Kitchen Sink Pasta

Kitchen Sink Pasta... Despite the title this was a Dahlicious dish, full of lots of fresh ingredients. I stocked up on groceries this week thinking I'd be doing a lot of cooking, but it is not turning out that way. Tonight I will be baking a Chicken Pot Pie, that is not my own. We picked it up from an awesome shop in Wisconsin a few weeks back along with an Apple Pie and other fall goodies. This place makes Pot Pies and sweet pies and freezes them so that you can take them home and bake them off at your convenience. So that's tonight. Then tomorrow we are eating out to celebrate a few recent birthdays. Any who,  I have all these fresh veggies that need to be used and so came last nights dinner for one - plus lunch today!

On the Menu:
Linguini with Onion, Yellow Bell Pepper, Broccolini & Baby Yellow Tomatoes (and Chicken!)

The Dish:
In a large sauce pan I sauteed chopped onion and garlic in olive oil. Once they started to get a nice opaqueness going I added the chopped yellow bell pepper and the chopped broccolini. I added a bit more olive oil as well as salt, pepper, crushed dried oregano, and the juice from half of a lime. I let this saute for a few minutes alone. Next I added an entire little carton of baby yellow tomatoes. I let these saute until they were ready to be squished. Once that time came and they were oozing with Dahlicious juiciness I let the whole mixture rest on low heat until ready to serve. Add salt and pepper to taste. ALSO: While my linguini was boiling I added a table spoon or two of the starchy pasta water to my veggie sauce and gave it a good mix.

In a separate smaller sauce pan I placed 3 raw chicken tenders ( I happened to buy a whole thing of these guys thinking I was going to have time to try this baked chicken tender recipe using Greek yogurt for a marinade and crushed corn flakes for a crusty fried effect...anyways that might happen next week). So in went the three tenders, I filled the pan up with water so that they were just covered, then put it over high heat with a lid until it came to a boil. Turn the temp down to medium low and let them cook all the way through. Once they were done I chopped/shredded them and added the pieces to my "veggie sauce". When the pasta was perfectly al dente I scooped it out (allowing some of the water to still cling to the pasta) and tossed it right in my veggie/chicken saute pan. After a nice toss, ensuring all of my lovely pasta strands were coated in that olive oily, tomatoey, garlicy goodness, I served up a nice little mound in a cream soup bowl.

Sauteed Veggies

Squished tomatoes

Dinna time!

Veggies in every bite!

It was an easy dinner and was a good use of lots of fresh ingredients that needed to be eaten. This idea could be tweaked in so many ways to accommodate whatever you have in the fridge  Any veggies would have worked, you could have used canned tomatoes instead of fresh ones, or added fresh chopped herbs if you had them on hand. Not to mention you could have subbed tofu or shrimp or any other protein for the chicken.

Hope this inspires at least one of you to take a look in your fridge and be a little creative on how you can use all of your ingredients (perhaps minus the kitchen sink!) in one meal to avoid tossing your precious groceries!