Working full time does not afford me the luxury of making all my meals from scratch - and let's face it, a lot of meals in general. Also, I am not very good at cooking for one person and especially when I cook stir-frys or pasta or things like that, it's a struggle to make only enough for one.
So I have created a delicious, nutritious (?), quick and easy way to make pasta after work - and it tastes fantastic! When I make pasta, I make a lot which I can then heat up later or freeze for future meals. Here is a look at my creation:
Step 1: I start cutting up my ingredients, putting the water for pasta on to boil about halfway through my chopping. I usually have a lot of different kinds of veggies already cut in the
freezer - like peppers, brocoli and spinach for this recipe.
I chopped onions and garlic to brown the chicken with. I cut one large chicken breast. I throw all that in together to brown while I continue cutting up the rest of my veggies.
For this recipe, I included the following veggies: mushrooms, tomatoes, red and yellow peppers, broccoli and spinach.
I like to have all my cutting down and put into bowls which makes it easier to just add them in when I need to while cooking.
Step 2: I let the chicken brown in olive oil with the onions and garlic adding some Italian seasoning. Covering to cook.
I love this seasoning because it has all the things I want like oregano, basil, garlic etc without having to use a bunch of different spice containers.
Step 3: About halfway through the cooking, I add the veggies that need a bit more time to cook like the broccoli and cover to cook.
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| The chicken should look like this when you add the crispier veggies like broccoli. |
Step 4: I add the rest of the veggies, stirring and then covering to let them all cook and mix. I usually add some more Italian seasoning.
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Step 5: After the veggies and chicken are well cooked, I can do one of two things: add a canned sauce like the ones below or skip this step. Depending on my mood, I can either.
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| The veggies and chicken should look like this before adding the sauce. |
Today I decided to add the Vodka Sauce jar. It is a really nice cheesey, creamy sauce.
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| These are two popular sauces I like to use. I used the one on the left for this dish. |
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| Veggies and chicken with sauce. |
Sometimes at this stage, I will add a dash of wine. Tonight I didn't, but if I was not using a canned sauce at all, I would definitely add a little wine and olive oil to the pasta. Which brings me to...
Step 6: After draining the pasta, I add it all to the pan with the veggies, chicken and sauce. I stir it all together and let it sit and cook for a little bit.
TIP: I have been told by an Italian friend never to rinse the pasta because it makes it more difficult for the sauce to stick to the pasta.
Then voila: lovely, yummy meal...
It takes about 20-30 minutes from start to finish (you can add a few minutes in there for browning the chicken and cleaning up)
TIP: I hate cleaning up a seriously messy kitchen. My mum always told me that I should clean while cooking and I have definitely adopted that style. While the meat is browning or the veggies are cooking, or whatever, I do dishes.
TIP: I hate cleaning up a seriously messy kitchen. My mum always told me that I should clean while cooking and I have definitely adopted that style. While the meat is browning or the veggies are cooking, or whatever, I do dishes.
So that's that...
What do you think of my quick pasta making?
xxx
Here is Holly my chaton watching me cook away. This is our usual routine. She watches while I do all the work!
Here is Holly my chaton watching me cook away. This is our usual routine. She watches while I do all the work!
