My Creamy Pasta Sauce and Homemade Bread Sticks

I should be doing my nutrition homework.......

But instead I'm giving you a recipe involving oil, butter and heavy whipping cream! I'm sure there's nutrition in there somewhere.....

The sauce does have veggies in it, and we all know that eating vegetables cancels out all the fat in the dish, don't we?

Wonder why they never mention that in my nutrition text book?

Strange.

Anyway, I'm super full and more than a little groggy. Too much pasta will do that to ya! But ever so happy to have had a nice lunch with a friend (Hi Melodee!)
It's entirely possible that I'm crashing due to too many carbs at one meal......pasta.....bread sticks......bread pudding for dessert.......

Yep, it's possible.

Now you can OD on carbs too!

Ingredients:

1 lb cooked pasta
3T olive oil
2T butter or margarine
1 large red onion, chopped
1 pkg mushrooms, sliced
1 med zucchini, halved then sliced
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
3 cans petite diced tomatoes
2 t dried basil
1T dried parsley
1 c heavy whipping cream (optional, but ohhh sooooo good!)

I know this looks like a lot of ingredients, but I promise...you probably have most of this stuff in your pantry right now. And if you keep heavy whipping cream in your fridge all the time for cooking, I'm coming to live with you. *g*


Directions-
Chop veggies. Heat oil and butter in a skillet, then add onion, zucchini, and mushrooms. Cook on med high heat until onion is traslucent and zucchini and mushrooms are tender. Add garlic, stir and cook 1 minute. Add tomatoes basil, parsly, salt and pepper (to taste) and cream. Cook, stirring occasionally, until sauce has thickened somewhat and flavors have blended. Serve with pasta and fresh grated parm.

Bread Sticks:

This is my basic Italian Bread recipe that I use for pizza crusts, Italian loaves and various other things. I've just added a couple extra things to it so it's "special". I'll note the add-in with a { } so you can make it with or without them. It's great either way!!

To bread maker add, in this order:

1 1/2 c water (110-120*)
1T olive oil
4 c bread flour
1 1/4 t salt
2T sugar
1 pkg yeast
{1 scant t garlic powder}
{1T dried parsley}
{1T McCormick Salad Supreme seasoning}
3 T butter for brushing
1 clove garlic, minced

Set bread maker to dough and let 'er go. When finished, press out to 1/2 in thickness and cut into "sticks". Place on greased (or sprayed) cookie sheet, cover and let rise for 1 hr. Bake at 400* for 15 minutes or until done. Put butter or margarine and garlic into microwave safe dish, heat until melted and brush onto bread sticks.

Now go put on sweat pants and eat some carbs!!!