Chicken & Pumpkin Cream Sauce Pasta

When I run out of actual planned meals for the week, but haven't made it back to the store yet, I like to play a version of Chopped with myself. I find a protein and a starch or grain and see what I can whip up with them. This week, I was left with a pound of chicken breast and some whole grain pasta. I also still have a ton of pumpkin left, and thought maybe I could incorporate it into a chicken pasta dish. So I scoured Pinterest for "chicken pumpkin pasta" and came across this pin of this recipe.

I glanced at the ingredients and figured I would have everything I needed. As it turned out, I didn't have any chicken broth or heavy whipping cream. But I was able to find substitutes for both of them, so I forged ahead. And then I realized I didn't have any sage, so I looked up spices that typically accompany sage and used the ones I had from that list instead. The recipe you see here is a result of all those substitutions, a sort of Frankenstein's monster of mish-mashed ingredients that I figured would be "good enough."

Don't worry, unlike Frankenstein, this story has a happy ending.

Ingredients

8 oz whole grain linguine 

2 Tbsp butter

1 lb boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1/2-inch strips

2 cloves pressed or chopped garlic

1 cup canned pumpkin puree

1/2 cup water + 1/2 Tbsp olive oil mixed (sub for 1/2 cup chicken broth)

1/2 cup milk + 1/4 cup melted butter mixed ( sub for 3/4 cup whipping cream)

1 tsp thyme

1 tsp rosemary

1 tsp chili powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

Directions: 

1. Cook pasta according to package directions. Drain and keep warm.

2. While pasta is cooking, melt butter in 12-inch skillet until it sizzles, then add the chicken and garlic. Cook over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally, until chicken is cooked through (8 to 10 minutes). Add chicken and garlic to pasta.

3. Combine the pumpkin puree, chicken broth (or substitute), whipping cream (or substitute), herbs, spices and salt in medium bowl. 

4. Pour over pasta mixture and stir to coat. Heat everything up over medium heat until heated through (3 to 5 minutes).

The end result was actually pretty good! My husband said it was "surprisingly good" (a glowing recommendation if ever I've heard one). It was pretty devoid of color, though. If I were to make it again, I might try it the way it was originally intended. But without having the original version to compare this one to, I think this was a pretty good substitute.

This has been another installment of The Pintester Movement, where I pick a pin and just go for it, win or lose. I'm counting this one as a mostly-win, since all of the substitutions didn't render the dish inedible!

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Tortellini "Soup" Recipe

 I don't know why I have such a hard time naming my recipes. This recipe is soupier than a normal pasta dish, but not as soupy as a traditional soup, therefore "soup" is in quotation marks. Just go with it. A rose by any other name is still delicious.

Ingredients

1 pkg tortellini (I used Buitoni chicken and proschiutto)

1 pkg frozen yellow squash

1 can diced tomatoes

1/2 jar spaghetti sauce (I used roasted garlic)

Directions:

1. Prepare tortellini and squash according to package directions. Drain each of them and combine in the pot you boiled the tortellini in.

2. Add the can of diced tomatoes (juice included) and the half jar spaghetti sauce. Simmer until everything is warm. Serve with garlic bread to soak up the liquid (my favorite part). 

That's it! I don't know if this even really counts as a recipe, but it was quite tasty, if I do say so myself, and very fall-y too (noticing a theme this week?). Enjoy!

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Shrimp Pasta Bake Recipe

When I served this to my husband, his first remark was "Oooh, I've never had your goulash before!" And I'm like... this isn't a goulash. So I looked up what constitutes a goulash, and this is what I found:

Goulash (Hungarian: gulyás) is a soup or stew of meat, noodles and vegetables (especially potato), seasoned with paprika and other spices.

Paprika is actually one of the few spices I didn't throw into this dish, so it's not technically a goulash, but you can call it whatever you want. I went with shrimp pasta bake. 

Ingredients

 Pasta:

1 pkg cellentani noodles

1 jar marinara sauce

1 can diced tomatoes

parsley, oregano, onion powder and garlic powder to taste

1 cup shrimp

Crumble topping:

4 Tbs butter, melted

2/3 cup Italian style bread crumbs

1/3 cup shredded Parmesan cheese

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350°. Prepare the pasta according to package directions. Drain and place back in pot.

2. Add jar of marinara, tomatoes, spices and shrimp to pasta, stir to combine and move to 13"x9" baking dish.

 3. Prepare the crumble topping by combining all ingredients. Sprinkle over the top of the pasta mixture, and place the baking dish in the oven. Bake for 15 minutes.

With fall coming, this is the perfect meal to prepare and just climb into a bowl of on a crisp cool evening. Comfort food at its best. Kind of like goulash (except not).

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