Chicken Cacciatore made light

I've decided this picture definitely doesn't do the meal justice.  So, as can be guessed - this meal was fabulous! Why am i having such great luck when it comes to exploring cooking? I am very excited because although the recipe intimidated me, this recipe was ridiculously easy to make.  It took at the most 45 minutes to make, 25 of that was just cook time!

Here is the original recipe. (From Annie, and I think from Weight Watchers)

 Ingredients

6 chicken thighs, boneless, skinless, (about 1½ lbs)

⅛  teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon fresh ground pepper

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 tablespoon garlic, minced

8-10 ounce package mushrooms, sliced

1 large onion. chopped, about 2 cups

1 large red bell pepper, sliced thin

1 yellow bell pepper, sliced thin

½ cup white wine

1 (24 oz) jar Classico Tomato and Basil Tomato Sauce or your favorite

½ teaspoon Italian seasonings

Fresh ground pepper, to taste

Instructions

1. Sprinkle chicken thighs with a little salt and pepper.  In a large nonstick pan, add the chicken and cook about 5 minutes or until brown, turning once.  Remove chicken from pan to a plate.  While the chicken is browning, place the mushrooms, onions and both peppers in a large microwave-safe bowl.  Cook in microwave for about 2-3 minutes until the vegetables are softened.

2. In the same large pan, heat 1 tablespoon olive oil.  Add garlic, softened mushrooms, onions and peppers.   Saute on high heat until lightly browned and soft, about 3-4 minutes.

3. Stir in wine and cook for about 1-2 minutes until wine is almost evaporated.

4. Return chicken to pan and add the tomato sauce, Italian seasonings and fresh ground pepper.  Bring to a boil, reduce heat and cook uncovered for about 15 minutes until chicken is tender and no longer pink.

And how I made it:

You should know...This makes a lot of food, or i should say a lot for two people.  I think it could feed 4-6 people!

First of all, I used chicken breasts instead of chicken thighs. I'm sure its good either way, but I just so happen to usually have chicken breasts in my freezer.  So, I used 2 1/2 boneless chicken breasts.  I cut the two whole chicken breasts in half and so to start off, I had 5 pieces of chicken.  As the recipe says, I sprinkled them with salt and pepper and then cooked the chicken until it was browning.  I did this on medium heat, and I would say it took about 5 or so minutes.  I was nervous during this part because the whole chicken wasn't getting cooked, just the outside.  However, I ventured on and realized that the entire chicken gets cooked by the end of the meal.  

While the chicken was browning, I cut up my bell peppers and onion and placed them in a Tupperware with the mushrooms ( i bought the mushrooms sliced).  I would recommend doing the chopping before starting the chicken because it got slightly hectic!  Anyway, as the recipe says i put them in the microwave for 2 minutes.  When the chicken was done, i took it out of the pan and poured in the veggies.  BTW, I used 1 TBSP garlic powder instead of garlic cloves.  I sauteed the veggies until they were brown and sizzling.  I added the cooking wine and continued cooking for a couple minutes.This is what it looked like:

 

Then I added the chicken back into the pan and sliced each piece in half, I did this to ensure that it got fully cooked! So now I had 10 pieces of chicken (if you're counting!). I added the tomato sauce, Italian seasonings and pepper.  It was boiling after about 20 seconds so then I reduced the heat to low and let it simmer for about 15 minutes.  

The recipe doesn't mention anything about noodles, but I just thought it should have noodles! So i made some fettuccine noodles to go with it.  I would actually recommend more penne style noodles, but that's all I had so i went with it.  It was yummy!  See!!!:

And, i complemented the entire meal with some corn.  Can't go wrong with corn or green beans with every meal ;-)

 

Chicken Noodle Soup - great for the sniffles.

Getting ready to be  eaten in a bowl that I colored! :)

On Wednesday Evan woke up feeling extremely sick.  His head hurt, his throat was sore, and he didn't sound good at all.  Luckily, I didn't get called into work so I was able to take care of him and get him whatever he needed.  I had been waiting for a good time to fix my homemade chicken noodle soup and this seemed to be it.  The thing about this meal is that a couple of years ago, I called my mom to ask her how to make chicken noodle soup and she told me roughly how to do it over the phone. It is definitely simple, but every time I make it it turns out slightly different since i'm not using an actual recipe.  This time as I made it I tried to pay more attention so I could write it down, so this is it.  Also, as a side note, although it is SO SIMPLE every time I make it I can't believe how tasty it is! And Evan loves it too. (Although this time he couldn't really taste it :)).  Another nice thing about this recipe is that you can adjust it very easily to make more or less.  For the amounts I used this time, I'd say it could feed around 4 people. 

Ingredients that go into the soup:

Chicken (2 breasts cut into pieces or 1 can chicken breast meat or 1 rotisserie chicken)	Optional:
Potatoes	Celery
Carrots	Any other vegetable you feel inspired to add
Egg Noodles	Marjoram
Salt	Parsley
Pepper	Bay Leaves
Water
Chicken Boullion Cubes

Recipe if using canned or rotiserrie chicken (notes at the bottom for using chicken breasts)

1. To start off, I put 8 cups of water into my pot and bring it to a boil. 

2. While the water is coming to a boil, I wash 4 medium size potatoes and between 1/4 -1/2 of a 32oz bag of baby carrots. (I know that isn't very exact or helpful but I forgot to count! I like a lot of carrots in my soup so I would suggest just adding how much you like)  To make this soup even easier, I have started using unpeeled potatoes in the soup.  I just make sure to wash the outside of the potatoes extra good.  I cut the potatoes into meidumish cubes and then I slice the baby carrots. 

3. Around this time the water is boiling and I add 9 chicken bouillion cubes to the water. Technically it is one bouillion cube to one cup of water, but I want to make sure my soup is always very flavorful! 

4. After the bouillion cubes have dissolved, add the carrots and potatoes.  Also, add some salt and pepper and if you want, a dash of I'd marjoram, parsley and chopped bay leaves.  Set the timer to around 10 minutes. When it goes off, test a couple of the vegetables to see if they are close to being done.

5. When the vegetables are about done (needing just a couple minutes more) add the canned chicken or rotisserie chicken - shred the chicken a little bit - and the egg noodles (a couple of handfuls seems to be perfect).  Let boil for about 3 minutes more and your good to go!

Here is the canned chicken I used. It was my first time using it ( I got the idea from Evan's mom) and it is easy and yummy!

Here are the egg noodles, or at least the package, that I would highly recommend using. They are located close to the other noodles in the grocery store.

And I made some cheese bread to compliment the meal. However, because i'd never used our broiler before I didn't realize how it cooked. Oops!

Surprisingly still yummy though :)

Evan cut his crust off just like an elementary school boy! ha ha.

*HOW TO ADJUST IF YOU ARE USING REGULAR CHICKEN BREASTS*

Cut chicken into bite size pieces.  Add the bouillion to the water and heat until it is dissoved. Add the chicken to the water and SIMMER the chicken until cooked. The key to non-chewy boiled chicken is to SIMMER the chicken, not BOIL.  Then, once the chicken is cooked, remove the chicken from the water and add the vegetables. Continue previous directions and then add chicken at the same spot as above.  This way your chicken doesn't get over cooked and is still good!

Also, if you are like me and just don't like boiled chicken, brown the chicken in a skillet with vegetable oil while boiling the vegetables etc. and then add the chicken in the same spot as above.

Good luck! And be prepared for a great meal! 

Basil Chicken and Pasta

All I can say is SUCCESS!!! I was a little unsure of how this was going to turn out because it takes very few and very basic ingredients but me and Evan both give it two thumbs up. 
Here is the original recipe: (my further comments at the bottom)

Ingredients:

1 (12 ounce) package rotini pasta 2 tablespoons butter 1 pound skinless, boneless chicken breast halves - cut into 1/2 inch cubes 3 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper 2 teaspoons dried basil 1 cup heavy cream 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

 Directions:

1.	In a large pot with boiling salted water cook rotini pasta until al dente. Drain.
2.	Meanwhile, in a large skillet melt the butter or margarine. Add the chopped chicken and garlic, saute until lightly brown and juices run clear. Stir in the ground black pepper, dried basil, heavy cream, and grated Parmesan cheese. Bring to a boil and simmer for 3 to 4 minutes.
3.	Toss drained pasta with basil sauce and serve immediately. Ok so to start off with, my newest discovery that is a very useful tidbit of information is... HELPFUL HINT #1: 1 lb of chicken is the equivalent of 2-3 chicken breasts. Of course, this is not exact because the size of chicken can vary but use your best guess.  I used two frozen chicken breasts and it turned out perfect.  Which leads me to HELPFUL HINT #2: When defrosting the chicken, take it out when it is still slightly frozen.  It makes cutting it SO MUCH EASIER!!! Maybe these are things that all ya'll know, however like previously mentioned i'm a newbie cook.  I'm happy to say that the second hint I discovered all by myself :).  When we were grocery shopping last night Evan was in charge of getting the Heavy Whipping Cream.  To him, whipping cream and heavy whipping cream were equivalent.  However, I am pleased to say that i did in fact use regular whipping cream for this recipe and it turned out FABULOUS!! Plus, it just so happens to be more healthy so boom bam baby.  On the healthy note, i also substituted 2 Tablespoons of olive oil instead of butter and it worked out just fine.  I wanted the sauce a little thicker so I doubled the parmesan cheese.  As previously mentioned, this recipe turned out fabulous! It had flavor, but was mild enough that we could each eat a whole plateful.  Definitely something I'll be making in the future.  And to top it all of, it was sooo easy.  The only preparation was the chicken.  Thats my kind of meal! (We did have more noodles than sauce left over, so if I were making for more people I would double the sauce. For us it was perfect.)