Fettucini Alfredo

Health Factor
Fettucini Alfredo Smart Ones meals do not have too many calories. That is great news for men and women who are dieting and trying to lose weight. This frozen dinner is also low in fat and contains less cholesterol than other meals. Calcium is the majority of nutritional value contained in Fettucini Alfredo Smart Ones meals. Overall, this is a healthy choice for lunch or dinner.

Quality
I was happy with quality of the sauce and noodles in this Fettucini Alfredo Smart Ones meal. However, the sauce could be improved. Some portions of the sauce were watery, removing any desire to eat this frozen dinner. It was suggested that mixing the contents up more would improve the solidness of this sauce. Instead, I chose to separate the watery portion from the rest of this Smart Ones meal. Doing so helped significantly. Broccoli florets are included in the Fettucini Alfredo Smart Ones meal. They are plentiful and adequately sized.

Taste Test
Fettucini Alfredo Smart Ones meals are very tasty. There is enough content to fill you up and satisfy your appetite. The sauce tastes good, despite the runny sections. It is actually one of the better Fettucini Alfredo offerings that are at the grocery store. Everyone cannot make good Fettucini Alfredo. Therefore, it can be even more difficult to produce a frozen meal of this type. Smart Ones have done a good job at re-creating a great tasting Italian favorite.

Food - Do You Know Your Pasta?

Have you ever noticed that when you go out to eat at an Italian restaurant, or even to your favorite grocery store, the choices of pasta is nearly limitless? There is every kind of different shape and size of pasta that you can imagine. Truly, it can be overwhelming at times trying to figure it all out. What are all these different kinds of pasta for? How can you determine what is what? Let's take a closer look at all the various kinds of pasta and what they are used for.

Spaghetti. This is an easy one. It's one food that we all know and love. Spaghetti comes in a box, or a bag, in long thin strands. You cook it in boiling water and mix it into your favorite spaghetti sauce recipe.

Ravioli. Here is another pretty easy one for everybody. Ravioli is a small, square shaped pasta that is stuffed with several different fillings like meat, cheese, mushrooms, sausage, etc. Ravioli can be topped with tomato sauce and can even come toasted.

Macaroni. One of the all-time favorites! Macaroni is a small, hollow tube pasta. It is used mainly in cooking macaroni and cheese.

Cannelloni. Cannelloni is also a hollow tube pasta, but it is much larger than macaroni. Cannelloni is stuffed with different meat sauce mixtures and also will have various cheeses baked in the middle.

Linguine and Fettuccine. These pastas are know as ribbon noodles due to the fact they are long, stringy and flat. They can come in many different lengths. These noodles are a delicious food with creamy sauces mixed onto them such as Alfredo sauce.

High Protein Pasta

Tortellini. Tortellini is yet another type of stuffed pasta. They come in half circle pieces that are folded over and stuffed with meat, cheese, sausage, or other ingredients. You can also pour your favorite sauce over the top of this delicious food.

Vermicelli. Vermicelli is a very fine, thin string of pasta. It is also known as "angel hair" pasta. It can be used with a creamy sauce of your choice, or used with other items such as crab, or shrimp. Many times vermicelli is formed together to form a type of nest that will hold the crab, or shrimp on top of it.

Conghiglie. This pasta is shaped like small shells. There are many different sizes of conghiglie. From tiny pasta shells that are good for using in soups, to larger sizes that can be stuffed. This type of pasta is a favorite food in pasta salads.

Farfalle. Farfalle is a pasta that is bow shaped and also used mainly in different pasta salads.

Fusilli. Fusilli is a thin spiral shaped pasta that is good in pasta salads. It is also good with different styles of sauces.

Lasagna. Lasagna is perhaps the best of all the different pastas. These are long, wide strips of pasta that are layered with fillings between them. These fillings can include meat, sausage, cheese, mushrooms and about anything else you can think of. More cheese is piled on top and then baked in the oven.

This list should help you the next time you see a pasta that you're unfamiliar with. No matter what shape or size, pasta is a favorite on everyone's list of great tasting foods!

Alfredo, And Who On Earth Was He?

Yes, Italians make a dish of pasta, fettuccine dressed with nothing else than good aged parmigiano cheese and a lot of butter, but is such a simple preparation that Italians don’t even consider it a “recipe”.

Waverly Root in his famous book “The Food of Italy” (New York, 1971) wrote: “FETTUCCINE AL BURRO is associated in every tourist’s mind with Rome, possibly because the original Alfredo succeeded in making its serving a spectacle reminiscent of grand opera. It is the same ribbon shaped egg pasta tat is called tagliatelle in Bologna; but the al burro preparation is very Roman indeed in its rich simplicity. Nothing is added to the pasta except grated cheese and butter - lots of butter. The recipe calls for doppio burro, double butter, which gives it a golden color.”

Who was Alfredo then? Alfredo di Lelio, this was his full name, was an inspired cook who proposed this new exciting dish in the restaurant he opened in Rome in 1914. It was a high gourmet preparation in the Roman tradition of simplicity. Apparently he created his Fettuccine all’Alfredo when his wife lost her appetite during her pregnancy. To bring back her appetite he prepared for her a nutritious dish of egg fettuccine with parmigiano cheese and butter. That probably gave him the idea for his “triple butter” fettuccine.

He was an extravagant character who used to personally serve his paper-thin fettuccine with golden forks, apparently donated to him by Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks, the famous silent movie stars. In the fifties and sixties, Hollywood discovered Rome. Paparazzi photographers took photos of actors such as Tyrone Power, Ava Gardner, Richard Burton, Liz Taylor, or Sophia Loren in front of a plate of Fettuccine all’Alfredo, making his restaurant famous all around the world. The restaurant is now run buy his grandson, and the golden forks are still used to serve this dish for special occasions.

Samuel Chamberlain, journalist and food writer, met Alfredo in the late fifties and wrote in his book “Italian Bouquet – An Epicurean Tour of Italy” (New York, 1958): “Finally there is the great Alfredo, showman par excellence, who draws an endless file of amazed and hungry tourists to watch his calisthenics over a dish of hot noodles. The King of Noodles has come out of retirement, and now wields his golden fork and spoon at ALFREDO ALL’AUGUSTEO, at number 31 on the Piazza Augusto Imperatore. His Maestosissime Fettuccine all’Alfredo are most majestic, without a doubt. […] You have to visit this place at least once, we suppose, just to say you have seen this elderly, melodramatic good-hearted clown in action.”

So, forget the heavy cream, the parsley, the garlic, and all the other stuff suggested in the hundreds of Alfredo recipes that circulate around. Take down from the shelf that pasta machine, prepare your fresh fettuccine (you can substitute fresh fettuccine with excellent dry egg noodles), and enjoy the simple Maestosissime Fettuccine al Triplo Burro the way Alfredo himself would do them.

Pasta is the perfect example of this "problem food." Most pasta believe it or not is categorized as a "healthy" food. Why? because it is enriched with nutrients that your body needs and might be lacking. Additionally it has a low glycemic rating. But the bad new is this... Pasta is exploding with calories! The typical serving of Pasta has 2 times the number of carbohydrate calories that a body can process! So what happens? Your body will convert those excess carb calories into FAT Tissue, exactly what you're trying to avoid.

Also, what does the average person eat with pasta? Meat Balls, Pesto, Alfredo or another Type of Sauce? Do you see how the excess calories that your body simply turns into fat just keep adding up and adding up?

So should you avoid pasta altogether? NO! remember what we said about carbs providing much needed energy? Ok, so how should you eat pasta to loose weight? First learn how to ROTATE your carbohydrates and next--eat half of the portion you would normally receive from a restaurant. Also and I can't stress this enough, don't eat it with Alfredo or anything except a Simple spaghetti sauce with seasoning salt for additional flavor.

If you want to eat pasta and again you can from time to time; you should make it at home. Eating pasta out will surely give you too much as a portion and the sauce will more than likely just add fat tissue to your body. You should also be aware of other carbohydrates like rice which again has tons of calories and the portions you receive from your favorite restaurant are way over the top.

The bottom line--Carbohydrate intake needs to be monitored BUT you do NOT have to go on a high protein low carb diet to lose weight and be healthy. However you do need to learn the proper way to ROTATE your carbs for the optimum period of time since the wrong carbs and the wrong carb portions will make you gain weight very quickly.

What Is The Best Low Carb Diet For Fast Weight Loss?

Look, your brain and body require carbohydrates. Why? Because Carbs provide you with energy that you need to function properly and stay healthy.

When your body is lacking in the energy it needs from carbohydrates it will fight back! The next thing you know, you have nothing but a failed Low Carb Diet and some really unpleasant and in some cases debilitating side effects.

When trying to find the Best Low Car Diet for Fast Weight Loss, you will see that typical low carb diets do not work. Why? Because they deprive your body of just about every carbohydrate that it needs to function and even worse, they make you do it for unhealthy Periods of Time. If you want an effective fat burning diet, you must learn to MANIPULATE your Carbohydrate Intake. In other words, you have got to learn to USE food to LOSE weight!

Oddly enough, you do not need this type of extreme diet and you certainly don't need pills or potions for fast and healthy weight loss. What you must learn for weight loss success is how to rotate your carbs and proteins to boost your metabolism.

Yes, you should decrease your carbohydrate intake, but for temporary periods of time only!. Then, increase those carbs and then lower them. You should never go for long periods of time on low carb and high protein diets. You will not achieve lasting or healthy results with this type of yo-yo plan. Why is it so hard to understand how to balance the proper Carbohydrate intake anyway? You probably know or have heard about healthy vs unhealthy carbs right? Well here's a news flash-- the problem with carbs is that they can be "healthy" but still very fattening.

Fettuccini Alfredo Recipe

Yes, this a true Roman pasta dish. It's not hard to make and definitly not low fat!

I was just reading about Fettuccini Alfredo over the Christmas Holidays. Yes, there really is an Alfredo and the dish was originated in Rome.

The story goes that Alfredo's wife had given birth and to help her regain her strength he created this dish. "This added extra fat and protein to the classic Roman tradition of eating fettuccini with butter and parmesan cheese.

While visiting Alfredo's restaurant (Alfredo all Scorfa), Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford were served the dish. They loved it so much that they presented Alfredo with a gold fork and spoon in honor of this dish.

There are now three Alfredo ristorante in Rome, but none owned by the original Alfredo's family.

When the recipe was brought to the US, American chefs couldn't get the triple cream used in Italy. They began to add items such as swiss cheese or eggs. A trick to thickening American heavy cream is to open the container and leave it sit in the refrigerator over night. It's not the same, but will help. Also, make sure your refrigerator is clean. The cream will pick up smells, so toss out the old fish.

Healthy Fettucine Alfredo

This recipe does contain protein in the form of tofu. However, as a sauce, it is up to the individual how much to add and therefore can be easily regulated. Remember, protein is important to everyone's diet, but cystinuria warrants careful protein monitoring.
I love this recipe!! A few notes about me... i LOVE italian food, i LOVE fettucine alfredo, and i absolutely won't eat tofu. I think the stuff is afwul. However, this is a tofu based recipe that i'd eat in a heartbeat, any night of the week. It's light, almost (or can be) dairy free, has a fraction of the fat normally associated with alfredo, has great vegtible content, and is just downright GOOD! Don't believe me? Give it a try... it's a very simple and fast recipe.

Leave yourself about 15 minutes from start to finish!
Here's what you're going to need:
1) fettucine pasta (i prefer a whole wheat or spinach-based), enough for about 4 people.
2) a good sized bushel of thin asparagus
3) 2 tablespoons of butter/margarine (i use "Smart Balance" spread and find it to be great!!)
4) 2 cloves garlic
5) one 12.3 oz package of firm silk Tofu.
6) 1/2 cup of milk (skim or lowfat.. i use 2%) Also, rice or soy milk can be subsituted.
7) 1 teaspoon salt and pepper to taste

Confessions Of A Serial Fettucini Alfredo With Chicken Eater

It's been a long, hard week at work and finally, it is the weekend. You and your girlfriend are going out to eat at your favorite restaurant. It's kind of packed and after 45 minutes, you get seated. The waiter asks what you want to drink and within 2 minutes, he brings it. Now, it's time to order. You look at the menu for 5 minutes and realize that for 10 years you have ordered the same thing. Fettucini Alfredo with chicken.

I'm sorry but I love this dish. I fell in love with it around 17. I went to Olive Garden with my mom after a church service one day. We sat down and she suggested that I try it. When I first saw it, I thought this is too much for me. The plate was like twice the size of a regular plate.

I felt it was a meal for one those guys who shops at Big and Tall. But after the first bite, I was in heaven. The chicken bounces off the Alfredo sauce so perfectly. It's like the Italian Peanut Butter and Jelly. It got so bad that I started to get Alfredo sauce as a dip to the complementary bread sticks that they give you when you first sit down.