Lemon Chicken Pasta Toss

This is one of our favorite pasta dishes!  It is super easy to make and tastes so good!

First, cook your chicken (about 2 cups) you can also use the precooked chicken or even one of those roasted chickens from the grocery store.  I cooked mine in some olive oil with seasoning salt. 

 The recipe calls for Radiatore Pasta which are these small spirals - but, of course, you could use any pasta.  Cook the pasta - maybe about 2 minutes less than normal.

 Cut up the carrot, onion and garlic; cook for about 5 minutes in a pan sprayed with butter spray (or in the pan you cooked the chicken in)

 Cut up the broccoli and the red pepper and place in a microwave safe dish; add salt and cook for about 2 minutes.

 (This is my favorite Alfredo Sauce to use for this recipe - the texture and flavor is fantastic)

 Add everything to the pan with the carrots and onions, stir in the water and Alfredo Sauce.

Once done, sprinkle with some cheese! YUMMY!!

Lemon Chicken Pasta Toss

8 ounces uncooked radiatore pasta

1 medium onion, chopped                     ¼ cup grated Parmesan cheese

1 small carrot, peeled                                    Snipped fresh parsley

3 garlic cloves, pressed                     coarsely ground black pepper

1 small red bell pepper

2 cups small broccoli florets

¼ teaspoon salt

2 cups diced, cooked chicken breast

1 cup prepared Alfredo sauce

½ cup hot water

1 lemon, cut in half crosswise

Cook pasta 2 minutes less then package directions; drain.  Meanwhile, chop onion and slice carrot.  Lightly spray a large skillet with oil.  Cook and stir onion, carrot and garlic over medium heat for 4-5 minutes or until carrots are crisp-tender.  Meanwhile, slice bell pepper into strips; cut strips in half.  Combine bell pepper, broccoli and salt in a microwavable bowl, covered, on high for 1-2 minutes or until vegetables are crisp tender.  Add pasta, steamed vegetables, chicken, Alfredo sauce and water to skillet.  Squeeze lemon halves over pasta; cook and stir until heated through.  Grate Parmesan cheese over pasta; sprinkle with parsley and black pepper, if desired.

Enjoy this recipe - it really is good.

(One note - more veggies, pasta , etc doesn't make the recipe better - if you increase the amount of "Stuff" you use - add another tub of Alfredo sauce; you need enough sauce to add the flavor!) 

I'm linking up with Janelle at Comfy in the Kitchen

Happenings in this House

Another week flew by!  We had lots of fun with a Blizzard and lots of play time!  Normally, I do a post on Friday's that relates to our learning activities but so much of what we did actually was part of family time this week, I've just combined the two so enjoy - The Happenings in this House!

 Don't you just love that hair??? I messed with that all day long and just made it more curly all day long!!

 Noticed how the puzzles are all lined up in a row?  Josh does them in order.  Also, this is a rare moment when Nate is allowed to help . .. or maybe he is just allowed to watch???

 Darryl taught Josh how to play in the toy box hahaha.  Now, he has figured out how to climb in it, empty all the toys out and than play inside it. 

 We started our countdown calendar that I mentioned in this post, this week.  Our first activity was to use a TP roll to listen to our hearts.  (Or look through like a telescope hahaha)  I just wrapped it in Valentine scrapbooking paper to make it look more festive.

 And, of course the "Blizzard of 2011" hit Tuesday night and Wednesday.  The best part?  We were all home on Wednesday with no where to go - just the four of us!!  We don't get days like that every often so it was sure nice.

 Josh went outside to help Darryl clear the snow.

 See the now flying??  Josh stayed outside for close to an hour before he decided he was ready to come in - he loved it. 

 Nate had to stay inside - we would have lost him in the 3 + foot drifts in the yard!!

 Another activity we did this week with our countdown was to introduce our February Sensory Bin and boy, did they have fun!!!  My "filler" was shredded paper and it ended up working well.  The texture worked well with the other things in the bin.  I was surprised at how intrigued Nate was with it.  Neither of the boys wanted to clean up at bedtime - they both wanted to play!

 Nate loves to sit on the furntiture . .but he has yet to figure out how to climb or get down (well, he gets down but it is more of a roll and he doesn't enjoy the trip to the floor!)

 My little reader - he loves letters and books and yes, he knows his alphabet so, when he looks at books I hear him saying all of the letters.

Finally, Josh learned something new today (Friday).  We have a toy area set up behind the couch and there is a big Fisher Price ramp back there.  He figured out first, that if he climbs on the ramp, he can sit on the bean bag chairs back there and look out the window . . . .than he figured out he could flip over the back of the couch from the bean bags.  Than he would run around and do it again until he figured out he could climb over the back of the couch and land ON the bean bags LOL  He did that for a good hour (and now, he has another window to look out!)

So there's our week.  As always, we had tons of fun with our boys!