Magical Healthy Alfredo Sauce

Hey All! This is going to be a quick little post because I just created a new recipe that I'm 100% stoked about, and I don't want to forget what I did! You know those foods that you just kinda have to give up completely when you commit to eating healthy? Well, one of those foods is Fettuccine Alfredo. Sorry to burst your bubble if you didn't know....but the traditional ingredients are butter, cream, cheese and salt. A restaurant style serving is about 1500 calories. Yikes!!

Anyway, this doesn't happen to me very often, but the idea for a recipe struck me; healthy Alfredo! I had begun to experiment with skim milk based cottage cheese blended up as a base for things, and I had heard that cashews can be used to make a cheese substitute. And the Wheels started turning. So, here it is:

Ingredients:
1.5 cloves of fresh garlic ( I buy a big bag of the pre-peeled stuff each week)
1 cup cashews
2 cups water
3-4 tsp salt (salt to taste! I never measure this so its really hard to estimate)
2 tbsp fresh diced parsley
1 tbsp fresh diced chives
1 cup Nancy's organic low fat cottage cheese (this is the exact brand I used, organic makes a difference w/cottage cheese)
1 cup skim milk
3 tablespoons lemon juice(once again add to taste based on your preference)
1 tbsp. parmesan cheese (optional)
very small amount of olive or canola oil

1.) Turn on oven to 400 degrees.

2.) Combine 1 cup of cashews with 2 cups of water and two tsp of salt in a small pot. Turn burner on high and bring to a boil. Let boil for 1 minute and remove from heat. No need to waste time babysitting this as you're waiting for it to boil; start working on the rest of the sauce!

3.) After starting cashews on the stove, peel garlic. Set aside 3 pieces. Take the rest and very lightly coat them in oil. Put them on a baking sheet, and insert them into the oven. (no need to wait for it to fully preheat, this isn't a precision game!). The purpose of this step is to roast the garlic and give the sauce a sweeter, fuller garlic flavor. This takes approximately 10 minutes.

4.) Drain water from cashews, and dump cashews into blender. Add parsley, chives, raw garlic (3 pieces you set aside) and lemon juice to the blender. Blend until mixture is smooth

5.) Add 1 cup of cottage cheese. Blend.

6.) Add 1 cup of skim milk. Blend.

7.) Take garlic out of oven and add it to blender. (it should be starting to turn golden brown). Blend until smooth.

8.)Pour mixture from blender into saucepan on low heat. Gently stir for about 5 minutes. Add salt and freshly cracked pepper to taste. Add 1 tbsp of parmesan cheese if you feel so inclined.

9.) Serve the magic!!

If you are trying to keep you calories down, serve on spaghetti square, however, spinach fettuccine noodles are my absolute fav! Enjoy! Let me know what you think if you try it, and any suggestions to make it better :)