Studio711.com – Ben Martens

My standard cooking schedule for the week is to make something on Sunday that takes a little longer and gives us leftovers for a couple nights. Then on Tuesday or Wednesday, I make something quick in 20-30 minutes. It’s hard finding great recipes that only take that long, but I recently found this one and it quickly got added to our list. Deeeelicious and easy.

Ingredients
• 1 package (7 ounces) spaghetti
• 3/4 pound of bacon, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
• 1 medium onion, chopped (1/2 cup)
• 1 garlic clove, finely chopped
• 2 cups cut-up cooked chicken
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 1/2 cup whipping (heavy) cream

 

Directions
1. Cook and drain spaghetti as directed on package.
2. Cook chicken.
3. While spaghetti is cooking, cook bacon in 3-quart saucepan over low heat 8 to 10 minutes, stirring frequently, until crisp. Remove bacon from saucepan with slotted spoon; drain. Drain fat from saucepan, reserving 1 tablespoon in saucepan.
4. Cook onion and garlic in bacon fat over medium heat about 3 minutes, stirring frequently, until onion is tender.
5. Stir in spaghetti, chicken, cheese and whipping cream.
6. Cook, stirring occasionally, until heated through. Toss with bacon.

My mom always made a bunch of delicious Christmas cookies, but my favorite were graham cracker brownies. They’re so good! The recipe is really simple but it’s a good arm workout because of how thick and gooey the batter is. And the fun isn’t done after you pull them out of the oven. Getting them cut and removed from the pan is a workout too! But when you’re done… mmm…. a friend at our recent party said, “What is in these crack brownie things?!?!” Enjoy!

Ingredients

• 4 cups finely crushed graham cracker crumbs. (it is about 1 package of graham crackers from a box. Or you can buy already crushed graham crackers. You usually find them in the baking section by the graham cracker pie crusts.)
• 1 package of chocolate chips
• 2 cans sweetened condensed milk (not evaporated milk) (found in the baking aisle.)
• 2 teaspoons vanilla

 

Directions

Mix all together. Bake in a 9×13 pan for 25-30 minutes at 350 degrees. It’s easier to remove the bars if you use a glass pan. You’ll want to let them cool a bit before removing them from the pan because they will probably be too gooey at first.

Other versions of this recipe have you had baking powder which would probably make it a little fluffier when it’s done, but I really like the dense result.

One of my favorite YouTube channels is Cook With Meat. He recently had a video about some marinated chicken kabobs that looked so delicious and easy that I had to try them. Instead of boring you with my own poor photos, check out this beautiful video that also includes the recipe:

Most of my Spanish was learned by reading delicious menus so I’m pretty sure that “pollo a la crema” means “chicken in cream”. I see it on the menus when I go there and think “I should make that at home”, but I’ve never followed through. I can’t say that anymore. Tyla’s verdict was that it was delicious, but the sauce wasn’t the same flavor as what you usually get in a restaurant. I think this will be a regular in our rotation.

The recipe comes from allrecipes.com but we modified it to include mushrooms and onions.

Ingredients

• 4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves – cut into cubes
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1 cup chicken broth
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 2 tablespoons ketchup
• Mushrooms
• Onion
• 6 (6 inch) flour tortillas

 

Directions

1. In a large skillet over medium heat, melt butter.
2. In a separate skillet, cook mushrooms and onions
3. Add chicken and cook, stirring frequently until juices run clear.
4. Stir in the flour and ketchup, then whisk in the broth.
5. When sauce begins to thicken, reduce heat and stir in the cream.
6. Simmer covered for about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.

I guess we were a little burned out with all our grilling because we’ve been eating everything from the stove or the oven since that ended. We’ve been eating some great food though! We just tried a new recipe for chicken pasta with mozzarella and sundried tomatoes. It was deeeelicious! You can find the original recipe here.

Ingredients

• 3 large garlic cloves, minced
• 1 small jar (3-4 oz) sun-dried tomatoes in oil, or use 3-4 oz fat-free sun dried tomatoes
• 1 lb chicken breast tenders
• salt
• paprika (just a little bit)
• 1 cup half and half
• 1 cup mozzarella cheese, shredded
• 8 oz penne pasta
• 1 tablespoon basil (if using dry basil), if using fresh basil you can add more
• 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes (at least, add more to taste)
• 1/2 cup reserved cooked pasta water (or more)
• salt, to taste

 

Instructions

1. Note: if using sun-dried tomatoes in oil (in a jar), make sure to drain sun-dried tomatoes from oil, before using them. Reserve 2 tablespoons of this drained oil for sauteing as described below:

2. In a large pan, on high heat, sautee garlic and sun-dried tomatoes (drained from oil) in 2 tablespoons of oil (reserved from the sun-dried tomatoes jar – see note above) for 1 minute until garlic is fragrant. Remove sun-dried tomatoes from the pan, leaving the oil, and add chicken tenders, salted and lightly covered in paprika (for color) and cook on high heat for 1 minute on each side. Remove from heat.
3. Cook pasta according to package instructions. Reserve some cooked pasta water. Drain and rinse the pasta with cold water (to stop cooking).
4. Slice sun-dried tomatoes into smaller bits and add them back to the skillet with chicken. Add half and half and cheese to the skillet, too, and bring to a gentle boil. Immediately reduce to simmer and cook, constantly stirring, until all cheese melts and creamy sauce forms. If the sauce is too thick – don’t worry – you’ll be adding some cooked pasta water soon. Add cooked pasta to the skillet with the creamy sauce, and stir to combine. Add 1 tablespoon of basil, and at least 1/4 teaspoon of red pepper flakes. Stir to combine.
5. Add about 1/2 cup reserved cooked pasta water because the creamy sauce will be too thick (do not add all water at once – you might need less or more of it). This will water down the thickness of the cheese sauce and make it creamier. Immediately, season the pasta with salt and more red pepper flakes, to taste, if needed. Let it simmer for a couple of minutes for flavors to combine.

6. Note: Make sure to salt the dish just enough to bring out of the flavors of basil and sun-dried tomatoes.