Buffalo Chicken Pasta Salad

Yum. 

Last week, I spent my spring break in St. Louis and Dallas relaxing and taking a true mental vacation. While in Dallas, we all decided to stay in one night and make dinner. I jumped on the chance to test out a new recipe. Pinterest introduced me to this recipe for Buffalo Chicken Pasta Salad, so we went to work. 

What You Need:

• 8 oz uncooked pasta (we went with bowtie!)
• 1/2 cup Frank's hot sauce (my first time cooking with hot sauce!)
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 1/4 tsp garlic powder
• 1/4 tsp onion powder
• 1/4 tsp celery salt
• 2 cups precooked chicken
• 1 1/2 cups blue cheese crumbles
• 1 cup carrots
• 1 cup celery

Click here to follow Snappy Gourmet's step by step directions for making the pasta. 

Now, you're probably wondering why that bottle of white wine vinegar is hanging out with garlic salt in the above photo. Maybe you weren't wondering that, but now you are. Well, initially it was thought that lemon juice was M.I.A. After subbing in white wine vinegar for lemon juice, we found a brand new bottle of lemon juice chillin' in the fridge. Literally. 

We also failed to find any garlic powder, onion powder, or celery salt .... so we used garlic salt. Could my taste buds tell anything was missing? Nope. 

What else do you need for a successful pasta? Someone else to chop the veggies. Lucky me, huh? I stuck to the easy stuff. 

Chop & Pour, repeat.

Fit For a King (or 4 friends on a Saturday night)

Promptly after this photo was taken, I was feeling rather confident the pasta dish that was created. I did a fancy little spin move on the rug and wiped out. The fridge happend to catch my fall and, thankfully, the pasta.

Bless You, Fridge.

Taco Chicken Soup

Happy Monday, friends! I hope the weather is beautiful in your area. Today, I woke up as a frozen popsicle in my bed (because I'm cheap and won't turn up the heat) and this afternoon I was prancing around in flippy flops. I sure do love spring weather! 

While driving home, I remembered I had a few chicken breasts in my fridge waiting to be cooked. I was in the mood for something soupy, stewy, taco-ey, and yummy. I started looking up recipes for a chicken taco soup, but I didn't have all of the ingredients to complete one.. so I combined a few! 

Chicken Taco Soup
Here's What You Need!

• Chicken breasts
• 1 packet of taco seasoning
• Salt
• Chicken broth
• Cream of chicken soup
• 1/2 of velveeta ...stick? What do you call those things?
• 1-2 cups salsa
• 1 can corn
• Tortilla chips
• Sour cream

Directions:

• Boil chicken breasts, taco seasoning, chicken broth and water for roughly 30-45 minutes. Don't quote me on that one! 
• Remove the chicken from the broth and chop up into cubes or shred. I went for the shred/cubed approach.
• Add the remainder of your ingredients (except chips and sour cream) to your broth and let simmer. Don't forget to throw your chicken back in!
• Pour some in a bowl and eat with chips and sour cream. Enjoy!

I enjoyed mine from the comfort of my patio. Now, I'm going to clean the crap (pardon me) out of my house.

My patio is ready for guests. Come one... come all!

Hello Sunday! We meet again.

Every Sunday, I ask for one more Sunday. I have yet to be granted this wish. Maybe I should start smaller. How about... I wish for my sheets to magically fly from the dyer onto my bed.

Thanks to Pinterest, I found a yummy dish on Plain Chicken for Chicken Parmesan Crescents. The recipe suggests serving it with pasta, but I just had the chicken. It was absolutely yummy. The perfect dish to go with the Real Housewives of New Jersey reunion.


Enjoy! 

8 fully cooked fried chicken fingers (I used frozen Tyson crispy chicken strips)

8 slices mozzarella cheese, cut in half

1 can crescent rolls

1 tsp garlic powder

1 jar spaghetti sauce

6 oz cooked pasta

Preheat oven to 375.  Separate crescent rolls into 8 triangles.  Pour sauce into a bowl or saucepan.  Place one half slice of mozzarella cheese on top of crescent roll.  Dunk chicken finger into spaghetti sauce and place on top of cheese.  Roll up crescent and place on cookie sheet.  Repeat with remaining chicken fingers and crescents.  Sprinkle each roll with garlic powder.  Bake for 15 minutes.  Remove from oven and top each crescent with remaining half slice of mozzarella cheese.  Bake for additional 5-8 minutes.  Meanwhile, heat leftover spaghetti sauce and toss with cooked pasta.  Serve pasta with crescents.

Yum. 

On a brighter note, I would love to have this addition in my kitchen. Adorable!

Design Sponge

Still waiting on that wish... 


Happy Sunday!

"Ain't Nothin' But a Chicken Wing!"

For dinner this evening, I decided to tackle Martha's Brown-Sugar Barbecue Chicken Drumettes. The recipe reminded me of the glaze I use for my meatloaf (minus a few ingredients). With meatloaf in mind, I knew these chicken wings were bound to be delicious.

Ingredients

• 2 cups ketchup
• 1 cup packed light-brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
• 2 tablespoons cider vinegar
• Coarse salt and ground pepper
• 6 pounds chicken drumettes, patted dry

Ready to rock and roll!

Directions

1. In a medium bowl, whisk together ketchup, sugar, Worcestershire, and vinegar; season with salt and pepper. Set aside 1 cup sauce for tossing raw chicken; use rest for baked chicken.
2. Preheat oven to 450 degrees, with racks in upper and lower thirds; line two rimmed baking sheets with aluminum foil.
3. Divide drumettes between baking sheets, and toss with reserved 1 cup sauce.
4. Bake chicken until opaque throughout, 30 to 35 minutes, rotating sheets and tossing chicken halfway through. Toss baked drumettes with 1/2 cup sauce, and serve with remaining sauce on the side.

Thanks to Martha, my belly is full and satisfied. I topped off my dinner with a few tootsie rolls and quality television on TLC.

Now, I shall continue what I did all day.. relaxing in my sweats.

my summer