Pesto Chicken with Parmesan Noodles

Dinner on the fly, the mantra to every working family cook. I have been cooking long enough that cooking dinner on the fly was an act of congress. You'd come home from work, search the deep dark crevices of both the fridge/freezer/and your brain for a quick and easy, tasty and healthy meal. If there was time to spare, a cookbook or two or the index card box of recipes would be rummaged. My how times have changed. Now all one working cook has to do for dinner in a pinch is pop onto the internet with whatever ingredients you want to cook with.

Dinner on the fly was was how Easy Parmesan Buttered Noodles was found. Dinner with veggies and noodles would have been sufficient but not for the table counterparts. They needed protein to fill their voids so pesto chicken breasts with parmesan was added. Not bad for a quick 30 minute dinner.

Modifications Made:

Noodles. So many choices, so many textures, so many flavors. Noodles can be just noodles when eating just noodles. If eating chicken alfredo noodles must be fettuccine, if eating lo mein noodles must be thin spaghetti. But noodles on the side can be any noodles even a combination of noodles. Buttered noodles on the side are a perfect way to use up the odds and ends of noodles. Therefore veggie rotini noodles were used instead of fettuccine.

Scaled for Likability: Great

Veggie noodles are great. They are more tender than whole wheat pasta noodles, not bitter like lentil noodles (red or green), and more flavorful than plain noodles. They come in various shapes making meals a little bit more healthy in different noodle forms. If there is a veggie noodle on the shelf at my local grocer, I am more inclined to buy it than regular. Unless of course if plain is needed such as for lo mein.

Normally when eating buttered noodles, tub butter is used, not real butter as the taste of tub imitation butter is preferred. Real butter is for cookies, everything else tub butter with extra calcium. Hey, gotta get the calcium where we can. Tonight real margarine was used as I wanted the extra salt to pair with the salt of the Parmesan cheese. Not having made a dish with the different butters to compare but having had plenty of experience with tub buttered noodles, I can honestly say real butter was the way to go with the cheese. Salty, full of flavor, and just enough bitter from the cheese to offset the butter. Paired with the pesto chicken, it was a perfect meal. What was better was leftover pasta for lunch!

Edit Feb 3,2020:

Ate the leftover noodles cold right out of the fridge. They were as good cold as they were warm.

Papas a La Mexicana (Ranchera)

It is a crying shame that there are six hens and not a egg in sight. What am I supposed to do with homemade ranchero sauce? Thankfully with a few quick searches of the internet a recipe from my hometown newspaper was discovered: Papas Ranchera . Not once in the thirty years I lived in my hometown did I ever eat at a local food joint serving papas rancheras. No time like the present to remedy this cultural dish. Because this recipe is hidden behind a paywall (grrr...) I have included it here for you: Servings: 4-6 Ingredients: 1 pound potatoes, diced 1/4 cup vegetable oil 1/2 large onion 1 1/2 medium tomatoes 3 jalapenos 1/8 teaspoon garlic powder 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/2 cup juice from canned tomatoes Instructions: Fry potatoes in vegetable oil until lightly browned (about 4-6 minutes). Saute onions, tomatoes, jalapenos until soft. Add garlic powder and salt. Add tomato juice until vegetables are covered (may need to add water). Bring to a boil and then add po...

Better Than Campbell's Old Fashion Vegetable Soup

Went to the store with the hopes of gathering fresh produce for soup. With more than 45 people in line for two packages of any meat product and the produce section containing only avocado, orange, and most randomly, strawberries, I settled upon canned soup. Well not canned soup since that section was still void of food, too. Instead soup made from canned goods as the canned vegetable section had been mostly restocked. Soups like this 15 Minute Vegetable Soup are ideal in dire food situations such as current times. Modifications Made: Plain petite diced tomatoes omitted, frozen carrots instead of canned, green beans and corn undrained, peas omitted (gross, nasty little pods), one cup celery, three cups diced potatoes, one can tomato sauce, two beef and two pollo de tomate bouillon cubes, six cups water. Once onions were softened, carrots/celery/potatoes/juice of green beans and corn, sauce, bouillon cubes, water were added and allowed to simmer until carrots almos...

Sour Cream & Chive Scalloped Potatoes

Can't believe the Month of the Potato is over. There are so many more potato recipes saved. Guess I will have to work them into another month. Last week's scalloped potatoes were one of the best new recipes during the month of potatoes. With today being the last day in the Month of Potatoes, I decided to go out with a bang by cooking another batch of scalloped potatoes but this time sour cream and chive. The Best Scalloped Potatoes , or so they said. Modifications Made: Recipe was reduced by half. Mayo was omitted and one entire package of chives were chopped and added to sauce before pouring onto layers. Scaled for Likability: Good Betty Crocker Sour Cream and Chive Box Scalloped Potatoes were the standard for this recipe. These were a family favorite for years but have long since been discounted. Bummer. Trying to replicate this seemed easy enough. Alas, it was not. These had a nice texture but were too oily from the cheese ...

Eating Waffles

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