The Professional

Amatuer hour is over. Brought in the big guns this weekend to show me how its done, and a quick guest blog.

MAMA! says -

Pops and I had the pleasure of helping Alex move into his new apartment in Atlanta where he will also be starting his “big boy” job soon as a Structural Engineer. And we all say YAY! As everyone knows, moving can work up quite an appetite and can also leave you with food in the pantry and refrigerator that you don’t know what to do with. My mama always taught me never to be wasteful and boy has that stuck with me. Because of that, I love to see what I can throw together with things on hand. So, that was my mission…to use up the leftovers. And this is easy to do, especially with pasta. Really. Read on and see what I came up with.

First of all, here are all the ingredients I used.

I cut up 3 chicken breasts that were left in the freezer.

I sliced a green pepper and cut grape tomatoes in half. I must confess these items I picked up at the grocery store.

Then, I began cooking the chicken in some olive oil and garlic in a skillet and sprinkled some oregano for seasoning.

I added the green pepper. Onion, mushrooms, or zucchini would be good to add here too, BUT those I didn’t have.

Then I added a jar of leftover vodka pasta sauce and simmered about 10 minutes.

Just before serving I threw in the sliced tomatoes. You do not want those to cook to mush.

During this time, I was cooking the pasta so it would be done at the same time. Timing of everything getting done at the same time may be challenging for some. All I can say is practice makes perfect.  
 

I wanted a salad and threw together something easy and delicious using a salad kit I found on “Manager Special” at Kroger’s, my “go to” store. Since I love a good bargain, finding those stickers always brings me great joy. I added fresh strawberries and blueberries to the spinach kit, which makes for a very healthy and yummy side to the pasta.   

Voila! Here is the finished meal ready to eat after a long day of moving in “hotlanta”. I grated some fresh parmesan on top of the pasta that was left from the fridge too. I have a garden at home and the cucumbers are plentiful right now and I share them with everyone I see, including Alex. As another side, I sliced and marinated a cucumber in red wine vinegar and sugar, which is something I learned from my mama growing up when we had a bounty of garden cucumbers. You can use regular vinegar too, but since I found the other in the pantry, well then, that’s what we used.      

 

Hey friends and family, Alex would love visitors at his new Atlanta apartment. I bet he would whip up something yummy for you in the kitchen too.

 

 

MAMA's performance: A+

She wins, she always does!