Hello my fellow foodies! Im so so excited to finally share with yall one of my all-time favorite food, ALFREDO PASTA!! As a lazy foodie, I always find the easiest recipes and twist them with my favorites and somehow makes the cooking process short and easy for beginners.
Growing up in China, all I ate was Chinese food and the only times I would ever eat “American food” was when my mom treated me out to pizza hut. We would always get seafood combination pizza and a side of wings, a side of fried butterfly shrimp w/ thousand island, and some sort of pasta. Pizza hut in China was pretty cool not gonna lie. They always have the coolest drinks with special straws and it was basically the only reason I would beg my mom to take me there. Ok a little off the topic. Anyways, PASTA! Pasta was always like my guilty pleasure that I would just chaw on non-stop. Any type, white sauce, red sauce, Asian fusion, Filipino, salad. You name it, I love it. But man, “American food”? That’s hard to make.
Since my family only knows how to make Chinese food, I never had a chance to learn the proper way to cook non-chiense food and so I have always feared of cooking it. A lot of times, I would go to cheesecake factory and order nothing but Louisiana chicken pasta. The flavor, the sauce, the juiciness of the chicken and the tenderness of the pasta noodles. WOW I am actually drooling right now. Also, have you ever been to an Italian restaurant knowing absolutely no idea what to order, so you just order the alfredo pasta or the seafood pasta because you know you would never go wrong with pastas? Because, same here. When I first came to the US, it was such a struggle trying to understand the menus at fancy restaurants. What is Bruschetta? What is Pollo alla Puttanesca?? It was such nonsense. And tbh I still don’t quite get it. But hey pasta!! Okay pasta it is. Pasta has become my comfort food throughout the years and I dreamt one day that I can finally cook it and bring my boyfriend a piece of home since he only gets to eat Chinese food whenever I feed him.
Last year Christmas, I went to my boyfriend’s house to celebrate with his side of the family. His mom is an amazing chef. She has a cookbook and loves to cook for EVERYONE. My boyfriend has a huge family, 5 siblings, 3 of them are married with 6 kids total. His mom cooked all of us basically unlimited dishes. How crazy was that? I was mostly amazed by all the food that I have never had seen before on neither mine or my family’ s dining table. Turkey, ribs, deviled eggs, casseroles, pastas... I kept refilling my plate even though I was full after my first plate. Lmao. His mom was so excited to see me enjoying her food and she asked if I was that hungry, and I told her that I was just excited to eat all these foods I had no idea how to cook.
As the most amazing and friendly person ive ever met, my boyfriend’s mom laughed and told me, “okay young lady, im going to give you the easiest recipe to make pasta and you can never go wrong with this” It was the easiest, no doubt. A jar of alfredo sauce, few garlic, shrimp, and pasta noodles. BOOM, shrimp alfredo pasta that usually costs me $10+. I’ve tried it so many times and every single time, is bomb.com.
But the more and more alfredo pasta I cook with the recipe, I always find it too rich especially since Ive been trying to lose holiday weight all year long. So, I was wondering if I could ditch the alfredo sauce, and make my own? I know this is how normal families make their pasta but it was a huge step for my cooking journey.
SO HERE, I present you my very improved, much healthier, quick, easy, simple pasta recipe. And I hope yall enjoy it as much as me and my boyfriend do, as he is finishing our last batch right now haha.
INGREDIANTS
2 tablespoon olive oil
2 chicken breasts, diced
½ pound shrimp, diced
1 bunch spinach (or any veggies)
4 cloves garlic (or powder)
2 cups whole milk
1 cup shredded parmesan cheese
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper
½ pound pasta noodles (preferred veggie noodles), cooked
( I love spinach so I used a lot, but u can adjust the amount and kind of vegetables you like, it doesn’t really matter)
DIRECTIONS
Heat up olive oil over medium high heat.
Cook chicken with salt and pepper.
Cook shrimp till it’s not translucent.
Add in garlic and spinach till smell the garlic and spinach are soft.
Add in milk and cheese, mix, wait till boil.
Mix the pasta noodles, make sure its covered evenly with the sauce.
Wait for a few minutes till the sauce is thick enough (not liquidly). Add more salt and pepper if it’s plain. (it happens often since milk is plain)
Serve and ENJOY!