Light Vegetable and Shrimp Spaghetti

I love to cook. I love browsing recipes. I love finding new and exciting ways to use ingredients. I enjoy watching shows on Food Network. I make more new dishes than I do repeat dishes.

So when I find a recipe that is like "WOW" I have to share. This is one of those recipes. It's also one of those recipes that I can't wait to make again.

Who likes shrimp? Yes! Who likes pasta? yes! Who likes a creamy Parmesan sauce? Yes! Then I have the recipe for you. Even the leftovers of this dish completely disappeared which I have to admit, doesn't happen all the time.

Just like all those cooking shows, I believe it's so much easier to prep all the ingredients at one time, even down to measuring out the liquids and spices. I want a mandolin to slice my vegetables all fun like, but I thought, for doing it by hand, my julienned vegetables looked pretty darn good. Here I have baby carrots, yellow squash, and a zucchini. I'll also be sauteing this with fresh minced garlic.

I admit, I cheated and used precooked shrimp. Sometimes it makes life so much easier though because it's already cleaned and shelled, all I have to do is take the tails off. Just thaw and go! Saves so much time.

I even get my pasta weighed out. ALWAYS weigh out your pasta in dry form. A serving is typically 2 ounces, and this is dry weight, and trust me, it doesn't look like much dry, but it's a LOT cooked. Sometimes I can even go for just a partial serving because it can be so much at times. My family really likes the multigrain or whole wheat pasta. It has so much more flavor than regular pasta.

Here I have my Parmesan cheese. Do not, I repeat, do NOT use the grated stuff in a can with the green lid. Sometimes I question whether that is really cheese or not. It may seem cheaper, but in the long run, by buying real Parmesan in the grocers dairy case you are getting such a better quality product. The taste alone will have you never buying that questionable stuff they pawn off near the canned spaghetti sauce again.

Once all the items are prepped and ready to go, it's time to start cooking. Here I'm just sauteing the vegetables in a light margarine. Now now, I know, real butter should be used here, but I was trying to cut back on some of the calories, and really, by using the margarine it tastes just as good.

Here I'm creating the sauce. I've added in my dill, heavy cream, and cheese. Now, I know I just mentioned cutting the calories and right here I'm using heavy cream. Light cream or half and half would work as well, I just used heavy cream because it's what I had on hand. Cook that up until it starts to thicken. I had a hard time getting this to thicken right away, so maybe start with 1/4 cup less cream.

Now all that's left to do is toss in your shrimp. Since they are already cooked all you have to do is heat them through and viola! It's finished. And oh so tasty! I served this with a nice fresh side salad and a piece of garlic bread to get the last bit of all the sauce up from the plate. It's really that good.

Shrimp and Vegetable Spaghetti

Makes 4 Servings
Each Serving is 640 calories

Ingredients

14 oz cooked shrimp
8 oz Eating Right Pasta Plus Spaghetti
2 tbsp Country Crock Light margarine
1 cup heavy whipping cream
1 cup shredded Parmesan
8 oz baby carrots, julienned
8 oz zucchini, julienned
8 oz yellow squash, julienned
1/2 tbsp dried dill
2 tsp minced garlic

Directions

Over medium heat melt margarine, add carrots and garlic, saute until slightly tender, add zucchini and yellow squash. Continue to saute until tender.

In large pot boiling water prepare pasta, drain, set aside.

To vegetables add heavy cream, Parmesan cheese, dill, and salt and pepper to taste. Continue to cook and stir until sauce thickens. Toss in shrimp and pasta and cook until heated through.

Lightened Up Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

Adapted from Alton Brown's Recipe found here.

I don't know if I've ever actually met someone who didn't like carrot cake? What's not to like? It's moist. It's spicy. And it usually always has a delightful cream cheese frosting. I have made the Alton Brown Recipe, and O.M.G. it really is delicious, but I figured there had to be a way to lighten it up just a bit, just so I could feel less guilty in enjoying a piece of deliciousness. This is what I came up with. I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as I do.

First we have to start with out ingredients and a few of the tools you'll need. The powdered sugar and salt missed out on this photo op...guess they were shy. Or they were hanging out in the cupboard with the cake pan. That one right there must be a bad influence.

Food processor and scale. Alton weighs out his ingredients, so when in Rome...
 

Some plain yogurt, splenda, unsweetened applesauce, flour, brown sugar, granulated sugar, a mixing bowl and you're spoon...

Canola oil, 3 eggs, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, allspice, nutmeg, spray oil, carrots, a block of cream cheese, and vanilla.

You could probably substitute the cream cheese for a fat free or reduced fat to make your calorie count even lower, but regular is what I had on hand so regular is what I used.

Now, onto the fun part!

Get your carrots all cleaned and trimmed. Don't throw away those ends though! I like to toss them in a baggie in the freezer and save them to make chicken stock, but we'll get into that another day. In your food processor with the grater attached give your carrots a nice grate, place in your large mixing bowl and set aside.

Now you're going to change over your attachment to a mixing blade and get in your flour and spices. Give it a couple of good whirls to get everything incorporated and then add this to your carrots.

 Mix to coat...

Keep going, you're almost there...

There ya go! Just make sure all the carrots are thoroughly covered with your flour mixture. Now we're going to move on and add the sugars to the food processor with the same mixing blade attached.

And now the yogurt, applesauce, and eggs...

Mix those in with the sugar until everything is incorporated, then with the processor running slowly drizzle in the olive oil.

Now we're going to take this sweet frothy mixture and pour it into the carrot/flour mixture...

It doesn't look like much yet, just wait. Give that a good stir to get everything incorporated together, but just don't over stir! Now we're going to pour this into the baking pan that finally decided to make an appearance. He came to the party ready to go, greased, floured and with his bottom covered in a parchment paper lining.

Action shot. Oh yeah, that's hard to do by yourself!

I know, at this point the smell is so awesome that it's hard not to just stick my finger right in and take a taste, but, it's better that we just get this bad boy right into the oven.

And through the magic of television, er, the Internet...

Viola! At this point the cake had already cooled in the pan for 15 minutes then I turned it out onto a wire rack to finish cooling. If you grease your pan well and ad the parchment paper, your cake should just pop right out without even needed to run a knife along the edges.

After the cake has cooled, it's time to make the lightened up icing. For my particular cake I used a 10 inch pan, which I have found that one block of cream cheese and one cup of powdered sugar is plenty to cover this with sweet goodness.

Get out your trusty hand mixer and in a medium mixing bowl add your room temp cream cheese and your vanilla. Blend until it starts to get airy and smooth.

I know it doesn't look like much now, but trust me, this is going to be delicious, and PLENTY of icing for your cake. Sift in your powdered sugar and then blend again until everything is light and fluffy!

Wait for it.....

It gets better...

Ahhhhh.....

I honestly couldn't even be bothered to make the picture prettier and wipe off the extra frosting from the plate, I just wanted to hurry so I could get that slice of cake In.My.Belly.

So good.

Lightened Up Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

Serves 12

slightly adapted from Alton Brown Recipe found here.

 


Spray oil
12 ounces, approximately 2 1/2 cups, all-purpose flour, plus extra for pan
12 ounces grated carrots, medium grate, approximately 6 medium
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt
5 ounces granulated white sugar
1/2 cup granulated Splenda
2 ounces dark brown sugar, approximately 1/4 cup firmly packed
3 large eggs
6 ounces plain yogurt 
3 ounces vegetable oil 
124 grams unsweetened applesauce, 3/4 cup


For the frosting:
1 - 8 ounce package cream cheese, room temp
1 cup confectioners' sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract



Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Butter and flour a 10-inch round and 2-inch deep cake pan. Line the bottom with parchment paper. Set aside.

Put the carrots into a large mixing bowl and set aside.

Put the flour, baking powder, baking soda, spices, and salt in the bowl of a food processor and process until just mixed. Add this mixture to the carrots and toss until they are well-coated with the flour.

In the bowl of the food processor combine the sugar, brown sugar, splenda, eggs, and yogurt.

With the processor still running drizzle in the vegetable oil. Pour this mixture into the carrot mixture and stir until just combined. Pour into the prepared cake pan and bake on the middle rack of the oven for 45 minutes. Reduce the heat to 325 degrees F and bake for another 20 minutes.

Remove the pan from the oven and allow cake to cool 15 minutes in the pan. After 15 minutes, turn the cake out onto a rack and allow cake to cool completely. While cake is cooling prepare the frosting.