Whatever's Left In The Fridge Pasta

On an April night this week, as temperatures started to dip again and snow was in the overnight forecast, all I could think about was a comforting warm plate of pasta for dinner. After sticking to salad all last week, it was time for some carbs. I decided to throw some of the basics that I had in my fridge together for a tasty meal.

Ingredients

Wheat Angel Hair Pasta

Sweet Italian Chicken Sausage

Grape Tomatoes

Parmesan Cheese

Arugula

Garlic

Shallots

Red Pepper Flakes (for a kick!)

While bringing water to a boil for the pasta, remove the sausage from their casings and add to a heated frying pan. As the sausage cooks, break the links apart and add coarsely chopped shallots and minced garlic to the pan. Saute the ingredients with a bit of olive oil until the sausage is cooked through.

At the same time, add your pasta to the boiling water and cook according to instructions on the box (mine took about 8 minutes). When the pasta is just about done, add a few handfuls of halved grape tomatoes and arugula to your frying pan with the sausage.

I heated the tomatoes and arugula for only a minute or two because I wanted them to still have an element of crunch when I bit into them with each bite. Fact: I hate stewed tomatoes or any tomato that's been cooked down to a totally soft or mushy consistency.

Toss the sausage, tomatoes and arugula with the pasta and pour in some extra olive oil so the pasta isn't completely dry. Season with red pepper flakes and pepper and top with some freshly grated Parmesan cheese (next time, I will be buying the already grated cheese...).

And enjoy!

I recommend trying this with chicken instead of sausage, too...or whatever else is left in your fridge!

Baked and Breaded Apricot Chicken Recipe

It's cold out. It's going to snow. You're only going to the grocery store once this week to avoid having to shovel your car out more than once. Sound familiar? Or has that become only my life during this Boston winter? Time to start planning a menu for this week and this delicious recipe should definitely be on it. 

What You Need: 

6-8 Boneless Chicken Breasts (not pictured because you all know what chicken looks like)

1 10 oz Jar of Apricot Preserves

1 cup Bread Crumbs

1/4 cup Lemon Juice

2 tsp Soy Sauce

1/4 cup Margarine

1/2 tsp Salt

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

2. Prepare the chicken by trimming the fat and rinsing it under cold water.

3. In a shallow dish, combine the apricot preserves, lemon juice, soy sauce and salt and thoroughly stir the ingredients together.

4. Dip each chicken breast into the preserve mixture making sure to fully coat each piece. This is what you will use to bind the breadcrumbs to the chicken.

5. After each piece is coated in the preserves, roll the chicken in a bowl of breadcrumbs so the chicken is covered. Set aside any extra preserves mixture.

6. Arrange the chicken in a pyrex dish  (greased) and drizzle the melted margarine along the top to help the chicken crisp up as it cooks. Bake uncovered in the over for 50-60 minutes (or until tender). Heat the remaining preserves and serve with the chicken. 

Remove from the oven once the chicken is thoroughly cooked and enjoy for dinner. It's easy to cut the recipe in half but I recommend keeping the sauce part the same if you like extra sauce. The dish goes great with rice and a vegetable since there's enough of the preserves to use as sauce for your sides!

Recipe: Chicken Fajitas & Guacamole

Whenever I can't decide what to make for dinner, my go to is always Mexican food. For me, it's simple and difficult to screw up. One of my favorites is chicken fajitas. I've made it with a few different types of seasoning so below is just the one that I remembered to take pictures of.

What you will need for the fajitas (keep in mind I'm cooking for one): 

1 tbsp of olive oil

1/2 of an onion

1/2 of an orange pepper and 1/2 of a yellow pepper (I prefer these over red and green peppers)

2 chicken breast tenderloins

1/3 of a package of Ortega fajita or taco seasoning

2 iceberg lettuce leaves

First, rinse the onion & peppers and slice into thin strips. Rinse the chicken too, and trim any fatty bits. I tend to thoroughly pick apart chicken since it's not very appealing raw.

Next, saute the onion & peppers in a skillet with a tbsp of olive oil. These will take longer to cook than the thin chicken so make sure to cook them for a few minutes before adding in the chicken. Cook the chicken for about 4 minutes on each side and pull apart once it's cooked through. The onions should be translucent & the chicken no longer pink!

Add in about 1/3 of the seasoning packet along with some warm water. Stir everything together so the veggies and chicken are coated in seasoning. Heat through.

While the chicken and veggies are cooking for the last minute, wash two lettuce leaves to use as the "shell." And since I love avocados...guacamole is an absolute must. Cut an avocado in half and scoop it into the bowl sans the pit. Add in a tbsp of sour cream and a tbsp or two of salsa and mix together.

Scoop the chicken, onions and ppers into the lettuce shells, top with guacamole and cheese and enjoy! Let me know what you think!

How To Make The Perfect, Healthy Fall Meal

Last night I walked into my apartment after work and was immediately met with a delicious aroma wafting from the kitchen. After taking a look at the deliciousness that my roommate was cooking up and knowing that I had to go to the grocery store that evening I decided then and there that I was going to do my best to make the exact same thing for dinner. Yes, I totally copied her.

The best part about this dish? It involves only a few cheap ingredients and little cleanup. Music to my ears. I'm not big on measurements and usually just go off of how hungry I am (usually hungry) but here's what you need:

Kale Greens
Butternut Squash
Potato Gnocchi
Parmesan
Garlic & Crushed Red Pepper Flakes (to taste)

First, peel the butternut squash and chop it up into bite sized chunks. Make sure you have a good knife and peeler for this! Throw it in a saute pan with some olive oil and garlic and brown the squash.

*Be careful working with the squash! I quickly noticed that my fingertips were starting to peel (didn't hurt) and learned here about the sap that they excrete as a self defense mechanism that was causing my crazy reaction. Maybe I'm too sensitive? / Has this happened to you?

Next, add about a cup of water and the kale greens to the pan and let them cook and wilt down. Add as much (or as little) of the greens as you want and some crushed red pepper flakes to taste! Once the kale is cooked down, add the package of gnocchi.

Heat the mixture of squash, kale and gnocchi through and let the remaining water soak into the gnocchi or eventually evaporate. I didn't really keep track of time during this part - just keep an eye on the water level and the gnocchi consistency. You don't want a runny-watery mixture or uncooked gnocchi!

Just keep stirring...just keep stirring...just keep stirring. Add some freshly grated parmesan cheese in as you go so it will melt down and make everything nice and gooey. 

For the finishing touch, scoop everything into an oven safe dish, sprinkle some extra Parmesan on top and put it under the broiler for 5 minutes to let the top crisp up a bit. If you're not too cheap to own/buy a good, cast iron saute pan, I'm jealous....And you can just throw the whole thing under the broiler without using another dish you'll have to wash (sucks to not have a dishwasher).

This dish fills you up, leaves you with leftovers, and did I mention it was easy? Thanks to my roommate for much needed kitchen inspiration!
 

Check out my recipe featured at Weekend Potluck and share with your friends!

Dinner (For One) Is Served

Following a recipe is easy. Cooking for one is hard. I say this even after taking finding the time and energy to cook a meal after work out of the equation. Maybe I'm just not looking hard enough, but how often do you readily find recipes for one?

As a result, I frequently find myself cooking enough food to feed a small family...and then eating the same thing for a week straight (or eating too much in one night). Do you have this problem, too?

I've found that I have the most success making something healthy and making more appropriate portions when I experiment. I tend to buy a lot of the same ingredients each week and try to switch things up a bit or use different seasonings. Salad, chicken, ground turkey, eggs and all sorts of vegetables tend to be staples in my diet. Not sure why brussels sprouts got such a bad rap growing up since they're one of my favorites now and vegetables are the easiest to cook to me.

Lately, I've been making a mixture of quinoa, corn, onion, chickpeas, brussels sprouts and parmesan cheese seasoned with some garlic salt, pepper and tarragon topped with a poached egg. This would be a perfect filling for stuffed pepper's like my friend Lacey's (minus the bulky brussels sprouts) but recently I've been making a meal out of this combination of ingredients.

Dinner is served

I'm not one for measuring out ingredients when I'm experimenting so you can use as much or as little of each or substitute ingredients as needed. I just boil and simmer the quinoa for about 20 minutes; roast the brussels sprouts in the oven at 400 degrees; then mix these ingredients together with the vegetables and seasoning on the stove as I poach the egg. Voile!

When all else fails, you can always pull a Sandra Bullock from "Two Weeks Notice" and order takeout for one! I'm certainly guilty of it once in awhile...

Bon appetit!