Pasta Time!

Hey everyone! Sorry for the pause in posts, I just got back from a very fun trip! I was able to store some snacks in the Summerween bag I made! They stayed nice and fresh the whole trip there and back home :) ! 

Now that I'm back, let's get dinner ready! Tonight I am making bowtie chicken alfredo pasta with onions, bell peppers, and black olives. Our sides include delicious garlic bread, savory green beans, and buttery mashed potatoes.

The ingredients are quite basic, you can adjust them to your hearts content:

-Pasta of any kind! (I chose bowtie and I am making two cups.)

-Alfredo sauce. (I chose to use store bought, but if you're in the mood to make it yourself I recommend checking out The Salty Marshmallow! They have an easy recipe that I love, and I always cut the cheese and cream by half, but that's because I am lactose intolerant!)

-Purple Onion (Of course you can use white or yellow, I am just a big fan of the purple!)

-Sweet Peppers or Bell pepper (I always use mini sweet peppers. They always give every meal a nice savory balance even though they are "sweet")

-Sliced Black Olives (You can totally slice some up, I prefer the pre-sliced ones in a can, they are a time saver for sure.)

-One to Two Chicken Breasts (You can choose any kind of protein you'd like, I believe bacon would be delicious in this recipe, but we had BLT's for lunch!)

-Minced Garlic (Yessssssssssss)

-Black Pepper

-Garlic Salt with Parsley

-Italian Seasoning

Please keep in mind you can change whatever you want however you want! I am sharing my delicious version hoping to spark some creativity for your dinner plans.

I prepared a large pot of water to boil. I added about one tablespoon of chicken bouillon to the water, this is completely optional, but it does give the noodles a nice flavor. I like to add my noodles just before boiling, sometimes that prevents it from bubbling, but I don't mind because I don't want my water getting too hot too fast as I prepare the rest of the meal.

I thinly sliced and chopped two sweet mini peppers and about a quarter cup of onions. In a separate pan, I melted butter and added the veggies with a small scoop of minced garlic. I seasoned them with a couple dashes of Italian seasoning and garlic salt with parsley. I let that cook on low while I prepared the green beans. For these guys, I left the water from the can in the small pot that I transferred them into. I added chicken bouillon, black pepper, and a dash of parsley. I set those to low, hoping they soak up all the seasonings!

I got to slicing the chicken after draining the pasta (I got distracted and cooked them WAY too long! They're a little soft, but still edible). I let the chicken soak in some ranch dressing throughout the day, it adds a nice creamy flavor to chicken. When chopping the chicken try to make your pieces as close to the same size as possible, this isn't a competition but congruency is still nice. My pieces came out super uneven, I ended up using scissors to make the portions smaller after adding them to the pan. I like my pieces to be small and easy to eat. I let the chicken pieces simmer in some butter for a few minutes.

After the outside of the chicken turned white, I added the onions, peppers, more minced garlic and sliced black olives to the pan. I turned up the heat just a little bit to get the chicken to cook faster.

I removed the green beans from the heat, at this point they were boiling! (I got distracted again.) I reused the pan I cooked the veggies in to boil two cups of water. The potatoes I made are instant from a small bag. I love these! Fresh mashed potatoes can't be beat, but these are a close second. Once bubbly I added the bag and one tablespoon of butter and mixed it all up until it was nice and fluffy.

With the potatoes done, I turned off the pan with the chicken after checking to see it was cooked all the way through! I poured in the noodles and gave it a little stir before adding about 1/4 of the sauce to the pan. Stir it all together and add a lid to keep it warm.

I sliced four pieces of garlic bread and cooked it nice and crispy in my air fryer! One of my faves. 

I hope you enjoyed my dinner story/recipe! Thank you for following along, I hope to see you again soon. Don't forget to sign up for emails! I like to send freebies!

xoxo-

Chaotic Tranquility