I recently made my first trip to The Fresh Market. It was pretty amazing =). But I’m not going to lie, I felt a little out of place. I don’t know if I’m cool/sophisticated enough to shop there ;). Growing up in a small town, we always grocery shopped at Save-A-Lot. When I started college, my parents took me to Kroger on move in day to get some food for my dorm. I remember thinking, “Wow! Kroger is awesome. They have everything I could ever want!”. Fast forward 7 years. I basically had the same reaction, just replace Kroger with The Fresh Market =). So of course, I took some time to browse almost every aisle.
I bought several new (to me) ingredients, one of which was tofu shirataki noodles. I had no idea what they tasted like, but I thought they looked interesting (and healthy) so I tossed a pack into my buggy. Tofu shirataki noodles are a low calorie (20 calories per 4 oz serving) and low carbohydrate (3g per serving) traditional Japanese noodle. I had no idea how to cook with them…so I googled it, of course haha. The most important thing that I kept seeing over and over was thoroughly rinsing the noodles. I also saw a lot of recipes for shirataki alfredo dishes. Safety in numbers, so that’s what I went with too. This is not your traditional, high-fat alfredo sauce. You can eat a huge serving of this dish without feeling any guilt! The sauce is pretty thick, so if you want a thinner sauce just add a little more milk. I added some cooked shrimp, but you could easily substitute chicken or go meatless. Broccoli would have been my veggie of choice, but Jordan doesn’t like broccoli so I added carrots instead. However, you could really use any vegetable you wanted. And did I mention this recipe is super quick? It’s my kind of weeknight dinner – start to finish in 15 minutes. =) Enjoy!
Shrimp and Shirataki Alfredo
8 oz tofu shirataki noodles, drained and thoroughly rinsed*
3-4 oz cooked shrimp
2-3 cups frozen carrots
2 tbsp parmesan cheese
2 tbsp reduced-fat sour cream
1-2 tbsp skim milk
1 wedge laughing cow light garlic and herb cheese
1. Bring large pot of water to rolling boil. Add carrots and return to boil. Boil a couple minutes. Add noodles and continue to boil for 5 minutes. Drain.
2. In same pot, combine the parmesan cheese, sour cream, skim milk, and garlic and herb cheese over low heat until melted and smooth. Return noodles, carrots and shrimp to cheese mixture and continue to heat until shrimp are heated (a couple minutes). Yield: 2 large servings
*adapted from The Hungry Girl
Notes: When you first open the noodles, they will have a strong fishy smell. Make sure you rinse the noodles until they no longer have that “fishy” smell. I used this brand.
Have you ever tried Miracle Noodles, they don't have any soy or calories, kind of like the tofu shirataki without the tofu, much better IMHO.
I'll have to try those. Thanks for the tip :).