Making the most of a whole lot of nothing

Alfredo sauce is typically cream, butter, and Parmesan cheese... i'm generally pretty lazy, so i'll just go with a jar of ragu. However my goal this week is not to eat out or spend any more money on food then i absolutely have to - so i milled around my cupboards and fridge. 

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup butter

• 1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese

• 2 teaspoons garlic powder

• 2 cups milk

• 6 ounces grated Parmesan cheese

• 1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper

Directions

1. Melt butter in a medium, non-stick saucepan over medium heat. Add cream cheese and garlic powder, stirring with wire whisk until smooth. Add milk, a little at a time, whisking to smooth out lumps. Stir in Parmesan and pepper. Remove from heat when sauce reaches desired consistency. Sauce will thicken rapidly, thin with milk if cooked too long. Toss with hot pasta to serve.

I see the usual suspects...

dried pasta

frozen chicken breast

frozen peas, corn and other misc. vegetables

milk

random bits of cheese (i know, sounds appetizing -- right?)

So i decide, what else is a pretty quick and easy dish when you have nothing but frozen/dried and leftovers? Generally speaking my options are fried rice or pasta - tonight i went with pasta. Problem was i didn't have any ready made sauce, so i found a pretty easy recipe for Alfredo. 

Naturally you know me and recipes... So i subbed Parmesan with Asiago and added a pinch of cayenne pepper. No photos but it was delish. 

My dish was bowtie pasta with peas, corn, sauteed spinach and chicken with crisped shallots. 

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