TGIF...yes, today is finally Friday!!! This evening, hubby has a work function to attend so I decided to take advantage of that and spend some one on one time with my youngest son, which seems to be a rarity these days! He and I debated whether or not we should eat out and where or whether I should cook. I decided to cook him a nice dinner. Isn't it funny how eating out used to be "a special treat" and not the norm and nowadays eating a home cooked meal at home seems to be the special treat instead for many people and eating out has became the norm? Anyway, I had several packs of Perdue boneless chicken breasts in my fridge, some Barilla rigatoni, a jar of Rao's Arrabbiata sauce and 3 different kinds of peppers (Poblano peppers, red bell peppers and orange bell peppers) and knew that I could pull a delicious meal together in about 30 minutes flat. Since youngest son ("my baby") doesn't like onions no matter how well I try to hide and disguise them...I did not add them. I really wanted to, but didn't.
I put a pot of water on to boil the rigatoni; diced the boneless chicken; diced the 3 different colored peppers and then sauteed the peppers first and then the diced chicken in a little bit of olive oil. Once the chicken and peppers were done, I dumped the jar of sauce in and simmered it all while the rigatoni boiled. It literally took me 30 minutes from start to finish. I sprinkled the pasta with shredded Parmesan cheese and some fresh Italian parsley. It was delicious. The sweet peppers balanced the spiciness of the Arrabbiata sauce. Below are a few pics of the meal. I really enjoyed not having to be added to a wait list on a Friday night and between you and me, I don't think we would have had as good of a meal eating out either! Enjoy and Happy Friday!
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| Barilla Rigatoni and Rao's Arrabbiata sauce... |
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| The trio of peppers |
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| Diced and sauteed, ready to hop into the sauce with the chicken |
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| The peppers and chicken finally get to mingle |
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| Voila, dinner is served! |
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| One more peek |
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| BOOM! |
For a quick dessert, I baked some Ginger-Spice Cookies using pre-made cookie dough from a little company called the Immaculate Baking Co. They make some of the best ready to bake cookies I have found. I think they taste the closest to home made and are great when you don't have a lot of time -- they took only 11 minutes to bake and the house smells wonderful. I've included a picture of them below. The package makes 2 dozen soft and chewy cookies.
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| If you've never tried their cookies, you should! |
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| Fresh out of the oven...they smell awesome (and taste even better)! |
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| BOOM! |
That sauce sure looks tasty! Wish I had a cabinet full of it- oh yeah,I do! HaHaHaHa
ReplyDeleteWow, what a "lucky dog" you are to have a cabinet full of that sauce! ;-)
ReplyDelete