Quick & Easy

I saw this recipe on the Food Network and I thought it looked pretty good. It's so easy!!! I know I say that about a lot of recipes, but if you're reading this blog at 4:30 today, you have plenty of time to serve this for dinner tonight at 6:00. It's also a great recipe for leftover chicken. The recipe calls for 1 lb. of penne, but I had a little bit of 3 different pastas, so I just threw them all in there together. Still tastes the same! This has very simple ingredients, but it's a very flavorful dish and relatively healthy. Although pasta isn't necessarily always the healthiest choice, it doesn't have a sauce and the boneless, skinless chicken breasts are lean.

Dinner tonight- easy lemon pasta with chicken

Easy Lemon Pasta with Chicken

(from FoodNetwork)

1 pound dried penne
2 chicken cutlets, cut into fingers
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
3 cloves garlic, sliced
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
3 tablespoons olive oil
3 tablespoons roughly chopped fresh parsley, for garnish
2 lemons, juiced
1/2 cup grated Parmesan

Cook the pasta in a large pot of boiling salted water, until al dente. Drain well.
Season chicken with salt and pepper. Heat a large grill pan over medium high and add chicken. Grill until golden and completely cooked. Remove to a plate and slice.
Add the garlic and red pepper flakes to a saute pan with 3 tablespoons of olive oil and saute until fragrant. Add the cooked pasta and turn heat off. Mix all together. Remove pasta to a large bowl. Add chicken to the warm pasta and season with salt and pepper. Sprinkle in chopped parsley. Add the juice of 2 lemons and mix. Before serving top with Parmesan.

E’s Notes:

• Even if you are a little shy about using red pepper flakes, you definitely need to use them in this recipe. It’s just a little kick at the end of every bite!


• You could use leftover chicken.The parsley isn’t really necessary- it just looks pretty, but all the other ingredients really make this delicious!


• I put 4-5 whole garlic cloves in the olive oil with the red pepper flakes. Then, I removed the cloves before adding the pasta to the oil. It still had a garlic flavor, but it wasn’t over powering.

As I was finishing up the dishes, I realized that I could not hear Ivy or see her. That's a very bad sign! I was pretty sure she was upstairs, but normally, when she's upstairs, she's chasing a ball around and that is clearly audible. I start up the stairs and in the distance, I hear a licking sound. I round the corner into the bathroom . . .

By now, Ivy has probably licked the entire tub. I have no idea why she enjoys that. I'm sure there is a little water leftover from the shower I had earlier, but she has a completely full bowl of water downstairs. Crazy dog!