Quick Pasta Carbonara

This is another one of the recipes from the Kraft Foods/Sam's Club dinner planner. I have seen pasta recipes before that use cream cheese to create the white sauce, but have never tried them. I've always stuck with a butter and cream combo. This dish was easy to prepare and very tasty. The whole family ate it up. I made one and a half recipes for my family of 5. The other great thing is this recipe is said to cost 94 cents a serving. My favorite part was the crispy bacon! Yum! I served it with a tossed salad and my recipe for easy cheesy rolls. I also checked the recipe out at Kraft.com to find out the nutrition info. It's not bad considering it's a pasta with a white sauce. Probably much better for you than the recipe I make with butter and cream. If you used 1/3 less fat cream cheese you'd even be better. The only thing I would change is to use a little more milk. The sauce was a little to thick for my Hubby.

Quick Pasta Carbonara

1/2 lb. medium-size pasta

4 slices OSCAR MAYER Bacon, chopped

4 oz. (1/2 of 8-oz. pkg.) PHILADELPHIA Cream Cheese, cubed

1/2 cup KRAFT Grated Parmesan Cheese

3/4 cup milk(I'd use a little more next time)

1 cup frozen or canned peas (I used frozen)

1/2 tsp. garlic powder

COOK pasta as directed on package. Meanwhile, cook bacon in large skillet until crisp; remove with slotted spoon to paper towels, reserving 2 Tbsp. drippings in skillet.

ADD remaining ingredients to drippings; cook on low heat until cream cheese is melted and mixture is well blended and heated through.

DRAIN pasta; place in large bowl. Add cream cheese sauce and bacon; mix lightly.

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