Pasta with blue cheese alfredo sauce

I am SO proud of myself: I invented my own recipe! :) Okay, okay...all I did was add blue cheese to a can of alfredo sauce, but it's a start!


I don't know if alfredo sauce is VERY healthy, but when you add all the veggies to it, I think it still counts as a healthy-ish meal. It still beats eating gravy-heavy meals, or ground beef, or other heavy foods!

The story: I had leftover chicken from my smoky-spicy chicken and wild rice soup. In addition, the grocery store had a sale on alfredo sauce. We haven't had pasta in a long time, and it sounded like a nice way to use up the chicken. However, I have always found alfredo sauce to be a bit bland. I couldn't think of what to do to make it have a more bold taste. I pored over the recipes and apparently, most people like the bland taste of alfredo sauce. This wasn't good enough for me. Suddenly, I thought about how much I love the gorgonzola sauce recipe that I use for my pasta dishes on occasion. However, I didn't want to fuss over the stove with whipping cream and whatnot to make my own sauce. I wondered if alfredo sauce would taste good with blue cheese in it. It seemed like a nice short cut to having a bold sauce, and blue cheese sounded really good at the time. So I risked it and made this recipe, and it was so good! You might be reading this and thinking it's not a very creative idea, but I couldn't find any recipes that suggested it, and I am NOT creative or daring with recipes, so I am proud of my creation. :)

What I love: the combination of mushrooms and blue cheese was delicious. Also, alfredo sauce and blue cheese combine very well together. Paul and I were going 'mmm' throughout the whole meal!

Ingredients:
*Penne pasta (1 box)
*1 jar of alfredo sauce
*4-6 oz. blue cheese crumbles
*chicken, shredded/cubed, and cooked
*olive oil
*1/2 onion, diced
*1 clove garlic, minced
*mushrooms, chopped
*tomatoes, seeded and diced
*basil
*parmesan

Directions:
1) Cook penne pasta as directed on box, drain and set aside (with top on to keep warm)
2) In a large pan, saute onion and garlic until tender. Add mushrooms and chicken. Cook until heated through. Then add alfredo sauce, blue cheese, and tomatoes. Heat and stir until blue cheese melts into the sauce.  Taste and add spices of choice.
3) Add the sauce to the pasta. Mix and serve. Top with basil and parmesan. Enjoy!

Comments:
*We enjoyed this meal with wine as a beverage. This was a wonderful idea! Blue cheese and alfredo and pasta are great to eat with a side of wine. I highly recommend it.
*The main cool thing about this recipe is adding blue cheese to the alfredo sauce. Everything else that you add is up to you! For example, I think that next time I make this, I will experiment with steak (instead of chicken) and I will add spinach as well. Be creative!
*I don't know if I am daring enough to try it, but I started thinking that cooking the veggies in wine instead of in olive oil might make this meal even better. If anyone tries it, let me know if it's good like that...