What's for Dinner? - Fettuccine Alfredo

There are a few rare occasions that Savannah will actually request a specific dish.  When she does, I usually try to work it into our weekly menu.  One of her recent requests was Fettuccine Alfredo.  We eat a lot of pasta dishes at our house...lasagna, spaghetti, muscacholi, etc.  However, Savannah has never been crazy about marinara (red) sauce.  Alfredo sauce, on the other hand, is one of her favorites.  I found a very easy sauce to make.

Alfredo Sauce

Ingredients

1/4 cup butter

1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1 cup milk

3 ounces grated Parmesan cheese

1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper

Directions

Melt butter in a medium, non-stick saucepan over medium heat. Add cream cheese and garlic powder (or fresh minced garlic), 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.

Tips:

• I use fresh garlic for my sauce instead of the garlic powder.
• I usually make ½ of this recipe because this recipe is way too much sauce for us!  Even with a half recipe, we have some left over.  However, I must also mention that JJ and daddy use half red and half white sauce on our Alfredo meals so this leaves us with some extra.  
• This meal is easy to cut in half or double according to how much you need and is fairly hard to mess up!  
• Some people like a thicker sauce and others prefer a thinner sauce....you can add milk accordingly to get the consistency that you prefer.  If you like it thinner, you may want to add a little more Parmesan, garlic, and pepper to give it a more flavor.  Just use trial and error.  We like the consistency this recipe provides because it is a middle-of-the-road between thick and thin.
• When you reheat the sauce, add some milk before heating to keep it from "drying out" too much.
• While this is not a cheap sauce with cream cheese costing a $1.50 plus, it is still cheaper than purchasing a jar of store bought Alfredo, and it tastes so much better.
• We usually make Fettuccine noodles with this meal, but it can be used with a variety of noodles.  We  also sometimes have other optional toppings that can be added like steamed broccoli or pan-grilled chicken pieces (cut a boneless, skinless chicken breast into bite-size pieces and place in a pan with a little olive oil - sprinkle with salt, pepper, and garlic - cook until done). You can also put the noodles, sauce, broccoli, and chicken in a casserole dish 9X13 pan, top it with mozzarella cheese, cover with foil, and bake it until the cheese is melted.  Then, remove the foil and lightly brown the cheese for an easy casserole dish.  **You will need to add some milk to the casserole in order to keep it from drying out during baking.**