A Good Food Night, Part 1

This is me trying to blog more often. So far so good.

Today turned out to be a day of great food, or rather tonight. I had the usual bagel for breakfast, and some macaroni & beans for lunch (I'm not a total weirdo, it's actually good). Tonight I got a little adventurous! We went grocery shopping and got some great beef tortellini on sale at Safeway and I had some cream cheese in the fridge already. That meant pasta for supper. Plus, since there is beef in the tortellini, my boyfriend said we didn't have to cook any meat. Now I'm no vegetarian, but sometimes I enjoy having a meal that requires no meat prep. Anyways, I made an alfredo sauce that I've made a bunch of times before, but I added tomato sauce. It was really amazing, with green beans on the side. I really wish I would have taken some photos, I'll make a mental note for next time. Here is the recipe if you are looking for something new.

Rose Pasta Sauce

Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter or margarine
crushed garlic cloves, or garlic powder to your taste (I used about 4 medium cloves, I really like my garlic)
1 block of cream cheese (I use the low fat stuff)
1 cup of milk
1/3 cup of grated parmesan cheese
pepper to your taste
1 1/2 cups tomato pasta sauce (I used 'Simply Natural' Organic Tomato Basil stuff because it is great sauce)
any vegetables you might like to add, we put in some chopped mushrooms & the sauce has tomato chunks

Directions:

Chop the butter into small pieces so it will melt faster and put it in a medium or large frying pan over medium heat. Add the garlic and any vegetables now. When the butter is melted and the vegetables have softened, add the cream cheese. It is melts faster if it has been cut into smaller pieces. When the cream cheese starts getting really soft I mix with a whisk. (Watch your clothes because this will definitely leave greasy stains!) Add the milk once the cream cheese starts to blend with the butter. Keep stirring often with a whisk, and when the milk is blended in, add the parmesan. I usually add my pepper now, because I just eyeball how much I like in the white sauce. The sauce should be fairly smooth and it will have a weird cheesy texture. Now you can add in the tomato sauce. Stir until it is fully blended and heated through. The serve!

Like I said before, we ate it with beef tortellini, but it would be great with any pasta. Adding some meat or seafood would taste great, too. I'd love to hear if anyone else tries this out.