Mmm... Alfredo Sauce... and a couple frugal holiday gifts.

Super-Simple Alfredo Sauce
(adapted from this recipe at allrecipes)
1/4c butter
1-8oz pkg cream cheese
1/2tsp garlic salt
2tsp minced garlic
1c h&h
1c milk
3oz parmesan & romano cheese shreds
1/4tsp freshly ground black pepper
1tsp dried parsley

Melt butter over medium heat, add cream cheese, stir until all's melted and combined. Add garlic salt, garlic, h&h, milk, pepper and parsley. Whisk. Add shredded cheese while continuing to whisk. When melted and slightly thickened, remove from heat and serve.

Changes I'd made to the original are cutting the butter in half, using minced garlic in place of powdered, substitute half of milk called for with half & half, used stronger flavored cheese so I could use less, at least doubled the pepper and used fresh coarsely ground.

We ate about 4 or 5 servings at lunch and there looks to be about the same amount left. So I'm guessing this serves about 8, depending on how saucy you like your meal.

I was very surprised to have been so satisfied with this served with beef meatballs and steamed chopped broccoli. For one thing, I am not a big broccoli fan. Second, I'd been mighty tempted to make some Dreamfield's pasta so I could enjoy it like I normally would. But I'm learning to like a new normal, I guess. Who knew I would look forward to the leftovers of this for lunches in the upcoming couple of days?!?

Has everyone else been "behaving"? I certainly have not. Just too darn many goodies. It's been an all-out pig fest for me since about Dec.19th. And, boy, have I paid for it. I've felt pretty yucky each day, and I finally jumped on the scale yesterday to see the damage. There was a 5-6 pound increase. But I began easing back into eating better yesterday. My sweet tooth has been assuaged with some dark chocolate covered dried berries that I'd received at Christmas in my stocking from J, which I try to just eat a small handful of. I've also cut back on the amount of diet soda I was getting into (trying to replace with carbonated coconut flavored water but don't like it), gave away some sugary treats I'd been gifted, froze some dark chocolate gifts that I can't bear to part with and have dug out the Atkins, South Beach, Protein Power and Belly-Fat Cure books that I have and placed them by my side of the bed to peruse through each night.

On a different note, here's the wool mice I made with the scraps from the coat I'd used to make mittens:

I stuffed them with catnip for fun, too. The boys like to bat them around.

I also made my nieces and nephews each a candy sleigh. I included a gift card on the sleigh. The sleighs were an idea I saw on another blog. But because these were for teens, I wanted to include the gift cards.