Italian Chicken and Pasta

I love a good, quick, pasta recipe.  Even better...one that uses leftovers from the night before.

One of my go-to "I want to sit on the couch while dinner cooks" recipes is Italian chicken.  It's simple - marinate chicken breasts with Italian dressing in a plastic bag before you go to work in the morning.  When you come home, pour the chicken and dressing into a Pyrex dish and bake for 40-45 minutes at 350 degrees.

I usually baked 4-6 breasts so we'll have leftovers throughout the week.  One of my favorite things to do with this flavorful chicken is a quick pasta dish you're gonna love.

Ingredients

2 chicken breasts (with a little of the marinade)
3 small tomatoes
1/2 red onion
Olive oil
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese + more to top with
Garlic powder
Salt
1/2 box pasta (we went with thin spaghetti)

Directions

Prepare your ingredients!  Cut chicken into bite-size pieces, dice red onion, and cut tomatoes into chunks.  I like to remove the seeds from the tomato to keep them from watering down the sauce.

Saute red onion in 1 tablespoon olive oil and salt.

Once onions are translucent, add chicken and tomatoes.  Cook over medium heat until the tomatoes have broken down, stirring frequently (about 15 minutes).

Cook and drain pasta.  Add pasta, 1 tablespoon olive oil, 1/4 cup of Parmesan cheese, and a sprinkle of garlic powder to the pan and mix with sauce until combined.

Serve and top with a little more Parmesan cheese.  So quick and easy!  Nothing better than a delicious meal from leftovers!

Another thing I wanted to mention is a photography workshop I'm going to this weekend.  If you're in the (greater) Boston area, check out Camera Ready Boston.  It's a full day (10-5:30) of lots of information and fun with other novices and bloggers.  Here's what we're going to learn.

By the end of the day you'll be able to comfortably shoot in manual mode and know all about aperture, ISO and shutter speed. You'll understand how best to shoot in low light, bright sun, and how to maximize and use available light most effectively when shooting. You'll learn the basic rules of framing shots, how to shoot still objects, people, and how to tell a story and shoot a process. You'll also learn basic editing tricks in Lightroom to really make your images shine. You'll get hands on practice and learn best practices for using your images on the web, in a blog, for your small business, or for your family albums.

At the end of the day, the professionals are even going to take portraits of everyone who attends.  There are a few spots left, so act soon!

Favorite Blogs of the Week

Happy Saturday!  Hope everyone's week is off to a great start!  I'm excited for a fun dinner with some friends at a super swanky restaurant, 80 Thoreau, tonight.

Without further ado, here are a few of my favorite blogs from the week.

Awesome food blogger and friend, Emily at Emylogus, posted a recipe for Brazilian Cheese Bread that made my mouth water.  This recipe also uses tapioca flour, so it's gluten free!

Get the recipe

This recipe from Iowa Girl Eats is seriously one of the most delicious looking meals ever.  Avocado, Mozerella and Bruschetta Chicken topped with a Balsamic Glaze - omg.  As soon as husband gets back from Florida...it's on the menu.

Seriously...don't you feel the need to make this NOW?

Everyday Occasions is hosting a Valentine's Day dinner for her friends (how sweet!) and has been brainstorming table settings.  I love what she's put together for the dinner party - soft fabrics (napkins, pillows, blankets, chairs), footed glassware, and a beautiful flower arrangement!

Maybe she'll invite me?  

These Strawberry Bars would be an awesome Valentine treat...and you've gotta love Valentine's Day food that isn't chocolate covered strawberries or cupcakes.  :)  (But if you want to see some Valentine's Day cupcakes...you can check these out!)

Strawberry sweets

Eating Bird Food posts the most amazing looking salads.  My favorite this week is her Cabbage, Carrot, and Apple Salad with a Tahini Dressing.  Love a salad without the traditional lettuce base!

And finally, here's a heartwarming  crazy story about bad Boston drivers.  Someone drove their car onto the T (our subway) tracks and got stuck.  This happened right in front of my office on Beacon Street in Brookline.  If you know where this is, you know 1) it's pretty obvious this isn't a road, and 2) she got pretty far down the tracks before her car got stuck.  Quite impressive.

Hint: sometimes the GPS is wrong......

See you Monday!