Fettuccine with Spinach Pesto

So I said I was going to blog about something fun and exciting for Monday night.  Yeah well I completely forgot about blogging-- sorry! :)

I did cook tonight though.  This is one of my favorite pasta dishes.  Everyone in my family loves it, plus it sneaks spinach into Carter.  Eli will eat almost anything, Carter is a little pickier, so this is perfect for him.

As always, here's the link to the original recipe and here's how I make it.

The goods

Fettuccine with Spinach Pesto
Prep time 25 mins
Total time 25 mins
Serves 4

1 Package fettuccine

Coarse salt and ground pepper

1 package (10 ounces) frozen chopped spinach, thawed

1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese, plus more for serving

2 tablespoons pine nuts, plus more for serving

2-3 garlic cloves

1 teaspoon grated zest plus 2 tablespoons juice from 1 lemon

1/4 cup olive oil

1/4 cup cold water

1. Cook pasta in a large pot of boiling salted water according to package instructions. Reserve 1/2 cup pasta water, drain pasta, and return to pot.

2. While pasta is cooking, place spinach, Parmesan, nuts, garlic, and lemon zest and juice in a food processor. Process until a paste forms. With motor running, add oil and cold water; process until smooth and creamy, about 1 minute. Season with salt and pepper.

3. Add to pasta; toss, adding reserved pasta water a little at a time until sauce is thinned slightly and coats fettuccine (you may not need all the water). Serve, sprinkled with additional Parmesan and nuts.

Steps of making the pesto:

All aboard!

Pre oil and water

Ready to mingle with the pasta

I always serve this with chicken breasts.  My method for chicken is simple. 

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.  Melt 1 tablespoon butter in a heavy oven safe pan over medium high heat.  Sprinkle garlic salt on one side of the chicken breasts.  Once the butter is melted place the chicken in the pan, garlic salt side down.  Sprinkle the other side of the chicken with garlic salt.  Cook chicken for about 3-4 minutes until browned, flip the chicken and cook again for 3-4 minutes.  Place the pan (with the chicken in it) in the oven to finish cooking, approximately 15-20 minutes, or until the internal temperature is 165-170 degrees.

YUM!

I talk about garlic salt a lot so I thought I'd show you the kind I use.  Here it is:

This is the only garlic salt I use.  Why? Because when Jon and I were first dating it's what he had in his cupboard.  I liked it so much I adopted it as my own.  Jon thinks it's pretty funny how loyal I am to this particular garlic salt.  He thinks it's the parsley that makes me feel fancy.  I think it tastes good.

On the menu for tomorrow is frittata, but we'll see what happens.  Frittata has been on the menu since last week, things just keep getting in the way.  Our crazy week last week and, I think the biggest motivator, it just hasn't sounded good to me.  Jon asked for it.  I know I'll love it when I eat it so I just need to make it already!

Comfort Food... part 2

This was Wednesday night's dinner.  We went to the farmer's market last night and I didn't have the energy to blog afterwards. So you get a midday blog!  (Thank heavens for nap time!)

I made Chicken Divan, another dish from my childhood.  I don't have an actual recipe, I just kind of know how to make it.  My measurements are approximates, but I'm pretty sure they're close enough.  :)  As I've gotten older, I've discovered there are many different versions of Chicken Divan.  This is my mom's version.

Chicken Divan
Prep time: 30 mins
Cook time: 30 mins
Serves: 4

4 Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breasts
2lbs Frozen Broccoli
1 Can Cream of Chicken Soup
1/2 Cup Mayonnaise
1 tsp Curry powder
Shredded Cheddar Cheese
1-2 Tbsp Butter
1/4-1/2 Cup Breadcrumbs

1. Bring a large pot of water to boil.  Add the chicken breasts and cook until the internal temperature reads 165 degrees.  Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

2. While the chicken is cooking, microwave the frozen broccoli until it is no longer frozen.  You don't want it pipping hot, just not frozen.

3.  In  a small bowl, mix the cream of chicken soup, mayonnaise and curry powder.

4.  Once the broccoli and chicken are cooked assemble the dish.  In a 9x13 baking dish, put the broccoli on the bottom, the chicken on top of the broccoli and then cover the chicken and broccoli with the soup mixture.

5.  Cover the dish with the cheese.  You can put as much or as little cheese are you would like. Just make sure there is a layer covering all the chicken and broccoli.

6.  Melt the butter in a bowl or small dish in the microwave.  Add bread crumbs until they are the texture of wet sand.  (Sorry, bad analogy, but that's all I could think of!) Once again, use as little or as much butter and bread crumbs as you want.  Sprinkle the bread crumb mixture on top of the cheese.

7.  Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes or until the bread crumbs and cheese start to brown.

Enjoy!

My mom always used left over turkey from Thanksgiving for this dish.  So growing up I always had shredded turkey in this dish.  It was just as good.  You could even use a store bought rotisserie chicken to save time.

You could also use fresh broccoli and steam it before adding it to the dish, but that just takes more time.  Plus I've found the yummiest frozen broccoli at Trader Joe's.

Jon doesn't like curry, so I end up splitting the soup mixture in half and putting curry in my half and cumin in Jon's half.  He says it tastes better with the cumin, I think he's crazy.

Speaking of Jon, his favorite part of the whole dish is the butter/breadcrumb mixture.  He would have me double to amount of breadcrumbs and butter but I have to make this dish somewhat healthy, right? ;)

I didn't take any pictures, I completely forgot, please forgive me.  I will take pictures of tonight's dinner... meatloaf!