Farfalle Pasta with Chicken, Red Onion, Garlic and Arugula

Here's a wonderful pasta dish that is super easy with just a few ingredients. Typically, I'll make a pasta dish like this when I have some left over chicken. I don't know about you, but I've always got left over chicken.

Ingredients:

1/2 pound Farfalle pasta 

1 - 2 tablespoon olive oil

1 cooked diced chicken breast

1 medium rough chopped red onion

1 bunch green onions

4 crushed garlic cloves

Large handful of arugula

Salt and pepper

Parmesan cheese

Preparation:

Take a large stock pot and fill with water. Add 2 tablespoons salt and bring to a boil. Cook the Farfalle pasta according to directions, which is usually 9 - 10 minutes to al dente, firm to the bite. When done, drain reserving 1 cup pasta water.

Take a 12" saute pan and heat to medium. Add the olive oil and red onion. Saute the onion until soft. Add the chicken, garlic and green onion and cook a couple minutes until the chicken is warmed. Add the pasta and arugula and toss to heat. Check the seasoning, add salt and pepper. After a minute or two, add the reserved pasta water and toss. Cook one minute and you're done.

To serve, place a portion of pasta on a serving plate and garnish with grated Parmesan cheese and diced green onions.

Grilled Salmon Tostada Salad

I love the Costco coho salmon, but you always need a plan B because you get so much. This is a nice light grilled salmon tostada salad with a little smashed avocado and sour cream.

Ingredients:

Trader Joe's Flour tortillas

1/2 head shredded ice burg lettuce

1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

6 diced green onions

1/2 bunch chopped cilantro

1 large or 2 medium avocado's 

Lite sour cream

Preparation:

First prepare the tostada bowls. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. I've used a lot of different tortilla brands and I highly recommend Trader Joe's. They're healthy, meaning no trans fat and taste great.

Place the tortilla's into the metal mold and bake at 400 degrees for 6 - 7 minutes. At this point, the tostada bowls are almost finished. Take the tostada bowls out of the oven and turn off the oven. Remove the tostada bowls from the metal mold and place them back into the oven directly on the wire rack and cook for another 10 minutes. At this point you will have a wonderful crispy crunchy tostada bowl.

Preheat a stove top grill pan to medium high. Brush some olive oil on each piece of salmon, season with salt and pepper and cook 4 minutes. After 4 minutes, rotate the salmon 90 degrees. This will give the salmon the nice cross hatched grill marks. Cook the salmon for another 4 minutes and turn the salmon pieces and repeat and you're done.

  

Shred the lettuce and place into the tostada bowl. Add some shredded cheese, green onions, cilantro and a few pieces of grilled salmon. Add some smashed avocado and sour cream and garnish with some chopped cilantro. 

Pesto Chicken Sandwich

Whenever I make fresh pesto there's always going to be some left over. Here I'm making a grilled chicken pesto sandwich on crusty Italian bread. The key to this sandwich is keeping it simple with sliced Roma tomato's and arugula.  

Ingredients:

Boneless skinless chicken breast

Sliced provolone cheese

Pesto

Mayo

Roma tomato's

Arugula

Crusty sliced Italian bread

Preparation:

Take the chicken breast and cut in half so the chicken breast is half a thick. Place the chicken breast on your cutting board, cover with plastic wrap and pound the chicken breast so it's about a 1/2" thick. Repeat the process with the rest of the chicken breast pieces.

Heat a stove top grill pan to medium high. Brush some olive oil on each piece of chicken then some salt and pepper and grill for about 5 minutes per side. When the chicken is almost done, spoon on some pesto and add the cheese and let melt.

To assemble the sandwich, toast the sliced Italian bread. Take the bottom piece of toast add some mayo and then the chicken breast. Next, add some sliced tomato's and arugula. Take the top piece of toast and spread on some mayo and place on the sandwich. Cut in half and serve with fries or simple salad.

Sweet Soy Glazed Chicken Breast on Chow Mein Stir Fry Noodles

I'm always on the look out for new products to try. Sometime ago I found this Sweet Soy Glaze from Kikkoman and I use it a lot, love it. In this dish I'm trying these chow mein stir fry noodles from Wel-Pac. The noodles very tasty with a nice bite and was a really good pairing with the Sweet Soy Glazed chicken breasts. 

Ingredients:
Boneless chicken breasts with skin
1 package Chow Mein stir fry noodles
Soy glaze
Sliced green onions

Preparation:

Pre heat the oven to 350 degrees. Take the chicken breasts and rinse in cold water and dry with paper towels. Make 3 slits about 1/4 inch deep through the skin on a diagonal. Place the chicken breasts on a baking pan and brush on some Sweet Soy Glaze. Bake for about 20 minutes brushing on some additional Sweet Soy Glaze half way through. 

Once the chicken breasts are cooked, turn on the broiler and cook until the skin turns a dark brown and starts to burn. When done, let the chicken breasts rest 5 minutes before serving.

To cook the chow mein noodles, place the noodles in boiling water for 3 minutes. Drain the noodles and place in a bowl with some canola oil. The oil will keep the noodles from sticking together. Add a little salt and pepper to taste.

To serve, place a portion of chow mein noodles on a serving plate. Place a chicken breast on the noodles and garnish with slice green onions.

Sauteed Green Beans with Garlic and Red Pepper Flakes

Garlic and red pepper flakes are one of my favorite spice combinations. Here I'm using rough chopped garlic that I cooked in the microwave for just 30 seconds with a tablespoon of butter. By briefly cooking the garlic this way, I'm softening the garlic and taking out the raw spicy taste. 

Ingredients:

1 pound green beans

1 teaspoon olive oil

1 tablespoon butter

6 - 8 garlic cloves very rough chop

Pinch red pepper flakes

Salt and pepper to taste

Preparation:

Take the green beans and trim off the ends and cut on an angle into 1" to 1-1/2" long. Use the stove top steamer to cook the green beans about 10 minutes. When done rinse in cold water to stop the cooking process.

Take the garlic and rough chop into pretty big pieces. Place the garlic in a small microwave proof bowl with 1 tablespoon of butter and cook in the microwave for 30 seconds.

Heat a 10" saute pan to medium high. Add the olive oil and green beans and toss. Add the garlic, butter and red pepper flakes and toss until well incorporated. Heat to serving temperature. Season with salt and pepper and you're done.

Spaghetti & Spaghetti Squash with Garlic and Red Pepper Flakes

This pasta dish is simple delicious. The classic combination of pasta with garlic and red pepper flakes, but with the sweet nutty flavor of the spaghetti squash. Yum!

Ingredients:

1 medium spaghetti squash

1/2 pound Barilla spaghetti

1 tablespoon olive oil

4 crushed garlic cloves

Pinch red pepper flakes

Salt and pepper

Preparation:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Take the spaghetti squash and carefully slice in half lengthwise. Scoop out the seeds and place face down on a baking pan. Cook the spaghetti squash for about 30 minutes or until you can easily pass a knife through the squash. Once cooked remove to a plate and let cool. When cool, take a fork and pull out the strands squash. 

Take a large stock pot and fill with water. Add 2 tablespoons salt and bring to a boil. Cook the spaghetti according to directions, which is usually 9 - 10 minutes to al dente, firm to the bite. When done, drain the spaghetti reserving 1 cup pasta water.

Take a 12" saute pan and heat to medium high. Add the olive oil, garlic and red pepper flakes. Cook the garlic and red pepper flakes for 1 minute. Turn up the heat to high and add the spaghetti squash and spaghetti and toss. Add the cup of reserved pasta water, salt and pepper to taste and toss for 1 minute until piping hot and you're done.

To serve, place a portion of pasta on a serving plate. Add a drizzle of olive oil, some grated Parmesan cheese and garnish with chopped Italian parsley.