Food adventures: Weekend cooking; Penne pasta with Chicken in White Garlic Sauce

chef-hat and stock potWhen I cook, I rarely follow a recipe. I mean… why should I? I find I have way too much fun being creative and doing my own thing!

This past Sunday, I decided to make a dish specifically with my daughter in mind.

She’s not vegan, although for the first six years of her life, she was. And yes, I prepare non-vegan food in our house. As she became older she was interested in trying other things. I let her. She still mainly eats vegetarian/vegan but she likes to mix it up with other things too…

Preparing non-veggie meals shows her that even if she isn’t veggie she can make healthy choices.  You just need to make smart food choices. That rule applies to vegetarians/vegan too! Don’t get me started about the number of unhealthy veggies I’ve met.

Diced Chicken w herbs_1
Marinated boneless chicken breast

 

I started with boneless chicken breasts, and cut it into small pieces.  This was set aside in the refrigerator to marinate with a variety of herbs/spices. Hours later I brought it out so I could prepare the meal.

But what to prepare? Hmm…

Initially, I was only going add vegetables directly to the chicken dish, but I realized that I hadn’t made noodles  in a while (my daughter loves noodles) and so I decided to prepare penne.

Penne Pasta_1
Penne with fresh garden tomatoes

 

I was going to simple add lightly buttered garlic penne w/herbs to the chicken dish, but I thought it would be much tastier (and richer) if I made a white sauce to compliment the chicken. So… I grabbed some flour, milk, herbal tea, tomatoes, herbs and spices. I combined everything together and let it cook until it had thickened into a rich and thick sauce. My did it smell good!

Penne Pasta_2
Penne with White Sauce

 

I served the meal; the chicken was set atop the penne pasta (sorry I forgot to take a picture of that.) The results? My daughter loved it so much that she got a second helping immediately after consuming the first.

Food for dad

Since my mother was working, I made enough to share with my father. Although a man of few words (when it comes to giving compliments about food) he said it was really good!

Just because I don’t eat meat, doesn’t mean I don’t know how to prepare it. I do… 🙂 Although I didn’t eat the chicken, I did have some of the noodles and I must say it was delicious. The next time I prepare penne this way, I believe I’ll add mushrooms, grated carrots, and thinly sliced broccoli.

I was planning on posting pictures of the red bean burgers I’d made. But, I believe I’ll save those for another post. 😉

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suituapui

Oooo….that looks good! I had pasta too – last Saturday night when my daughter was home and we went out for dinner after the sunset service church. It was good too – will blog about it soon.
suituapui recently posted..The best…

Jennifer

I prepare SOME non-vegan food as well but I don’t ‘fiddle’ with it. My husband is a strict ‘freezer’ foods type person when it comes to that stuff. Not the healthiest but he is who he is! LOL It usually goes from the package to the oven.
Jennifer recently posted..Tangy Limas with Squash and Tomatoes, Buffalo Black Bean Dip, Wild Week, Pups, and Cousins