Italian Chicken Pasta

Another fancy pasta recipe!  I've been hooked on this whole grain pasta I bought a couple of weeks ago at Sam's Club, so I've been trying out quite a few new pasta recipes.  This one involves tomatoes, chicken, garlic, and Italian seasoning.

First, heat the olive oil in a skillet and start boiling some water for the pasta.  You're going to use what seems like a lot of olive oil - 2 tablespoons - but remember, this also is the base for your pasta sauce!  While the oil is heating up, chop your tomato and chicken into bite sized pieces.

Add some Italian seasoning and garlic to the olive oil in the skillet, and season your chicken as well with the garlic, Italian seasoning, and a little salt. Then add the chicken to the skillet.  It should sizzle when you add it - if it doesn't, you didn't let the olive oil heat up enough!

Meanwhile, your water should be boiling by now so add the pasta and let it cook according to package directions.  Once the chicken appears to be almost fully cooked, add the chopped tomatoes.  I also added about 1/2 a tablespoon of butter to thicken the sauce a little, but I think next time I may skip the butter to keep this on the healthier side.  I'll put it in parentheses in the recipe below, but I think it would taste just as good without the butter.

Let this all simmer for about 5 minutes as the pasta finishes cooking, then drain the pasta, mix everything together and serve immediately!

Italian Chicken Pasta

(Serves 2)

• 2 tbsps olive oil
• 2 chicken breasts
• 2 servings spaghetti noodles
• 1 large tomato
• (1 tbsp butter)
• Garlic
• Italian seasoning (I use 5 Seasons Italian Seasoning - you can get it at Walmart!)
• Salt

Directions

• Cook the pasta according to package instructions.
• Heat the 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a small skillet.  Add garlic and Italian seasoning as desired to the olive oil.
• Chop the chicken and tomato.  Season the chicken with salt, garlic, and Italian seasoning as desired.
• Add the chicken to the hot olive oil.
• When the chicken appears to be almost fully cooked (approximately 3-5 minutes after placing in the skillet), add the tomatoes.  (Add 1 tbsp butter to the sauce to thicken.)  Let simmer for about 5 minutes, or until the pasta finishes cooking.
• Drain the pasta, and mix it in with the chicken and tomato mixture.  Serve immediately.

This was my own creation, no inspiration from someone else's blog!

Brownie Pudding

Oh my gosh.  This is basically a recipe for a baked brownie batter.  It's just like licking the bowl after making a box of brownies, except you can't feel guilty about eating raw eggs because it was in the oven for an hour! This is a must-have for every choco-holics' recipe box.  A few of my sorority sisters and I demolished the vast majority of this little slice of heaven in around 15 minutes, it's that good.

I apologize in advance - I sort of forgot to take pictures as I went along.  I'm still new to this whole blogging while cooking thing, I'll work on improving that!

It takes a little while to bake (1 hour), and is just a little tricky compared to the other recipes on this blog so far, so be warned!  It's not that difficult though, I was able to do it in my tiny kitchen with limited cooking supplies and it came out absolutely delicious.  I baked it for my friends and I to eat on girls' night and it was a huge hit.

It's pretty simple as far as ingredients go, you only need butter, sugar, cocoa powder, flour, eggs, and vanilla extract.

Preheat the oven to 325 F, then melt the butter and let it cool down.  Mix the eggs and sugar until they are thick and fluffy, then mix the cocoa and flour in a separate bowl.  Add the vanilla to the eggs and sugar mixture, then slowly add the dry ingredients, and mix just until it's all mixed in.  Lastly, add the melted butter, pour into a baking dish.  This is the tricky part, at least for me.  To bake, set the baking dish into a larger dish filled with hot tap water that comes to about half way up the baking dish.  I struggled to find a second, larger dish in my small kitchen and wound up filling it to the brim with hot water, which meant getting everything in and out of the oven was quite the challenge without making a huge mess.  After 65 minutes, it looked like one huge souffle, so I took it out and let it cool for a little while.

Breaking the "souffle" showed that the middle was basically brownie batter.  Fully cooked of course - it was in the oven for over an hour! - but the consistency of very thick brownie batter.  It tasted absolutely delicious.  I think next time I'll top it with a scoop of ice cream to make it even more fantastic!

Brownie Pudding
(Serves 8)

Ingredients

• 2 sticks unsalted butter
• 4 large eggs, room temperature
• 2 cups sugar
• 3/4 cup cocoa powder
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Directions

• Preheat the oven to 325 F.
• Melt the 2 sticks of butter and set aside to cool.
• Combine the eggs and sugar and beat on medium-high until thick and light yellow.  If you have a stand alone mixer, you should use it here.  Once the eggs and sugar are mixed, add the vanilla extract.
• Mix the cocoa powder and flour in a separate, small mixing bowl.
• Slowly add the cocoa and flour mixture to the eggs and sugar mixture, beating on low speed until just combined.
• Keeping the mixer on low, slowly pour in the melted butter and again mix until just combined.
• Pour the mixture into a circular baking dish.  Place the dish inside a larger dish, and fill the larger dish with hot tap water to create a water bath that comes about halfway up the side of the baking dish.
• Bake for 60-70 minutes.  The middle will look undercooked - that's the way it's supposed to look.
• Let cool for a few minutes, then serve.  Ice cream goes well with this dish :)

Inspiration from: http://www.annies-eats.com/2010/02/16/brownie-pudding/