Simple Pasta night
Super easy meal with carbs, proteins and veggies.
Equipment
- 1 Pot to boil your pasta :)
- 1 large skillet to saute stuffs for pasta sauce
Ingredients
- 4-5 large tomatoes cut into 1/2 in pieces. Don't de-seed em. You want the juice! You can easily use the equivalent amount of tomatoes. If you want it to look fancy get mixed cherry tomatoes, chop them in half and mince basil and sprinkle that in.
- 3 cloves garlic chopped/diced/minced whatever you want just not the whole clove measure with your soul
- 1 zuchinni green beans, sugar snap peas, fresh peas, peppers all work here. go for about a cup of veg.
- 1 handful fresh basil yeah I know not a real measurement but hey just chop up some basil and declare victory. you've got this. If you add too much no one will complain that it's too much fresh delicious basil.
- 2 tsps dried basil if you don't have fresh basil use this!
- 1 1/2 tsp oregano dried
- 1/3 cup onion diced I dice my husband prefers smaller bits but guess what.. I'm cooking here so bwahahaha diced it is.
- 2 chicken breasts chop these up into bite sized pieces
- 1 lb pasta or more
Instructions
- Chop all the foods. Keep the meat separate, garlic separate and tomatoes separate. The tomatoes should go in a bowl as we want their juice and if you leave them on the cutting board the juice will run off and you'll have to clean the counters again. It's always easier to prep the food first. Yes you will use a pile of bowls but it takes the stress out of cooking. Or you can pile them into different sections of a large cutting board and declare yourself a rebel (except those tomatoes.. don't do it, learn from my mistakes). You'd be a fewer dishes to wash rebel though so you'd have that.
- set pot of water on to boil
- Preheat your sauté pan to medium high. Add in a glug of cooking oil to the hot pan. I prefer avocado because it doesn't have a strong flavor. If you want to add a bit of olive oil for flavor it's ok to do so at the end. Olive oil has a lower smoke point so it's not great for sautéing. Dump chicken bits into pan and toss in 1/2 the dried spices. Now cook till chicken is done stirring every 30ish seconds or so. Done means no pink in the middle. Depending on the size of your chicken bits this could take about 5 min. Smaller will cook faster. If you're not sure cut it open and check :). Dump the chicken into a clean bowl (I like to use a bowl that we will later use for eating... cause dishes suck). Set bowl aside.
- Keep that fire going! ok but really put the pan back on the fire add another glug of avocado oil to the hot pan. Dump in your nicely chopped veggies (except garlic). Cook them till they're el dente... or mostly done but not squishy. Cause who can get 5 year olds to eat squishy veggies? I don't know but I lack that cooking voodoo.
- Once the veggies have been cooking for about 5 minutes add in the chopped garlic. Stir it in and let it cook for a minute. Now add in the TOMATOES! all the juices and stuff... get it all in the pan. You'll notice that the pan will have extra sauce in it... that's good. That's the goal. Cause this stuff will be your sauce :) Here's where you can get creative. You could add in extra basil, fresh or dried. Add in a dash of wine? yum. the booze will cook off so don't stress about that. You could add in a bit of balsamic vinegar (think small glug or 1 teaspoon). Or just call it good and only add in what I listed. If your sauce isn't feeling saucy enough add in 1/4 c. water.
- If your water is boiling by now add the pasta and cook according to the package instructions.
- Once your pasta is drained put it into the pan with your sauce. Stir in the chicken to heat. Mix it all together. Add salt and pepper to taste and voila dinner! Now eat and tell me what you think please!