Home Made Alfredo with Chicken + Broccoli

Well today I leaned that fettuccine is a shape of pasta, not part of the name of "Alfredo." 

Huh. Well, my friend Abby makes the best Alfredo anywhere, but here is my attempt with a few twists! (You can check out her blog at www.midwestglam.weebly.com)

This is an awesome take on Alfredo. It is not healthy. If you want to be healthy, stop now. (Bummer!)

Ingredients:

1. Chicken breast (I used 3, gotta have leftovers)

2. Mccormicks roasted garlic seasoning, salt, pepper, garlic powder or fresh garlic 

3. One box pasta 

4. One stick butter

5. 3/4 cup heavy cream

6. One bunch broccoli 

7. Olive oil

8. 1-2 cups Parmesan

I started by brushing the chicken in olive oil, adding the seasoning and then salt and pepper. Bake at 375 for roughly 25 minutes. 

Cut the broccoli into small florets. Steam them for about 7 minutes (at the end of all of this when the chicken and pasta are almost done!)

Boil your pasta! While you wait, cut up

Some garlic. Or use powder if you are lazy. 

Mix together Parmesan, pepper, salt, and garlic in separate bowl. 

Next, melt one stick of butter. 

This is not the most heart healthy of dinners. 

Add in the cream and let it heat up. 

Now, after it heated up, I poured it into the bowl with the Parmesan mixture. That was dumb. Instead, turn the heat down to low and add the Parmesan mixture to the burner. Wisk it a bit to get the cheese to dissolve. 

When it's melted, dump it all over the pasta and add the broccoli. 

Serve on a plate with the sliced chicken over it. 

Garlicky, buttery heaven. 

Roasted Chicken + Veggie Cream Sauce and Rice

This was actually so good. You could also make it with noodles instead of rice, which might make more sense? I don't know. I have 5 pounds of jasmine rice and no where to go so rice it was tonight. Now my only dilemma is that I'm full so I can't eat more, and I have tons of leftovers, but what if they don't keep well?

UGH. 

ok, lets get to it. 

Ingredients: (This recipe made about 4 servings of cream and rice)

SAUCE

1. veggies of your choice: I used cauliflower, broccoli, and asparagus. (about 3 cups worth, chopped)

2. 3 cups veggie or chicken broth (I used my home made veggie broth)

3. 2 tbsp kosher salt

CHICKEN

1. boneless skinless chicken breasts (I only had one large one thawed)

2. garlic powder

3. pepper

4. kosher salt

5. cayenne pepper

6. McCormicks roasted garlic and herb seasoning 

RICE 

1. 1 and 1/2 cup jasmine rice (if you try to make rice and it sucks, its because youre not using jasmine rice. jasmine rice is the only way to go). 

2. 1 and 1/2 cup water, or enough to barely cover the rice

Bring rice and water to a low boil.

Turn heat down to low.

Simmer for 20 mns with the LID ON. You want the steam to cook the rice. 

Boil the broth and then add the chopped veggies. Cook them until they are super easy to poke a fork into. 

Douse your chicken in seasonings and cook it at about 375 for 25 mns, or until done. 

Now whip out your immersion blender. If you don't have one, get one, and in the mean time use a blender or food processor if you must. Blend it up. 

Its gonna look gross. 

Now, add some heavy cream. If you don't want to, add butter. If you don't want to do that, add corn starch. Pick one. 

It should lighten up a bit. Take it off the heat, stir it, and add salt. Lots of salt! It should start to thicken up. 

And there it is! This was good because of all the flavor layering--the home made broth, the vegetables, the chicken and seasonings......I'm definitely bringing leftovers to work tomorrow!

Pimento & Broccoli Stuffed Chicken

So pimento's were on sale at the dollar store, and I love pimentos....or I should say I love green olives, which pimentos have in them...so theres that. I had a ton of stuff in my pantry I wanted to use, and I decided to mix er all up and stuff it in chicken, and deliciousness ensued. Check it out!

Ingredients:

1. one small jar pimentos

2. 1/2 cup bread crumbs

3. 1 tbsp garlic powder

5. 1 tbsp kosher salt

6. three chicken breasts

7. olive oil

8. black pepper to taste

9. 1 c broccoli (chopped or florets)

10. 4-5 slices of brie

Preheat oven to 400.

Mix together: pimentos, bread crumbs, spices, broccoli

^^awesome photo quality. 

Lay out the chicken breasts and pound them flat with your fists.

Lay the brie down on the chicken. 

Put the filling on the chicken.

Put the chicken in a pan with olive oil to prevent it from sticking.

Bake at 400 for about 25 minutes, or until the chicken is cooked through. 

Done!

Criskpy Kale Salad with Chicken

So I may have a new dinner staple with this one....it was so good. I hate lettuce so I never eat salad, but you gotta get those greens. This meal is like a protein and green stuffed super health bomb, minus the salt. And the oil. But a little bit of oil will not kill you.

Ingredients:

1. One bunch kale
2. Lemon pepper
3. Grapeseed or olive oil
4. vegetables: brussels sprouts, zucchini, cauliflower, broccoli
5. Chicken breast or chicken cutlets

*Preheat oven to 350

Start by getting your kale ready. I forgot to post a picture, but It's on the right side of this blog under "popular posts." Just rip the leaves off the stem and drizzle oil over it, mix it around, sprinkle on salt. 

Chop up those veggies. In retrospect, I wouldn't have used the zucchini because it gets kind of mushy, but it was still good. Cut your brussels sprouts in half too--it helps them cook better. You can also microwave them before hand to get the party started. 

Spread the veggies in a pan with some oil so they don't stick, and add..

Lemon pepper! Mine has salt in it too...obviously. 

I added juice from two lemon wedges. Lemon juice is the best. 

Mince up some garlic (or use garlic powder, who cares) and sprinkle it over the veggies....

Then put the raw chicken right on top. This seems to violate every health food rule I have ever learned, but I'm getting too used to one pan cooking to care. 

Sprinkle some more seasoning on it. I used one of the pre-mixed mccormick's seasonings, the garlic herb one. 

READY

I put it all in on 350. I let the kale cook for 15 mns, and the chicken/veggies for 20. 

The time your chicken takes will depend on how big the pieces are. 

I did an experiment and cooked some kale right on a cookie sheet without foil, and some on a sheet WITH foil. 

If you cook the kale on tin foil, it wont get crispy as quickly because tin foil doesn't really get that hot--something about surface area and thin-ness. I would just put it right on a pan with the oil, no foil. 

Remember: with oil, no foil.  

DONE! Mine burned. oops. Put the kale in a bowl. 

Grab the chicken and veggies....

Dump them in and mix it up. 

So good!

One Pan Stove-Top Chicken and Vegetables

Working full time at an office job has made me a very hard worker 8-10 hours of the day, and a lazy bum for the rest of the day. So I give you, one pan stove top chicken and vegetables! This meal can get old really quick if you make it too often, so mix it up with the seasonings and broth that you use. Today I did garlic powder and lemon pepper, but you can do cajun seasoning, rosemary/thyme, rosemary and lemon juice, fennel, curry, italian seasoning (pre mixed or use oregano, thyme, basil, pepper, rosemary, and marjoram)...the list goes on!

Ingredients:

1. Vegetables of your choice

2. Small chicken cutlets

3. olive oil

4. seasoning

5. whole wheat pasta

Get your chicken started in some oil. I added lemon pepper and garlic powder. 

While it cooks, cut up some vegetables. If you use asparagus, remember to cut off the bottom two inches. Then, split the stem at the bottom--this helps it cook better and will make it not so "stringy."

After the chicken cooks for about 6-7 mns, turn it over....

Then dump the veggies right on top. 

Cover it for a few minutes and let it cook!

Now, take the lid off and add some water, veggie broth, chicken broth, white wine...whatever you have. I did veggie broth. 

Let it cook a bit more. Enjoy some funyuns while you wait. 

When the veggies are tender, you can probably take it off the heat because realistically those little chicken cuts cook super quick. If you use full sized chicken breasts, they will probably take 15 mns or so--depending on thickness. 

I dumped this on top of whole wheat pasta. You might notice I forgot to chop up the chicken....like I said, I'm tired! 

and done!

Easy One Pan Chicken and Vegetables

So I got home from work today (finally employed, yes!) and I was not about to make a big hassle with dinner because its friday. So here is what I did:

Wrap Cauliflower, Broccoli, Carrots, and Peppers in foil, drizzle with oil and add salt + pepper. Then I put the chicken in separate foil, added lemon pepper and a little bit of oil. 

Cover it! Bake at 375 for 25-30 minutes, depending on thickness of the chicken. 

Done. Kind of like those old reynolds wrap commercials, right?

Doesn't this picture look great? Matt said the vegetables were great. Something about roasting them makes the flavor just pop. Enjoy! You can also do this with asparagus, onion, zuchinni, eggplant....whatever you have on hand. 

Home made baked pita chips

So instead of shelling out 4.50 for a bag of tostitos (seriously??) I decided to use up the rest of the ungodly amount of pita bread we got from the greek restaurant near me with our takeout. Seriously, they gave us about 35 pieces of pita bread.

Ingredients:

1. pita bread
2. olive oil
3. sea salt

Cut them into triangles. 

Lightly brush with olive oil. 

Sprinkle with sea salt..

And bake in the oven on 300 for about 20 mns, or until the oil is mostly absorbed and they are crispy.

My oven does not have a self cleaning setting. Please don't judge me.  

Yum!