Sunday, January 22, 2012

Convenience dinner!

It's the first Sunday I've worked in a while, and it bummed me out.  I was supposed to sing with the Worship Team today, but I needed to be at work.  I walked in to snow, though, and ended up having to dig my way to my office and out at the Temporary Quarters units.  What a workout!  (And you better believe that I plugged those activity points in!)  After being in the office from 8:30-5, though, the last thing I wanted to do was come home and cook.  In fact, I texted the handsome hubby while I was at work and told him I really wanted some hot and sour soup.  You know, one of those suggestive texts where you hope they get the picture and have whatever it is waiting for you when you get home???  Yeah.  Didn't work.

As I came in from work, he was heading out, and that left me with dinner to figure out for myself and the boys.  We had some frozen burger patties, so I made them some quick burgers, which made them happy.  I was really pleased to remember that I had purchased some Tyson Grilled & Ready chicken breast strips.  Hungry Girl (you guys know her, right???) was on NECN the other day and mentioned these ready to heat meats.  Totally takes the defrosting/seasoning/cooking mess out of the way.  They're ready in about 5 minutes if you warm them on the stovetop!  HOLLA!

I had quite a few points to kill tonight, and I've been really craving some cheesy pasta goodness, so I made the most of what I had left.  This recipe could easily be knocked down to one pasta serving to reduce the points, BTW.

4 oz Ronzoni Garden Fresh Rotini pasta
3 oz Tyson Grilled & Ready chicken breast strips
3/4 cup sliced mushrooms
2 tsp olive oil
2 tsp parmesan cheese

Points plus: 15 (but could easily be reduced to 10 with only one serving of pasta).

I just prepared the pasta as directed (in boiling water for 8 min).  The chicken I combined with 1 tsp of olive oil and the mushrooms in a pan and heated through for about 5 min.  I drained the pasta, then threw the chicken/mushroom combo right into that pot, and drizzled the remaining 1 tsp of olive oil over the pasta.  I sprinkled the parmesan while it was hot, because melted parmesan rocks my world.

End result?  Fantastico!  My verdict on the Tyson Grilled & Ready?  Faster than loading up and picking up Chinese take out for sure!  It was so easy to eat, and very flavorful.  It was nice for a quick, thrown together meal.

1 comment:

Leah said...

Looks delicious! I am having such a hard time with the reduced amount of pasta I've been eating. I love it so much and I just have the hardest time with what 2oz of pasta really is. Oy!