So on Sunday I found myself in a typical dilemma (well at least in my home!)…it was time to start dinner and I had NOTHING to cook…this happens to me often when I don’t do my weekly meal planning! So, I’m standing in my kitchen, and I’m starving (cause of course I waited until I was starving to even think about figuring something out to make!), so I needed something quick! I used to love looking in my fridge & pantry and just creating some random dish, but since I have a husband now, I’ve doing that a lot less lately (I don’t think it’s as fair to him as when I was single & could just eat a pb&j for dinner if my little “concoctions” (that’s what my roommates used to call it when they’d see me standing in front of the fridge with “that look”) didn’t turn out quite as good as I’d pictured in my head). So, I’m a bit out of practice in the whole “top chef” thing!

So anyway, as I said, I was standing in the kitchen starving, with NO IDEA what I could make! So, here is what I came up with:

Super Simple Chicken Pasta

• cooked chicken, cut up
• 1 pkg pasta
• 1 can diced tomatoes
• 1 can tomato paste
• about a cup of water
• Italian seasoning, to taste
• hot pepper flakes, to taste
• s&p, to taste
• Parmesan cheese
• parsley flakes

1. Really, I just mixed together the tomato paste & water in a pot & then added the diced tomatoes, chicken, and seasonings, and heated it through.
2. At that was heating, I cooked the pasta…I used the refrigerated pasta, which really helped to make this a SUPER quick meal (refrigerated pasta only takes a few minutes to cook. If you’re using normal (dry) pasta, I’d start cooking it first.
3. Once the pasta was done cooking, I immediately added it to the chicken pot and mixed it with the sauce (really important step! This post explains why).
4. I mixed in a bunch of Parmesan cheese (my husband LOVES cheese, so I always use quite a bit in recipes).
5. I sprinkled each individual serving with a bit more Parmesan and some parsley flakes (just to brighten up the flavor a little bit).

Okay, okay, so now that you’ve read the recipe, maybe you DON’T wish you’re creative like me, because I realize this isn’t really all that creative. Really, all it is is a really basic spaghetti with chicken instead of ground beef, and linguine instead of spaghetti noodles. But, hey, I was impressed with myself, and my husband and I were both surprised at how good this turned out because of how simple it was! Perfect weeknight meal!

Recommendations:

• Chicken: I used leftover rotisserie chicken.
• Pasta: As I said, I used refrigerated pasta (linguine this time around). I almost always have some in my fridge lately, it’s a great go-to item.

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