Chicken Caprese Pasta

One of my favorite Italian dishes is a caprese salad. I decided it was time to take that salad concept and turn it into a healthy and yummy dinner dish. Here is how I did it.

Pre-heat your oven to 375 degrees.  In a glass baking dish put some boneless chicken (I used sliced chicken tenders). I used approximately one pound of chicken tenders.  To this I added 7 cloves of smashed and chopped garlic. Next I squeezed some fresh basil paste onto the chicken.  It is your preference how much as to how much basil you like. I used almost a tablespoon.  I sprinkled some red pepper flakes on top as well and put it into the oven to bake.

 This is the basil I used. It was in the fresh produce department and is a wonderful tool.

While the chicken is baking, use a small saucepan and melt two tablespoons of butter (not margarine) and add one medium yellow onion, sliced and chopped.  To the onion and butter add two medium zucchinis chopped small.  Sprinkle with a little bit of salt to sweat out the zucchini.  Saute until soft.

Prepare one pound bag of macaroni, boiled al-dente in salted water. Assemble the pasta like this:

Place your finished chicken tenders that have been chopped in the bottom of your bowl.
Next add the sauteed zucchini and onions.

To the top of this, add your drained hot pasta.

On top of the hot pasta, squeeze approximately three tablespoons of the basil. More or less to your taste preference for basil.  After you add the basil, add the following:

(1) pound of FRESH mozzarella cheese, chunked
Murray's Cheese

(6) medium size Roma tomatoes, chunked

Give this all a really good stir so that the basil gets blended in well, the chicken and tomatoes and cheese are distributed evenly as possible.

This dish was so fresh and flavor-able I almost slapped MYSELF! I hope you try it. My whole family enjoyed it!

It was a comfort food kind of night

Today was a sad day for my children and their biological father. His mother passed away last night and I pray that she is resting in peace.  Tonight was not a night to try something new and fancy so I did what any good Italian momma would do and busted out the pasta, the butter, the garlic and the bacon!

I put some garlic bread in the oven to bake while I made the rest of this quick and comforting dish.  One pound of bacon was put into a pan to fry into crispy goodness. One pound of pasta went into salted water to boil.  One and a half sticks of butter went into a pan so that I could clarify it into a wonderful sauce.  I smashed and minced 10 cloves of garlic.  While the pasta boiled and the bacon fried, I put the garlic into the clarified butter to marry and meld into garlicky goodness.

When the pasta was finished it was drained and put into a large bowl. The bacon was crumbled over top and I poured on the clarified butter and garlic. It was tossed together and served with the garlic bread.

Overall it was a very comforting meal that everyone enjoyed. It has been a sad day and bacon and pasta generally make things better. Maybe not the healthiest of meals but since we don't use bacon very often, I think it was okay.

Don't forget to tell the ones you love that you do love them. Also do not forget to share your faith with them as well. You never know when it will be too late.

Fettuccine stuffed Green Peppers

Green peppers were on sale at the grocery store.  I decided to buy four of them and make something different for dinner. I have never made stuffed peppers before and quite frankly, I am not sure I could make them as good as my mother did.  Since I was not ready to cross that threshold yet, I decided to stuff them with something different than rice like my mom did.

I broke a 1 pound box of fettuccine in half and boiled until al-dente. Don't forget to salt your water before boiling your dry pasta! It makes a difference! While the pasta is boiling, I cut the tops off of my green peppers.

I discarded the seeds and the ribs and rinsed out the inside.  I chopped the tops up and put into a saute pan with more peppers and several Vidalia onions chopped up.  Also into this pan, I sliced some Polska Kielbasa  into the peppers and onions.

I let this saute while the pasta boiled.  I pre-heated the oven to 400 degrees and put the empty peppers into a baking pan.

When the pasta was finished, I drained it and put it into a large bowl with the sauteed vegetables and kielbasa along with a large jar of Pepper and Mushroom spaghetti sauce. I mixed it very well and then filled each pepper with the pasta mixture.

On top of the pasta mixture I shook a large amount of grated Parmesan onto the top. I also added some provolone cheese.  I would have preferred mozzarella but I did not have any and I was not going to go back to the store.  I baked these for approximately 25 minutes until the cheese was all melted and the peppers became tender. 

My husband loves peppers and onion and sausage so he really enjoyed the dinner!

Scraps from the Crack sticks!

I really enjoy making the Crack sticks.  The Shabbychicks are some AWESOME LADIES! But after making the Crack sticks I was leftover with the crusts from all that white bread.  The first time I made them, I fed the leftover crusts to the ducks in the neighborhood.  However, the ducks have disappeared! I have no idea where they went! It's not winter! I wonder if they flew North for some cooler weather?

The frugal mommy in me would not allow me to just throw them away again.  As I was making Italian pasta for dinner, I decided to turn those crusts into croutons.

I took all of these lovely crusties and cut them into squares and threw them back in the bowl. Next went in:

(1) tablespoon onion powder

(1) tablespoon garlic powder

(1) tablespoon dried basil

(1) stick of butter

Throw in the spices and mix around with the bread squares.  Melt the butter and pour over the squares and mix well.  Spread on a sheet pan and bake in the oven at 350 until dry.  Watch carefully so it does not burn.

I added these to the top of my pasta dish with a little Parmesan.  It was really yummy! And no wasted bread!!

Pasta, Salad and stuff

Today was a long day.  We had an Evangelism Tea at our church.  It was a lot of fun. My big sissy came all the way down from Richmond and sat with me.  It was a good time.  Unfortunately, I was rather melancholy when I got home.  I think it was because the speaker's message really struck a chord with me topped off by the fact that I guess I am worried about my husband's test results and my current job status.  WHEW....that is a lot!

This morning while lounging in bed before hitting the shower, I watched the new episode of Trisha Yearwood's cooking show on Food Network.  I love her cooking show but I was especially interested in it today because she was having her husband, Garth in the kitchen.  I really like him and I love Trisha because she is so REAL.  Her recipes on the show today were very diverse.  I have to admit I will never try her black bean & tofu lasagna.  My family would probably run me out of Dodge if I served tofu!  The Ty's Thai Salad sounded lovely.  The peanut butter balls looked delicious and deadly!

After the tea today, I headed to the grocery store alone with my melancholy self to buy milk and eggs.  After hugging my favorite cashier  Oshaine ( and trying to remember to only call him Shaine) I meandered through the produce department.  I suddenly found myself craving the salad I saw Trisha make.  I started throwing things in my cart and trying very hard to keep a count on the amount of money I was spending.

Here is the link to the original Trisha Yearwood recipe:

Trisha Yearwood's Ty's Thai Salad

So I started out by chopping up my cilantro.

There is something earthy and luscious about the smell of cilantro.  It speaks to my heart somehow and I truly love it.  Lately I have been trying to find different ways to use it.  Next I smashed three cloves of garlic. I confess, the Italian in me had me adding more garlic.  Her recipe only calls for two but I added one more.  I love it when I get the smell of garlic on my hands.  I know I am weird.

The dressing for the salad is the strangest I have ever tried.  Two cups of olive oil and one whole cup of sugar!  It was actually very tasty, not to mention a vibrant green!

Here it is in all of its green glory!  It was very, very sweet.  The ingredients were few and basic, olive oil, sugar, cilantro and garlic.  Quite the dressing!

After making the dressing I began to chop up my red cabbage, Napa cabbage and cucumber.  Now I have to make a confession:  as I chopped away (at the same time making my main dish of chicken and pasta) I completely forgot about the edamame. I also had neglected to buy a green onion while at the store, although I am proud of myself as I bought all the ingredients from memory with the green onion the only thing I forgot.  But alas, I forgot to include the edamame in my salad.

I threw some fresh, ripe avocado on top of my salad and three tablespoons of the cilantro lime dressing.  It was a yummy salad.  This was my very first experience with Napa cabbage.  I did not like it very much.  It was kind of curly and weird.  I am not sure what I should substitute it with? Any ideas?  I did like the red cabbage and the addition of the avocado.

I guess I am off to clean up my disaster I left in the kitchen from trying a new recipe.  Sometimes I turn into a tornado of disaster when trying a new recipe!  Don't forget to set your alarm to get up in time for church tomorrow!

Jumbled-laya otherwise known as OOPS!

I set out tonight to make another batch of jambalaya.  I ended up committing "cook's homicide" when I did not check and make sure I actually had ALL the mandatory ingredients.  UGH.  I know better than that.  What follows below is an account of my maniacal recipe mangling, otherwise known as tonight's dinner.

It started out all good.  Here are my boneless, skinless chicken thighs frying in my large pan.  I sprinkled them liberally with Soul Seasoning and let them cook until done.  While they were cooking I chopped four small to medium yellow onions and two green peppers.  I did a large rough chop, not small dice.  It is important (I don't know, it sounded good!).

After the chicken was done (I forgot to tell you I fryed them in a little bit of vegetable oil) I put it aside on a plate with paper towels on it.  I drained away most of the left over oil but left a smidge to saute my veggies.

I only sauted them until just tender, I wanted them to retain some of their texture.  Next I sliced my package of Andouille sausage and microwaved it for 30 seconds.  After the nuke cycle I added the sausage to the peppers and onions.  I added the six cups of chicken stock and the bay leaf. 

And here my friends, is where my recipe ran OFF THE RAILS!!!!  As I started to slice my mushrooms I suddenly realized my rice was MISSING.  Good gravy! I thought I had an entire package and it was gone!

I did what an self respecting cook would do....I PANICKED!  I called my daughters into the kitchen because they are taller than me.  I wanted them to check up in the cabinets where Miss Shorty could not see.  No luck.  Next I called my son (who was not home, I called his friend's cell phone to find him).  He was like...NO. I don't know.

Of course, next, I pouted.  Fumed.  Paced.  Then my husband said, "just use pasta".  WHAT? Pasta in my jambalaya??? PFFTT....

Since the recipe was already wrong I decided to just add other stuff.  I added a can of drained and rinsed pinto beans.  I added some chopped green onion.  Then I paced some more.  What on earth could I add?  I did not have any rice.  I started looking at my pasta but I only had angel hair and I just knew it would turn to mush.  That is when I saw it.  I had two bags of Lipton Creamy Chicken Noodles.  They are flat noodles and are rather sturdy.  So I dumped both bags with their seasoning in. 

Well....it actually turned out pretty well.  I like the rough chopped mushrooms and onions.  I like the addition of the pintos.  Even the noodles work.  So, I have some new weird creation.  And the family is fed.  Mission accomplished.

Pasta CarboNOT....

As usual, tonight's dinner inspiration came from my need NOT to go out to the grocery store! I was tired!  I threw a batch of my cornbread in the oven for starters and then begin to look around to see what I had.

Bacon.  You can't go wrong there, right?  I decided to make a sort of Pasta Carbonara...that is until I read the recipe all the way through.  I am not really a big fan of using raw eggs that don't really get cooked (go figure, as I am the first person eating the cookie dough or cake batter!).

As the bacon fried up all crispy in a skillet, I poured a large amount (probably around 2 1/2 to 3 cups) of milk in a bowl and set aside to warm up a little.  Four tablespoons of real butter went in a pot to melt.  To that I added two heaping tablespoons of flour and let it create a nice blonde roux.  This is the way I usually start making my own homemade bechemel sauce.  After the flour cooked a little bit and got bubbly, I slowly added the milk, a little at a time, stirring and adding. I then grated some fresh nutmeg into the bechemel along with some black pepper. I let this simmer on the stove.

The bacon was put on a plate to drain.  I then took a second small saucepan and put two tablespoons of butter in to melt on low.  I added about 1/2 of a large onion, chopped.  Next I added some Hunt's diced tomatoes (drained and only a few tablespoons) and some chopped garlic.  This sat on low and softened and married flavors.

While the pasta was boiling (I used angel hair), I added a small handful of finely grated cheddar cheese to the bechemal. I did not add a whole lot of cheese as I truly was not going for a cheese sauce.  I just wanted the added depth of flavor.

When my pasta was al-dente I drained and mixed in my bechemel sauce.  I added my crumbled bacon and stirred well.  I served this with the onion, tomato and garlic mixture to the side as I have quite a few picky eaters at my table.  I will say it was simply the most flavorful pasta ever! I loved the slight addition of the tomato, onion and garlic mixed in with the pasta and bechemel.  So yum.  I think it has made its way onto my regular menu.  The cornbread served with this made it a rather rustic dinner.

Now I am off to church! Sadly, since I spent so much time with my bechemel I did not have time to make goodies for the youth group! Oh well! I am sure they will let me slide this one Wednesday!

No Recipe Concoction!

I scoured through some of my cookbooks and looked at an online recipe site but did not see anything that tripped my trigger!  So I just decided to go into the kitchen and let inspiration drive me.

I opened a can of tomatos and poured them in my baking dish and sprinkled them with some basil and oregano.

I have preheated the oven to 350 degrees.  In a saucepan I added olive oil and a diced yellow onion with about four cloves of minced garlic.  I softened the onion a little then threw some boneless chicken thighs on top.  I just wanted to get a little saute action on the chicken.  After a few minutes I poured the chicken, garlic and onion mixture on top of the tomatos and put them in the oven to bake.  I will let you know how it turns out!  I think I am going to make some garlic butter pasta for the side. Hopefully it will be juicy and tasty.