Skinny Penne A La Vodka

There’s nothing like starting off my day with a good sweat session. I began my Sunday by going for a nice hike with Harley, and it was a perfect morning outside. Good cardio + a sleepy puppy before 10 am = awesomeness!

Dinner

I printed out a recipe for low-calorie penne a la vodka from the Shape magazine website a few months ago, and was waiting until I had a yen for pasta to try it out. Last night I was in a pasta mood, and when I got a whiff of my fragrant basil plant, wanted to use some for my dinner. I made a few changes to their recipe , such as nixing the pine nuts and adding spinach to the mix to add some veggie vitamins. Don’t expect it to taste like the creamy, full-fat penne vodka version you’d get a restaurant, but this dish came out pretty tasty.

Skinny Penne a la Vodka

Serves 2

Ingredients:

• 6 oz whole wheat penne pasta
• 1/2 c tomato sauce
• 1/2 c almond milk
• 1 TBSP plain Greek yogurt
• 1 TBSP vodka
• 2 TBSP grated parmesan cheese
• 2-4 TBSP fresh basil, coarsely chopped
• A few handfuls of fresh spinach
• Salt & pepper

Cook the pasta according to directions. Meanwhile, in a saucepan over medium heat, cook tomato sauce with almond milk, Greek yogurt, salt and pepper. At the last minute, add the spinach to the sauce mix and cook until wilted.

Once the pasta is cooked al dente, add the vodka and cook for another minute. Remove from heat and drain.

Toss the pasta with sauce, then top with basil and grated cheese.

Nutrition stats: 425 calories, 6 g fat, 20 g protein, 68 g carbs

My brother Danny and his girlfriend Desiree are flying into San Diego and staying here for the week, so I’ve got to go run and pick them up at the airport. Enjoy the rest of your weekend!