Two delicious dinners (and a few lunches) from one jar of sauce and a box of penne…

 

So, I decided to use my blog to keep track of/record/share some of the things that make me ridiculously happy…one of those things is cooking…and lately, with little time or patience because of school and work, I have been pretty excited about quick and easy dinners that are still home-made and delicious.  

—-

The original plan for this pair of dinners was to make my own white sauce, but I was lazy and in the middle of final papers, so I ended up buying a jar of pre-made garlic parmesan alfredo-type sauce.



Dinner 1: Spicy Beef and Asparagus with white sauce.

• I seasoned a nice-looking piece of beef (sirloin maybe?), seared it on all sides, let it rest, then just sliced it super-thin.
• Tossed some canned asparagus (frozen or fresh would have been better, but that is all I could get from the Giant that day…if you’re using the canned, make sure you rinse it off…if you’re using frozen, make sure you thaw…if you’re using fresh, just steam it in like an inch of water or something) with half of the jar of sauce and heated it through.
• I mixed in about 1/2 a box of cooked penne and topped with the beef.

 

Super easy, quick and delicious 🙂

 

Dinner 2: Breaded chicken with garlic parmesan penne and sautéed garlic green beans

• The worst part about this one is breading the chicken, which is sort of messy and takes a little time, but it’s way worth it….I cut a big chicken breast into strips, dredged them in flour, tossed in an egg wash, and coated with italian bread crumbs.  Then I fried them for like 2 minutes a side in vegetable oil. Drained them on paper towels and wrapped them in foil and put them in my toaster oven on low heat (like 250 to 300 degrees) to let them finish cooking and stay warm. Wiped the oil out of the pan.
• Boiled some fresh green beans until they were about half as done as I’d like them, then drained them and tossed them into the chicken pan with a little bit of oil and some chopped garlic, salt, and cayenne pepper.
• I just heated the rest of the jar of sauce with the other half of the box of cooked pasta, added some extra parmesan cheese, and a little cayenne just to tie it into the green bean flavors.
• Served the chicken on top of the pasta, with the green beans on the side.
• You could also make this with mashed potatoes (with or without gravy) instead of the pasta.

 

Both of these dinners made great leftovers for lunch that just heat up in the microwave in a minute or so (which is good, considering I am very very bad at making enough for just one….usually I’ve got enough for at least 2 people, and there are certain recipes I can get down to less than 4 servings no matter how hard I try…)

 

This entry was posted on Monday, December 10th, 2007 at 8:12 pm and is filed under Yum. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.