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Pink Vodka Sauce {Lightened Up}

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This Lightened Up Pink Vodka Sauce recipe, served over pasta, is a delicious easy meal when you need to get dinner on the table fast!  It makes enough sauce for two pounds of pasta, so freeze your leftover sauce for another night. 

 

This Lightened Up Pink Vodka Sauce recipe, served over pasta, is a delicious easy meal when you need to get dinner on the table fast! It makes enough sauce for two pounds of pasta, so freeze your leftover sauce for another night. Created for Cooking for a Cure to bring awareness to Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Vegetarian.

 

October, as you know, is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. One in every eight women will be diagnosed with breast cancer during her lifetime.  Most of us will be touched by breast cancer in one way or another, whether through our own diagnosis or a friend or family member. 

Although I have never had breast cancer myself, I have several friends who have. One of my oldest friends here, a “birthday club mom,” was diagnosed with breast cancer a couple years ago. She’s a mom of 3 and my age. I have another friend who received her diagnosis in her early 30’s. While most breast cancer occurs in women over 50, being younger doesn’t mean you won’t get it. Cancer doesn’t care about age. Thankfully both of my friends beat it, but not everyone is so lucky. 

Breast cancer is the leading cause of cancer death of women ages to 20-59. The good news is caught early (stage 1), the 5 year survival rate is 90%. That’s why early detection is so important, and why we want to bring awareness to this issue to you today. You can learn more about breast cancer and the facts at Susan G. Komen.

While this post is to bring awareness to Breast Cancer Awareness Month, I can’t not mention the loss of my father in law two summers ago.  He didn’t have breast cancer (although men can get breast cancer too), but he battled cancer for years before passing away two summers ago. We miss him dearly. My husband and I have lived next door to my in laws for 22 years…our children have had them in their every day lives since they were born.  I can’t even begin to tell you how horrible it is to see someone you love in so much pain.  

So today I have banded together with a wonderful group of food bloggers and we are Cooking for a Cure to bring awareness to this cause. I hope you will check out all of our Pink recipes…scroll down to the bottom of my post to find a listing. 

 

This Lightened Up Pink Vodka Sauce recipe, served over pasta, is a delicious easy meal when you need to get dinner on the table fast! It makes enough sauce for two pounds of pasta, so freeze your leftover sauce for another night. Created for Cooking for a Cure to bring awareness to Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Vegetarian

Pink Vodka Sauce {Lightened Up}

I thought about creating a dessert for this. But I don’t tend to make or eat a lot of desserts. What I do eat a lot of is pasta. You will never hear any of my family of runners (and soccer players) complaining about a pasta dinner, no matter how many times a week I make one. 

This Pink Vodka Sauce is fast and easy. And it’s quite delicious, in spite of the fact that I lightened it up. In fact, I caught my daughter dipping crostini into the extra sauce the other day and eating it as a snack!

Now when I say lightened up, we’re still not talking low calorie recipe by any means. I traded out the traditional heavy cream for light cream. I am sure there are plenty of people that will say it’s not the same without the heavy cream. And it isn’t. It’s not as heavy. But it’s very good…any time you have a kid using the sauce for dipping, I’d say you have a winner. 

This recipe will make enough for at least two pounds of pasta. We ended up freezing the leftover sauce for another night when we’re in a rush…which is often. Can I just say I love freezer meals?!

 

This Lightened Up Pink Vodka Sauce recipe, served over pasta, is a delicious easy meal when you need to get dinner on the table fast! It makes enough sauce for two pounds of pasta, so freeze your leftover sauce for another night. Created for Cooking for a Cure to bring awareness to Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Vegetarian

This Lightened Up Pink Vodka Sauce recipe, served over pasta, is a delicious easy meal when you need to get dinner on the table fast! It makes enough sauce for two pounds of pasta, so freeze your leftover sauce for another night. Created for Cooking for a Cure to bring awareness to Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Vegetarian

This Lightened Up Pink Vodka Sauce recipe, served over pasta, is a delicious easy meal when you need to get dinner on the table fast! It makes enough sauce for two pounds of pasta, so freeze your leftover sauce for another night. Created for Cooking for a Cure to bring awareness to Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Vegetarian

I hope you enjoy this Pink Vodka Sauce recipe as much as we do! Please check out the other Pink recipes below too. I have some very talented food blogger friends…I know you are going to love the recipes they created for Cooking for a Cure!

Pink Vodka Sauce

Pink Vodka Sauce

Yield: 8
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 25 minutes
Total Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients

  • 1 carrot, chopped
  • 1 onion, chopped
  • 4 cloves of garlic, chopped
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 3/4 cup vodka
  • 2 28 oz cans of whole tomatoes
  • 6 basil leaves
  • 3/4 cup of light cream
  • 1/2 cup good quality Parmesan, grated

Instructions

  1. Saute carrot, onion, and garlic cloves in olive oil for a couple minutes, until softened.
  2. Add 3/4 cup vodka and cook for a couple more minutes. Allow it to start reducing before adding the tomatoes.
  3. Add canned tomatoes and basil leaves. Cook for about 15 minutes over medium heat.
  4. Reduce heat.
  5. Puree with immersion blender in pot.
  6. Take about a 1/4 - 1/2 of a cup of the tomato liquid and add it to the light cream to temper it. Then add the mixture back into the sauce slowly, stirring while you do so.
  7. Stir in grated Parmesan.
  8. Serve over pasta. You should have enough sauce for about 2 pounds of pasta.
This Lightened Up Pink Vodka Sauce recipe, served over pasta, is a delicious easy meal when you need to get dinner on the table fast! It makes enough sauce for two pounds of pasta, so freeze your leftover sauce for another night. Created for Cooking for a Cure to bring awareness to Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Vegetarian.

 

 

pink-recipes-cooking-for-a-cure

Strawberries & Cream Pastries by Domestic Superhero / Drink Pink Mocktail by Love Bakes Good Cakes / Strawberry Frosted Sugar Cookie Bars by Like Mother, Like Daughter / No Bake Raspberry Cheesecake by Sugar & Soul / Cranberry Raspberry Punch by Carlsbad Cravings / Pink Rock Candy Fudge by Kleinworth & Co. / Raspberry Sorbet by Food, Folks, Fun / Pretty Pink Chambord Frosting by Who Needs A Cape? / Lightened up Pink Vodka Sauce by A Dish of Daily Life / Strawberry Oreo Cake Mix Cookies by Just Us Four / Prickly Pear Soda Floats by Club Narwhal / Cherry Pie Scones by The Bitter Side of Sweet / Pink Fluff Dip by Mamal Diane / Pretty Pink Raspberry Vanilla Mini Cakes by Liv for Cake / Pink Pop Tarts by Life Currents / Strawberry Cheesecake Dip by The Love Nerds / Glazed Cherry Buttermilk Scones by Tastes of Lizzy T / Raspberry Vanilla Pink Ombre Bundt Cake by Cookie Dough and Oven Mitt / Berry Bliss by 365(ish) Days of Pinterest / Meringue Cookies by Mamma Loves Food / Cream Puffs with Strawberry Filling by Cooking on the Front Burner / Raspberry Cheesecake Brownies by Culinary Couture /

 

26 Pink Recipes for Breast Cancer Awareness

Tornadough Alli

Wednesday 21st of October 2015

Yum, this looks great! I've never made my own sauce before. This gives me such inspiration! Thank you for sharing with us at #ThrowbackThursday we hope to see you again this week!

Ashleigh

Tuesday 20th of October 2015

Lovely recipe post! Thank you for linking up with the OMHG WW & sharing with us! Please come link up again this week at http://www.wrightsimply.com/2015/10/wednesday-linky-come-share.html!! Have a wonderful rest of the week! xx

Audrey@That Recipe

Monday 19th of October 2015

I love that you all did this! What a fabulous collection of recipes, especially your pasta sauce. We never so no to pasta in this house either. Thanks for sharing on the #HomeMattersParty . I hope you will join us again next week.

Little Cooking Tips

Monday 19th of October 2015

Congrats for raising awareness on breast cancer Michelle! We're sorry you lost your father in law, from the way you wrote about it, it's obvious you were very close and it really heart losing him. May he rest in peace. We're glad your two friends survived though!:) In our humble opinion the no1 cause of cancer is bad nutrition. From what we've read and discussed with doctors, it seems that foods that are ridden in additives, preservatives are the first ones to blame. In addition to that, modern diet is full of sugar and foods that cause a sharp rise in the blood sugar, like white bread, pasta, rice etc. That's why we try to use more whole wheat bread and pasta and brown rice ourselves. And it seems to be working, as the body functions a lot better with whole wheat. The energy (blood sugar) is rising in a smooth way and declining the same way so you feel healthier (and more full);) Let's get back to your wonderful pasta recipe now: Delicious dish Michelle! We loved that you used light cream on this one. It sure makes it better health-wise doesn't it?:) We also loved what you did while adding the cream. It reminded us what we do here in Greece when we make avgolemono (egg-lemon) sauce. And using the hand blender in this one saves a lot of time and adds a great texture in the sauce;) Excellent work dear Michelle, thank you! Hugs, Panos and Mirella

creatively homespun

Friday 16th of October 2015

This looks fantastic!!! Thank you for linking up to Creative K Kids’ Tasty Tuesdays Linky Party. I have pinned your recipe to our Tasty Tuesday’s Pinterest Board!

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