mid-week meal share: tuscan chicken pasta

Like, I wish I could be eating this pasta again. Right meow. I've said it before and I'll probably continue to say it: my hangry friends on Facebook share so much food shit it's ridiculous. I save roughly 80% of the quick food videos I see. There are a couple breakfast diddy's, countless desert's (though these always seem out of my culinary comfort level) and even more pasta dishes. I mean, pasta. How can you not just love the stuff? Hopefully it's your favorite, too because that's what I have for you this week!

Easy to concoct: yes'm.

Cost effective: ~$18 for a full meal plus leftovers.

Let's get ready to gatherrrrrrrrrr (these ingredients):

16 oz angel hair pasta

1 lb chicken breast

"kosher" salt

"freshly ground" black pepper

6 slices bacon

1 tsp (2 cloves) minced garlic

2 cups diced tomatoes

3 cup baby spinach

¾ cup heavy cream

½ cup water

⅔ cup grated parmesan

This time the main instructions I've provided are with the alterations I made; feel free to follow the original though! 

1. Pick your favorite sauce and dump your chicken in a Crock-Pot with it and cook on high for 3 hours.

2. If you haven't alotted 3 hours prior to dinner you can cook it in 1 tbsp of olive oil in a pan for 6 minutes on each side before cooking your bacon.

3. To get things rolling you're first going to want to get water boiling for your noodles and frying up your bacon. I used thick cut which I sort of regretted with the amount of minuscule grease burns I got everywhere. The original recipe called to reserve ½ cup of pasta water, this I presume was to thicken the sauce which I didn't end up needing in the end. You won't either if you've used my above ingredients.

4. Cook your bacon until crispy, set aside, and drain most of the grease.

5. Add garlic, tomatoes (I used canned because: hello easy) and spinach to your greasy ass pan. Season with salt and pepper to your liking.

6. Once your spinach has cooked down you can add your cream, water, and cheese. Mix and simmer.

7. While your sauce is simmering you're going to want to shred your chicken and bacon. Brendon grabbed our bear claws and shredded both simultaneously. Awesomeeeeeeee.

8. Add your noodles to the sauce and combine until evenly covered.

9. Add in your chicken and bacon. I added my chicken and bacon in first and it was a total disaster. The sauce made the chicken clump together and the cheese just made everything that much harder to separate. I switched to a larger pan and was frantically adding cream and water to try and get everything evened out. The ingredients I provided should be the amount I ultimately ended up using.

10. Enjoy!

It was a shirtless affair.

Minus my freak out of having a lump of chicken with a side of noodles near the end it ended up being completely delicious. I really had my doubts but the added liquid components evened everything out. I think that all would have been avoided had I added the noodles first. Oh well, you live and you learn I guess.

Bon appetit!

Leia

grand study station

Today I had my third physiology exam. If I'm being honest, this semester has not gone quite how I'd planned regardless of how much I've busted my ass. While my future at Eastern might be coming to a close I've done plenty of research on other schools. Studying hasn't been easy but with only a few exams left I've been pulling out all the stops. I embraced the crazy and set up shop in the kitchen hoping the little attention seekers wouldn't sense my need for quiet and just go on with their business. It worked for a bit!

Five exams left....

Leia.

legoland + sea life aquarium

Last week one of my friends offered up a wanted ad for kids on Facebook. Creepy if it were on Craigslist, less so if you want them so you can go to Legoland. Needless to say we made plans to head to Auburn Hills for the day to visit the newly opened Legoland Discovery Center as well as see the fish just around the corner at Sea Life Aquarium. I don't advocate for all aquariums/zoos but this aquarium is on the smaller scale and I feel that the animals here were being ethically contained; aside potentially from a 10 year old green sea turtle.

The girls had a blast and remained in great spirits throughout the entire 10 hour trip. First up was the aquarium.

 

Next up was walking around the mall to kill some time until our 5pm entrance to Legoland. You know I had to hit up the Bath & Body Works Outlet. Even the Rainforest Cafe was overbooked!

They were VERY strict on ticket times which we didn't realize until the day of our visit. While it was somewhat annoying having to wait regardless if there was a line or not, it was nice once you were inside. The times I think were strictly in place for crowd control.

LEGO HEIDELBURG PROJECT

THE SPIRIT OF DETROIT

GM HEADQUARTERS

UNIROYAL

FOX THEATRE

And then I didn't save as much as I thought I did from Snapchat. Womp, womp.

Overall, Legoland ended up being different than we had originally anticipated. I thought there were going to be more display type walk-through's like the Mini Detroit, but it was much more activity based.

Everything is awesome!

Leia

mid-week meal share: cheeseburger mac & cheese

Look at me, guys! I'm back on track (for now)! And first I would like to thank everyone who has taken the time to view my little slice of the internet because Average Mom Blog has now had over 8,000 views. Over the course of six months I know that this is by no means a mass amount but, hey this blog has made me conscious of how often I rush through the week with providing dinner for my family or how little time I have to spend quality time with them; it also helps me document all the ups and the downs of raising kids and a 'scrapbook' of important milestones and happenings. To have other people along for the ride is great.

Again I'm bringing you some cheesy carby goodness. Like, it's a weakness and hopefully you don't mind.

Easy to concoct: sure is!

Cost effective: yes, ~$15 for a large serving.

Necessary supplies:

1 tbsp olive oil

1 medium onion diced - or pulverized

1 tsp minced garlic (2 cloves)

1 pound ground beef (85% lean, 15% fat leaves almost no grease)

"kosher" salt

"freshly" ground pepper

1 tbsp tomato paste

1 tsp Worcestershire sauce (or more cause it's s'good)

4 cups beef broth

1 box elbow (or other) noodles

4 cups mixed cheese (cheddar and monterey jack were used in original recipe)

1. Chop or food process your onion to minuscule bits. I am still love-hate with onions and I've really been trying not to remove them from recipes as of late. I don't even know if this qualifies as medium.

2. In a skillet combine the onion, olive oil, and garlic. Cook until onions are translucent.

3. Add your ground beef, Worcestershire sauce, tomato paste, salt and pepper. Unless you're serving your ground beef raw, cook until it's brown. 

4. While I had little to no grease to drain, if there had been an excess I would have attempted to drain it.

5. Pour in your beef broth and bring to a simmer.

6. Instruct Piper to do the dishes that are in the sink since we'll be contributing more shortly.

7. Add in your noodles and cook until they are al dente. It is important to keep it at a simmer so your broth does not entirely absorb/cook away because you will need some at the end for your cheese.

8. Slowly mix in your selected cheeses.

9. Enjoy!

Yummy, yummy. Like hamburger helper without the powdered cheese mix! This has made it's way onto my list of favorites and I'm sure it will be there for awhile, it's not one I can really envision getting sick of any time soon. 

And Kroger has been the first store that I have found plain shredded monterey jack. When I went to the store for the ingredients I had fully planned on just getting colby jack, but lo and behold I was able to get cheddar and monterey jack!

One pound, one pan, one happy family.

Leia

soccer

A couple weeks ago we signed Kennedy up for soccer and yesterday was her first practice! Thanks to the lovely state of Michigan it was a balmy 45°F and upon getting to the field I decided to turn around and get this kid some warmer clothes.

All in all she had a lot of fun and we are very excited for this season to really begin.

Now to brush up on my soccer knowledge.

Leia