Italian sausage sundried tomato alfredo

Let me first say....this is not skinny kid food.  This is fat kid food to the core, but I couldn't not share our cheat meal for the week because it was sooooooo darn good! Best part about it, it was an accidental yummy throw together, using just what I had in my cupboards that night. Don't you just love stumbling upon awesome meals when you have no expectations!?

I usually do pasta for our cheat meal because we're both carb freaks...no wonder I have to hit the gym for Kosama all week! This bolognese sauce is my favorite at the moment because it's so easy and it makes the house smell spectacular all afternoon while it simmers....but sometimes you're just not in the mood for the standard red sauce, you know?

I spotted this light alfredo sauce in the cupboard and decided to build with that. Usually I just make fettucine and spice this sauce up with some chicken, broccoli, crushed red pepper, and cracked black pepper (the light variety of alfredo sauce needs some kick to give it flavor, as it is pretty bland on it's own). But then I spotted the sundried tomato pesto (which I've never tried and just bought on a whim) and thought that would mesh very well with the alfredo sauce....and the rest just fell together. 

Green chiles for a little heat, mushrooms because they belong in every pasta in my humble opinion, and italian sausage because it was the first meat that spoke to me when I opened the freezer door. I also bought a metric crap-ton (yes, that's a legit unit of measurement in my world) of wheat pasta at Costco a while back, so went with the penne rather than a long noodle...I was happy with all of these decisions.

1 jar light alfredo sauce

1 jar sundried tomato pesto

1 large can mushrooms

1 can green chiles

1 box wheat penne

1 lb italian sausage (could use turkey sausage if you have it on hand, which is what I will do next time)

Boil your noodles according to the package directions. Brown your sausage in a large skillet and add mushrooms and green chiles to cook for the last 3 minutes.  Add your pesto and alfredo sauce and allow it all to simmer on low for 15 minutes for the flavors to meld. I always add crushed red pepper to anything italian, and next time I would throw in a diced white onion for good measure. I threw the noodles into the skillet with the sauce and stirred for a few minutes....and BOOM, dinner's done!

Serve with garlic bread and fresh shaved parmesan if you have it, but any parmesan will do.  This recipe will serve 4-6 very hungry adults, as the leftovers fed Justin all weekend I was gone taking care of Big Dan.  This was a very heavy pasta compared to what I normally make (like the shrimp pomodoro or the light cajun chicken pasta) but the taste was out of the park, so I just couldn't stop! If you use turkey sausage, the actual calorie count on this would be lower than you would expect if you're using wheat noodles like I did, light alfredo sauce like I did, and pesto (which I explained the health benefits of when I made pesto shrimp angel hair)....so although it's not guilt free, it's not a guilt ridden dish. Enjoy it like we did!