Is it just me, or is everyone healthy these days? I mean, suddenly everyone is an expert on health food and I have lots of friends and family successfully losing weight.  Go us, humans.

I have a sister-in-law getting married in about 11 weeks. So, needless to say, we are on the weight loss train, too. We even have a challenge that we started to help us stay motivated to work out more often and eat less junk at night. So far, it’s working. We were trying to lose baby weight anyway, but now it’s on!

Here’s the problem: I am running out of steam. The closer we get to the holidays, the more we get stressed, and busy, and the less time we seem to spend on meal planning {I’m sure you’ve even noticed my slowed food posts…}. I have started writing on the schedule, “freezer meal” for at least one night a week now, because it just doesn’t make sense to make a meal from scratch daily.  I just know I will not have the energy on one day, so if I do, I switch it up, if it’s just before or after a workout, I need a quick one!

So, Monterey Gourmet Foods sent us some yummy food to try and I was super excited because they couldn’t have come at a better time! We love food at our house. We like making food at our house, but we also like our sanity. So having meals in the freezer to bust out when we need a quick one so the kids can go down and we can have us time, is a must. And these are healthy, made from natural ingredients, and feel like we are getting some variety and culture in here.  The pastas are internationally inspired, so they were not all your typical Italian meal.
  

 

 

We decided to try the spinach and cheese ravioli first, because my mom had a quick and easy alfredo sauce to try. Then of course we tried the chicken dumplings because they are Korea’s take on gyoza {Japanese potstickers}, which we love. Both meals were completely tasty and much needed. When we eat before 7, we consider it a successful night here! Both nights, we whipped up some veggies and a sauce and it was 10 minutes from start to table. Boss loved them!

The idea with this sauce is that is should be mostly stuff that you have on hand at your house already. I practically keep half and half in my fridge these days, and I would say you’ll want the real grated Parmesan, not the powder stuff. 

quick & easy alfredo sauce
from my mom, peg moffat

  •     1/4 cup butter
  •     
2 cloves garlic, pressed
  •     
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
  •     
1/2 teaspoon garlic salt
  •     
2 cups half and half
  •     
1 tablespoon dried parsley flakes
  •     
1/3 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
  •     salt & pepper to taste


Melt butter and garlic in a skillet add flour and garlic salt.  Cook till bubbly.  Add 1/2 and 1/2 and parsley flakes.  Stir and cook on low till sauce thickens.  Stir in parmesan and salt and pepper and serve over pasta.

 For more recipes and offers visit Monterey Gourmet Foods on Facebook at or check out the website.

Wanna know something really great?
Monterey Gourmet Foods is going to give away one of my readers a 
$100 VISA gift card!
 
just answer the question:
what side dish or sauce would you serve with your 
Monterey Gourmet Foods dish with?
{or post the link to a dish or recipe you’d use!}
 

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