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Tuscan Chicken Pasta

Tuscan Chicken Pasta with healthy creamy garlic sauce, sun-dried tomatoes, spinach and chicken. 30 minute one pot meal for busy weeknights. Kids will approve!

Whether you have had Tuscan chicken pasta at Olive Garden or White Spot, know you can make healthy restaurant quality meal easy at home. And in one pot in under 30 minutes.

Cooking dinner in one pot is my next favorite thing to Instant Pot. Besides deconstructing meals into soups.:)

It has been a few years since I started making one pot pasta dinners. Kids love them, they are relatively healthy and quick. What not to like?! With renos, business and hockey this is how we avoid processed foods.

You can easily cut this recipe in half if feeding 1 or 2 people.

Ingredients You Will Need

• Chicken breasts or thighs
• Any pasta that can hold sauce
• Sun dried tomatoes
• Bell pepper
• Kale or spinach
• Milk and Parmesan cheese
• Spices

How to Make Tuscan Chicken Pasta

1. Sear chicken breasts with a bit of salt and pepper on each side for 3-4 minutes. They don’t have to be cooked through.
2. Cook pasta. Add pasta, broth, bell pepper, Italian seasoning and cook covered for 10 minutes. It is important to bring it to a boil before reducing heat to low. Keep in mind gluten free pasta cooks faster than wheat. Pasta should be al dente (not too soft, so it doesn’t become a mush).
3. Make creamy sauce by whisking cold milk with cornstarch. Milk has to be cold otherwise cornstarch will lump.
4. Remove cooked chicken and add the slurry. Stir and bring to a boil just enough to thicken a bit.
5. Turn off heat and add remaining ingredients: sun dried tomatoes, Parmesan cheese, spinach, garlic and cooked chicken. Stir.

  

Tips for Best Tuscan Chicken Pasta

• I like to use my Lodge Dutch oven for one pot meals. You can also use medium heavy bottom stainless steel pot with a tight fitting lid.
• Whole wheat or whole foods pasta is more nutritious than white. You can use any though. Good shape pasta to use is short with some cavities to hold the sauce.
• If using gluten free pasta, cook by a few minutes less as it cooks faster than wheat one.
• It is important to stir pasta after a few minutes to prevent it from sticking.
• 3.25% homo milk will make more creamy sauce but 2% will work as well. Do not use skim or 1% milk as sauce will be flat.
• Instead of Italian seasoning, I always use a ratio of dried oregano and thyme.

How to Serve and Store

Tuscan chicken pasta is one of those dishes that tastes best right after cooking. That’s when it’s most saucy, spinach is not too wilted and it’s just fresh. Within minutes, pasta absorbs the sauce as it is sitting. Not the end of the world.

If you are serving later like me (my dinners are always ready at lunchtime because of my job), add a splash of milk and simmer for a few minutes to rehydrate the dish.

Refrigerate for up to 1 day and do not freeze.

Enjoy!

Healthy Chicken Stir Fry

Healthy Chicken Stir Fry is a 30 minute meal everyone will love! Veggies and chicken are thickly coated in homemade sweet and savory sauce in this chicken stir fry recipe.

Stir fries like beef stir fry, salmon stir fry and Instant Pot stir fry are truly a saving grace on a weeknight. For anyone who wants to eat healthy. And who doesn’t?! JK.

Chicken Stir Fry Recipe

This healthy chicken stir fry recipe is a take-off of history’s popular Asian chicken stir fry. It’s quick and easy. Perfect for a weeknight family supper, dinner on the fly, even impressive enough to serve a gang or when company’s coming.

Kids love stir fry!

When it comes to a stir fry, I’m picky. I like my veggies crisp and thick not overly salty sauce covering each piece of chicken.

What Is Stir Fry?

Stir fry is a thousand years of Asian history in every bite. The ancient art of cooking thinly sliced foods in a hot wok over an open flame. Try my updated version with chunky vegetables, chicken drumsticks or thighs and cooked in a contemporary wok from Amazon haha.

This chicken and vegetable stir fry is quick. It’s easy. It’s full of flavour. And it’s fun to make!

The Best Chicken and How to Cook It

You can use bone in or boneless chicken.

Traditionally, the meat, in this case chicken breast, is sliced very thin so it sears quickly. Add slices to hot oil in your pan, keeping them separated and moving, until cooked through. Your pan is ready when a few drops of sprinkled water sizzle and dance on the surface.

Don’t overload your pan or the meat will steam instead of searing. Remove chicken to a plate, while you stir fry the veggies.

I have updated my chicken veggie stir fry recipe with chicken drumsticks or thighs for a heartier taste, to save a few $$s and to make a more substantial meal. Just brown the chicken drumsticks in a little oil, then simmer on reduced heat covered until cooked through – about 10 minutes per side.

Best Vegetables to Stir Fry?

Make your own stir fry history.

Plan around seasonal veggies or just wing it with whatever you have on hand. Crisp carrots, bright red peppers, broccoli, onions, asparagus, cauliflower and snow peas make a colourful combo. I have added asparagus to my version.

If you’re more adventuresome, try eggplant slices, a variety of mushrooms, bamboo shoots, water chestnuts, or a handful of bean sprouts.

I am getting hungrier by the minute! How about you?

What Is “The Secret Sauce” for Stir Fry?

My healthy chicken stir fry sauce “secret” is now your secret. Whisk together cornstarch, cold water, soy sauce, honey or maple syrup and vinegar and add to cooked chicken and veggies.

That’s it! No oyster sauce, mirin or sake.

Toss gently and serve.

How to Make Chicken Stir Fry

1. Get the oil in your wok or deep-sided pan hot, hot, hot! The best oil to use is one with a high heat point, like avocado or coconut oil. Olive oil has a low heat point, so it’s not recommended.
2. Add chicken all at once. Don’t overcrowd the pan, or the meat will steam instead of quickly searing. With boneless chicken, keep the chicken moving until the edges begin to turn opaque. Don’t overcook. That’s one secret of a successful chicken stir fry.
3. The second secret is not to overcook your veggies. You want your chicken and veggie stir fry full of bright crunch and colour –  in the pan and on your plate.

What Goes with Chicken Stir Fry?

• Steamed rice is the traditional accompaniment to a stir fry. In real world, you can also serve it with quinoa, brown rice vermicelli or brown rice.
• For a low carb version, serve on its own.
• Company coming? Cooking stir fry together is an ideal way to keep guests busy and entertained at the same time. Tie an apron on each guest and give them a chopping task. When all the ingredients are assembled, dinner will be ready in record time. And everyone will have been in on the fun!

Next time your kids balk at eating their veggies, pull out a set of chopsticks and tell them you’re travelling to another country for dinner tonight.

Easter Eggs

My family loves deviled eggs.

So much so, that I can make 3 dozen eggs, which makes 72 deviled eggs for a party--and they're ALL GONE by the end of the party!

That's a LOT of eggs!

For Easter, we make them festive.

We color them, like Easter eggs!

I remember the first time my mother made deviled eggs colored like Easter eggs.

I thought they were the prettiest eggs I'd seen!

They're lots of fun to make, too!

Ingredients:

10 hard boiled eggs

About 1/2 cup mayonnaise

Put the eggs in a pot and cover with water.

Bring to a boil, turn down the heat to low, cover and simmer for 15 minutes.

After 15 minutes, cool the eggs with running cold water.

Peel the eggs.

Then cut them in half.

It's okay if some of them tear a little, the filling will camouflage that.

Or just eat that one.

Put the yolks in a separate bowl.

It doesn't matter if the yolks turn a little darker around the outside--that happens when the eggs aren't cooled thoroughly right after cooking.

Next, you'll need some food coloring.

Make the colors just as you would easter egg dye.

A teaspoonful of cider vinegar in each glass helps.

I used about 3 drops of food coloring in each glass.

Take the eggs out when they're a pretty pastel color.

Drain them on a paper towel.

Mash the yolks with a fork.

When they're uniformly crumbly, add about a 1/2 cup mayonnaise.

Scoop from your measurement and add half at a time.

Make it as creamy as you like.

When it's nice and creamy, you can add any extras--mustard, minced chives, freshly ground pepper, bacon bits, etc.

We like it plain.

You don't need to add salt, the yolk is salty itself.

Time to fill the eggs!

I've had this Super*Shooter forever, it seems, but it still works well.

If you don't have one, you can fill the eggs by hand with a teaspoon.

Put a little bit of the yolk mixture in each egg, so you don't run out, then go back and add a little more on top.

Aren't they pretty!

Garnish with a little bit of paprika.

Pour a small amount into the palm of your hand, then add a pinch to the top of each egg.

There's a psychedelic tie-dyed one--the blue one in the middle.

That happens when you add more food coloring to the glass with the eggs already in the water.

That's kind of fun. 

You can be creative in your egg coloring!

My brother says if you get to the party and you see the eggs, you'd better get one right away--because when you turn around to get one later, they might be all gone!

They're the perfect deviled eggs for Easter!

Itadakimasu!

***

I got my 'thank you' for my donation for Japan Tsunami Relief!

My sister-in-law, who is from Japan, is helping her friend raise money for Japan Tsunami Relief Fund through the Red Cross.

Yuko Nakatani is an artist. She and a group of her artist friends are drawing nigaoe (caricatures) as a thank you for a minimum $25 donation to Red Cross Japan Tsunami Relief Fund.

Some of you that follow along may remember the end of this post.

Chicken Yakisoba

Ingredients

1. ½ head green cabbage
2. 1 medium yellow onion
3. 2 medium carrots
4. 1 small crown broccoli
5. 2 inches fresh ginger
6. 1 large chicken breast
7. 2 Tbsp vegetable oil
8. 2 (3 oz.) packages ramen noodles
9. seasoning packets discarded
10. 1 tsp sesame oil (optional)
11. ¼ cup soy sauce
12. ¼ cup worcestershire sauce
13. 2 Tbsp ketchup
14. (up to) 1 Tbsp sriracha hot sauce
15. 1 Tbsp sugar

Crispy Baked Peanut Sweet Chili Chicken Wings

Prep Time: 5 minutes Cook Time: 45 minutes Total Time: 50 minutesServings: 4

Crispy baked chicken wings in a peanut sweet chili sauce that are finger licking good!

ingredients

• 2 pounds chicken wings
• 1 tablespoon oil
• 1/3 cup sweet chili sauce
• 2 tablespoons peanut butter
• 2 tablespoons lime juice (~1 lime) or 1 teaspoon tamarind concentrate
• 1 tablespoon fish sauce or soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon chili sauce (such as sriracha) or to taste

directions

1. Toss the wings in the oil, place them on a rack, on a foil lined baking sheet and bake in a preheated 400F oven on the upper shelf until golden brown and crispy, about 45-50 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, mix the remaining ingredients in a small sauce pan over medium heat until the peanut butter as melted and set aside.
3. Toss the wings in the sauce and enjoy!

Nutrition Facts: Calories 589, Fat 43g (Saturated 11g, Trans 0.3g),Cholesterol 174mg, Sodium 1711mg, Carbs 3g (Fiber 0.5g, Sugars 1g),Protein 44g

Agua de Jamaica (Hibiscus Tea)

Prep Time: 2 minutes

Cook Time: 20 minutes

Total Time: 22 minutes

Yield: About 2 quarts

Ingredients

• 2 quarts (8 cups) water
• 1.5 cups dried hibiscus flowers
• 2/3 cup sugar (add more/less to taste)
• 1/3 cup fresh orange, lemon or lime juice (optional)

Method

Bring water to boil in a saucepan. Add sugar, and stir until dissolved. Remove from heat, then add hibiscus flours and stir to combine. Let steep for about 20 minutes, the remove the hibiscus flowers with a strainer. Stir in citrus juice if desired, then refrigerate. Serve over ice.

*You can also make this as sun tea, and let the water and hibiscus sit out in the sunlight all day.

**Also, this may go without saying, but be careful not to spill the drink on your clothing when making/straining. Those pink hibiscus leaves can stain clothes very easily!