Lightened Up Veggie Pasta Alfredo

This was mighty tasty with minimal ingredients and more green veggies than you can imagine! I adapted this from the new Cooking Light magazine but of course changed a couple things around! I didn't want to use cream cheese so started researching what would be a good substitute. I was just gonna sub Greek yogurt for it but a couple places in Internet world we're saying neufchatel..what the fuck is that? Lower calorie cream type cheese! So, I grabbed that and threw it in and it was so creamy and delicious! Was very happy with how this turned out.

serving size:6-8 servings

What you need:

• 1/2 - 1 box of whole wheat pasta
• 1 pound green veggies (I used asparagus, snap peas and green beans)
• 1 1/4 cup low fat milk (could use unsweetened almond milk here)
• 1 teaspoon whole wheat flour
• 3 ounces neufchatel cheese
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 3 teaspoons minced garlic
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon minced onion

What you need to do:

1. Fill a large pot up with 5 quarts of water
2. Bring to a boil, add veggies and cook 4 minutes
3. Using a slotted spoon place cooked veggies in a colander to strain excess water
4. Add your pasta to the boiling veggie water and cook according to package directions
5. Mix your milk and flour together
6. After pasta is cooked, drain and reserve 1/4 cup of pasta water
7. To the same pot, add in your tablespoon of olive oil, 1 teaspoon of minced onion and minced garlic
8. Saute for about 30 seconds
9. Then add in your milk mixture and cook for about a minute until thickened slightly
10. Next, add in your cheese and cook until its melted
11. Add in your pasta, veggies and reserved water, stir to coat everything
12. Enjoy! I added some goat cheese but it would be great with Parmesan cheese too