pierced by a fork.  Set aside.  

5.  Into a blender or a food processor, scoop in the cauliflower with a slotted spoon.  Add salt, pepper, butter, milk, and shredded Parmesan.  Blend well.  Taste and add salt and pepper as needed.  

6.  While you are blending the cauliflower, chop the shallot and cook it in a non-stick skillet with a little olive oil, salt, and pepper about two minutes.  

7.  Combine and cook the cauliflower purée with the cooked shallot over medium heat for one to two minutes.  Then add this mixture to the pasta and stir well.  If the sauce is too thick, this is when you will want to add that good starchy pasta water in small amounts to help the sauce stick to the pasta and to make it even more tasty.  

8.  Finally, plate by scooping pasta into a bowl or onto a dish, then top with a handful of chopped chicken and broccoli and a few pieces of shredded Parmesan on top.

9.  Enjoy!