Spinach Sauce Fettuccine

Recently I've wanted to incorporate different foods into my family's diet. My husband agreed with adding a little variety into our meals, specifically eating more vegetables. As for our infant son he eats pretty much everything I give him, but lately he's mostly just asking for fruit. I know that it's normal because children prefer sweet flavored foods, but I want him to eat more veggies. Veggies tend to taste a little bitter, especially when cooked, so I went with the old trick of adding some cheese to make it more appealing. However, that doesn't mean just dumping a bunch of melted imitation cheddar on a few broccoli bits like a lot of our parents did when we were kids!

I wanted to make something healthy with real vegetables and real flavor so I took a look in the fridge. I had some leftover cream cheese and a bunch of fresh spinach so I thought, "yeah, I can work with this." Since my son loves pasta so much it was a no brainer, I'd make a spinach cheese sauce with fettuccine. It's easy to do and so creamy!

Ingredients:

Cream cheese 8 oz
Parmesan Cheese (to taste)
Fresh Spinach 2 - 3 cups
Half and half 1-2 Tablespoons
Salt (to taste)
Fresh Ground Pepper (to taste)



Procedure:

Blanch the spinach. 

Put the cream cheese in a saucepan on a low temperature. 

(You can use the same saucepan you used to blanch the spinach to cut down on dishes.)

Toss in the spinach and start stirring. 

At first it's gonna be a little difficult but with the heat the cheese will slowly start to melt.

(Make sure to keep stirring continuously to avoid burning!)

You'll know the cheese has fully melted when you can stir without feeling any resistance. 

Season with salt and pepper and mix until it's fully incorporated.

Add the parmesan cheese and (surprise!) keep mixing.

You may notice that there are still a few lumps in the sauce, don't worry that's normal.

Add the half and half and keep stirring until you have reached the desired consistency. 

Taste and enjoy!

PS: You can just pour the sauce on top of your plate of pasta, or toss the pasta onto the saucepan combine it before serving. It also works great as a stuffing for pastas like ravioli, lasagna or cannelloni. You could even make the sauce extra thick and serve it as a party dip! 

Pasta after being tossed with the sauce in the pan.

A tasty spinach dip!