Creamy Shells and Cheese

-with broccoli and grilled chicken

If December were to call for any kind of food, I would think it would call for comfort food.

Yes, December is a month for indulging in all things food, it's true. However, you also have to keep in mind that December brings cold, cloudy, gloomy weather. It always seems to bring a time crunch. I mean, doesn't it seem there is never enough time this month? Between shopping for gifts, baking and cooking, relatives in town you only see but once a year, Christmas decorating, Christmas recitals and pageants... Where's the time to breathe? To sneak in some yoga? To calm down? There's not a lot. My advice? Slow it down at dinnertime a little bit. This recipe is super-quick and easy, but it's guaranteed to get your family in the kitchen to enjoy it. What's not to love? It's a one pot meal slathered in delicious cheese sauce. Yep, sure to be a hit :)

Call me crazy, but I enjoy grilling year round. I may not sit around on the patio in the snow and sleet while the meat cooks on the grill, but I'll run in and out of the house to do some flipping. I just set my timers, and run. This year is a lot better than last though, because I have a garden path to run along to the grill. You know, instead of running and tripping through mud. Grilling is my preferred method with chicken. It gives it the best flavor, and comes out juicy every time. 

The pasta is customizable. Throw in your preferred shape. I'm obsessed with mini-pasta right now. I used these mini-shells for this dish, but I am pretty preoccupied with mini-farfalle right now too. 

While you can definitely use fresh broccoli, I use frozen most of the time. I have frozen broccoli on hand 100% of the time, making this recipe a complete pantry recipe for me. Something I can always throw together without having to make a trip to the grocery store. I steam the broccoli in a little steamer basket over the boiling pasta, it's a complete time-saver. I love steaming broccoli whenever I make pasta simply because of that reason- two things cooking at once. With relative hands off-ness. 

Here's another benefit of making this dish- Just as the pasta is customizable, so is the rest of the recipe! You could sub in a different vegetable, such as cauliflower, zucchini, asparagus, or even something like spinach. And you could totally use a different protein, such as shrimp, pork tenderloin, ground beef or turkey, or even something vegetarian like tofu. Or heck, you could even make the shells and cheese with no protein or veggie. Call it a side dish and watch the kids go nuts.

I cannot guarantee the kids won't turn up their noses and ask for Kraft mac-n-cheese, however. Only because I know that's what I did as a kid :)

It's Friday! Another week of Christmas shopping in the record books, though I can't say I've done any. Procrastination is my Christmas game, although I will be starting cookies probably on Monday. I can't wait! The hubby is working this lovely, sunny weekend so here's my agenda:

1. Run today, rest tomorrow, yoga and toning on Sunday.

2. Bake cupcakes (Vanilla Bean with Eggnog Frosting, yum!).

3. Take beautiful pictures in the sunlight of said cupcakes and the Salted Caramel Milkshakes I created (double yum!).

4. Finish my gosh-darn library books to leave my end-of-year book list at 24. Which would mean I averaged 2 books a month in 2014. A good jumping off point for 2015. 

The sunshine is making it soooooo easy to love life today :)

Have a great weekend everyone!

Ingredients (serves 4):

1 chicken breast

salt, pepper, garlic powder

8 oz mini shell pasta

12 oz broccoli florets

2 tbsp unsalted butter

2 tbsp flour

2 cups milk (I used 1%)

3/4 cup cheddar cheese

3/4 cup white cheddar cheese

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp dry mustard

1/4 tsp garlic powder

1/4 tsp black pepper

Directions:

1. Season chicken breast with salt, pepper, and garlic powder. Heat gas grill over high heat. When hot, turn middle burner down to medium. Place chicken on grill, grill for 4 minutes with lid closed. Flip chicken, and grill another 4 minutes. Flip chicken again, grill for 2 more minutes. Flip chicken one more time, and grill for a final 2 minutes. Remove from heat, and allow to rest while preparing recipe.

2. Bring a large pot of water to boil. Add pasta to water, stir. Place broccoli in a steamer basket, place over pasta water. Steam broccoli for 4 minutes, remove from heat and set aside. Continue to boil pasta for another 2-3 minutes or until tender. Drain pasta, and set aside. Add a little olive oil to pasta to keep from sticking.

3. In a large skillet, melt butter over medium-high heat. When melted, add flour and cook down for 2-3 minutes. Slowly pour in the milk in 3-4 additions, whisking constantly. When milk/flour mixture is smooth and slightly thickened, add cheeses, salt, mustard, garlic powder, and pepper to skillet. Stir constantly until cheese is completely melted. 

4. Chop up chicken breast into bite-size pieces. Add chicken and broccoli to pan, toss to coat with cheese sauce. Cook for 1-2 minutes or until everything is heated. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve immediately. 

Printable Recipe

Recipe adapted from Eat, Live, Run. 

If you liked this recipe, you may enjoy these:

Garlicky Roasted Cherry Tomato Pasta

Orecchiette with Roasted Peppers and Spinach

Porcini Mushroom Risotto

Linked to: Weekend Potluck, Foodie Friday, Foodie Friends Friday Linky Party, Snickerdoodle Sunday, Treasure Box Tuesday

Lately: November 2014

Happy Sunday from two warm and cuddly Chihuahuas! This is truly how these guys like to enjoy the weekends. Curled up in their favorite spots. Happy as little furry clams :)

I thought I would squeeze in a little weekend post here. I've been overflowing with food ideas lately, and haven't been thinking much about the in-between. But I do have a life outside that wonderful kitchen of mine. I read books in between batches of cookies. Scatter bird seed while concoctions are chilling. Or roasting. Or cooling. I run to get my creative juices flowing. I kind of wish there was an invention to dictate what goes on in my brain while I'm running, because I write some of my best stuff as my feet pound the pavement. A new techie idea perhaps? C'mon, doesn't anyone from Apple read my blog? Hehe. 

Anyhoo, it's been a great weekend thus far. The hubby actually had a 3 day weekend of Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. We don't get these traditional weekends very often! We took full advantage last night by getting together with one of our couple friends. We watched the first half of the Oregon game (Go Ducks!) and sipped margaritas before heading out for Mexican food. There may have been a tad too much tequila last night, but eh, life is short. I'm currently hard at work on pie crust, my first batch yesterday having been a dud. Rest assured, by the time this pie is completed, I'll have lots of "don't's"! I made a new batch of dough that chilled overnight, so I'm soldiering forward today. Fingers crossed. 

I hope everyone is having a relaxing weekend so far. I've got a few pictures to share of what we've been up to lately-

Haloti curled up in the hubby's sweatshirt. If you leave clothing on the furniture, the Chihuahuas will find it. 

The affair continues. It's been going on for almost 4 years now. We are venturing into common-law marriage territory at this point. 

My beautiful new FoodSaver! It arrived last week and I am so thankful! I literally squealed with joy when the UPS guy left it at my house. Thank you Mom and Dad! There was no hesitation- Out went the old FoodSaver, and in its place went the new. Immediately after getting the new machine set up, I sat down to write my totally overdue big-box store grocery list. 

Ah, the fruits of my labor. I picked up loads of chicken, ciabatta rolls, and bacon in bulk to freeze at aforementioned big-box store. And what did I do as soon as I got home? Vacuumed-sealed it into 2-person portions. I cannot say it enough, I LOVE that machine. I cannot live without it. Love it. 

So, I've been using FoodSavers for 8 years now. I do have a common-law marriage with my FoodSaver! :)

I think this poor little dude flew into either the side of the house, or the living room window. I heard a soft thud, but not the hard thud that usually kills these kids. I went outside and looked on the ground, and didn't find anything. However, when I went to empty my compost buckets, I found him sitting on our large composters. And he didn't move. He did let me pick him up, though. I was having the hubby set up a nesting box on the front porch for him to recover in when he decided he'd rested enough, and he took off. 

I'm just glad he ended up being ok :)

The snow everyone was so worried about getting around our parts. Can you even see this dusting? Not especially. 

Contrary to popular belief, not everything I cook winds up on the blog. Sometimes the recipes are too awful. Sometimes, the recipes are too good, like this Garlic, Lemon, and Fresh Herb Stuffed Chicken.  This bird never made it onto the blog because the hubby and I devoured it. I mean, we really scarfed this one down. All before I took an after photograph. Oh well. A similar recipe may make it onto the blog someday. That is, if I can keep my hands off of it long enough. 

Cheese enchiladas that never made it on the blog. I'm still playing with my chile gravy recipe, and I don't get to play very often. The gravy on these ended up being too heavy, too thick, and too salty. The hubby is not the biggest enchilada lover, so I only get a shot at this one every couple of months. I hope I perfect this recipe in 2015, though. That will be one of my New Year's resolutions.

Asian Roasted Asparagus. What can I say? Also scarfed down without many pictures.

Broccoli and Chard Garlic Spaghetti. This recipe may still make it onto the blog, however I wasn't 100% satisfied with the pictures. It was delicious, don't get me wrong. It might take a repeat making with new pictures for me to publish it, though.

The hubby and I's favorite tequila we brought back from Mexico. I love this stuff! We broke it open last night for Oregon's last home game of the season. It must have been a good luck charm, because the Duck's pulled out the win! The hubby and I were happy campers. We were told by an employee at duty-free in the Cancun Airport that they only sell this tequila in Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York City. He tried to talk us into buying a more expensive tequila that they only sell in Mexico, but we quickly informed him we didn't live anywhere near any big city and this was the bottle we wanted. I highly recommend trying this tequila if you ever see it anywhere. It makes the BEST margaritas.

Cue to the internet razing. Nickelback snuck a brand-new album out on Monday with absolutely no publicity. I had no idea they were even working on a new album. Some fan I am, right? Anyway, once I discovered their new album, I snapped it up. I've been listening to it on repeat. For days. Multiple times a day. I love running to this album. Most of the album has a really funky beat running though it and combined with Chad's voice, well, I've been tearing down miles. Well maybe not tearing them down, I did take a month off running. And lost a ton during that month. I really don't care that everyone hates Nickelback, I'm definitely not a person who follows the crowd anymore. That's one thing I love about getting older- the sheer inability to really care what other people think of your Nickelback addiction :) #iamunashamed

Here's my lazy morning. Finishing off one of my library books while loving my morning coffee. And pretty soon, I'll be rolling out my 2nd batch of pie crust dough. Oh man, oh man, I hope it's not crumbly!

I hope you all are having a lovely weekend! Ciao!

Lately: Fall 2014

Happy Sunday!

I thought I'd throw in an extra post this week, just for fun. Plus, it's Sunday morning and I don't have much else to do. The hubby worked last night and as such, is snoring lightly while he naps on the couch next to me. The dogs must be exhausted from guarding the house all night in the hubby's absence because they are passed out as well. Why not sneak in a little blogging time while the rest of the house slumbers? Here's what's been going on lately-

The hubby was synching his phone to the computer after the latest IOS update, and we discovered he had a bunch of photos from when my parents came to visit. I thought I'd share a couple that he took. This one is one of my favorites. Am I a baby? Or a turkey? I can't decide. 

Dad signing the Oregon plate at Hillbilly Hot Dogs.

Family baseball night. Dad making contact with the ball.

This picture makes me laugh, I'm not sure what I'm doing. The hubby commented that I look like I'm doing the Heisman poise. Maybe??

We've still got Sam the Cat living out back. He's gained a decent amount of weight, and still doesn't appear to be leaving the yard. He's become a backyard fixture, I've gotten quite used to him. He's such a good natured cat. I still wonder where he came from.

He loves the sun, he loves to play, and he especially loves rolling around on the cement of back porch. He's not so fond of the dogs, who still haven't learned proper cat socialization yet. Surprisingly, Gizmo is adjusting faster than Haloti. 

But Gizmo still loves to watch Sam out the back door and bark at him. I haven't shook him of that habit yet.

Well, it's fall here so the garden is pretty much done. I say pretty much because I still need to gather what green tomatoes are left and then compost the plants. I've turned what's left of the lettuce out to the wildlife, all the jalapeños have been picked, and my tomatoes look like this-

Pretty much just brown vines. I learned so much this year. I know when to seed next year. I know what I want to grow next year. I know what pests and diseases (ahem, the spotted cucumber beetle, blight, the tomato hornworm, to name a few) I need to combat next year. I'm armed with a list of helpful plants to grow around my garden to attract the right predators. I'm ready, I'm excited, and...  it's still October. In other words, a looooooong ways from Spring :)

One thing I learned this year was the best way to grow cilantro, for us. I started the summer with cilantro starts. I bought 3 and planted them in a row. This wasn't enough cilantro, as I exhausted that supply with 3 batches of salsa. Next, when I went to plant, I only dug 5-6 small holes and dropped a few seeds in each hole. This technique didn't produce enough cilantro for me either, I used it all up with 2 harvests. I finally took a large pot and dumped half a seed packet in the dirt. This resulted in a large, full pot of cilantro. Within 3 weeks. Next year, I'm going to plant a pot and then stagger more pots throughout the summer. The basil and cilantro were the herbs I went to the most. In fact, the herb garden is still going pretty strong-

It's not really starting to brown, either. I love that my herbs are still right out there. Well, except for the basil. I used all that up about a month ago. Which means, the bottom tier of my herb garden is just dirt. One might think it's just dirt, right? Nothing exciting about that. I thought that too, until I looked out in the yard one day and saw this squirrel-

He was furiously burying nuts in yard. All over the yard. I watched him for quite a while. Since I was inside, I wasn't able to get an awesome picture of him, unfortunately. I was shocked when I watched him jump right into the herb garden and start digging where the basil used to be.

Later that day, the hubby and I went to check out the herb garden. The hubby couldn't resist trying to find the hickory nut the squirrel buried in there. To our surprise, we did find it. At the very bottom. The bottom is about 2 feet down, by the way. We couldn't believe how deep the squirrel was able to bury that nut. Crazy! We re-buried the nut, and had a good chuckle over the incident. 

The hubby loves pugs, so I couldn't resist getting this picture to send to him. I was at my sister-in-law's house for her birthday, while the poor hubby had to work. She was dog-sitting for her friends who happened to be out of town. That's a big puggy smile, if you ask me :)

I participated in a 5k last weekend that was my very first trail race. I actually had no idea that it was going to be a trail race, because I'd ran it the year before when it was very much not a trail race. I learned the night before it was a trail race, and I'd chose to make the best of it. I hadn't done any training on trails, mainly because there are none around here, but my plan was to take it slow. Make the best of a bad situation, I told myself. And that's exactly what I did, because I ended up getting 1st in my age group and earning my first medal! It's been a goal of mine to earn a medal, so I'm very proud.

I think I mentioned that the hubby's birthday was last week, and we had the whole family over for cake and ice cream. Here's the whole crazy group, complete with vacant, unhinged gazes.

See what I have to deal with?  :)

I hope you are enjoying your weekend! Have a great week!

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins

Ah, the first pumpkin recipe of the season. Fall truly has descended upon us. On this day in NE Kentucky,  this means the humidity is gone, there's a crisp chill in the air, the leaves are falling at an alarming rate, and... pumpkin recipes are all the rage. And I love me some pumpkin. Pumpkin pie is one of my most favorite pies. It's right up there with cherry and raspberry pies. Oh, and chocolate pie. Blueberry. Mmmmm. Ok, maybe I just like pie. Good thing, because these little muffins truly taste like pumpkin pie. 

These muffins are so perfectly moist and tasty. The vanilla-cream cheese topping makes it taste like a dollop of whip cream on a slice of pie. I wasn't expecting such WOW results, but hey, I'll take it. The recipes makes a fairly large batch, about 18 muffins, but I had no trouble pawning these off on family members. They were gone in the blink of an eye. Well, excluding the ones I saved for hubby, but let me tell you, those are long gone too.

Making and devouring these were a little like dipping my toe into the water. I'm fully ready to be submerged in pumpkin now. I'm craving pumpkin bread, pumpkin cupcakes, pumpkin smoothies- doesn't a pumpkin pie smoothie sound to-die-for?? Meaning, this is only the beginning. Beware-plenty of pumpkin recipes to follow...

I am feeling a little pep in my step this morning. I just got word from my mom, who was waiting on results from a bone density test, that her scan was clear! This news made my morning. On top of that, it's a perfectly, crisp fall morning without rain. One thing I'm seriously enjoying about this fall is running. It was a difficult, struggle-some summer running in the humidity. Where I thought I'd gotten out of shape because I could only run 2.5 miles without getting dizzy, lightheaded, nauseous, and cold, I've realized I was overheating. Simply due to the weather, not to my conditioning. But running in this cool weather, I feel like a million bucks. I ran 5 miles in 48 minutes yesterday, definitely a feat for me. And not something I could accomplish at 75º with 90% humidity. Most of my miles were sub-10's. I'm pretty darn slow, so I'm super-proud I was able to do this. 

One other fact that has me in the groove this morning? The hubby and I leave for Cancun in 9 days! Holy moly. I've still got a few items to pick up for the trip (i.e. 20 bottles of SPF, please) but I've got the essentials. A million swimsuits, since I'll be living in them. Plenty of sundresses. Flippy floppies. A house sitter :) Yep, I think we are set and I'm just counting down the days till the hubby and I fly out of Cincinnati. Finally, 5 years later, we are getting the honeymoon done. 

So, yay, it's almost the weekend! Truth be told, the hubby's had the whole week off and we have been maximizing his down time. Lots of movies. Bingeing on TV shows. Making homemade Chinese food. Devouring carrot cake. And for the hubby, an abundance of video games. We love making the most of our relaxation time. Sadly though, he has to work all weekend, so I'll be left to my own devices. I'm halfway through "Divergent" (I know, I'm so behind the times) so finishing that book and moving on to the next is numero uno on my list.

After baking something pumpkin, of course :)

Happy Thursday!

Ingredients (makes 18 muffins):

Muffins-

1 cup sugar

1/3 cup canola oil

1 (15 oz) can pumpkin puree

2 eggs, room temp

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1/4 tsp cloves

1/4 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

2 cups flour

1/4 cup milk

Cream Cheese Topping-

8 ounces cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup sugar

1 tsp vanilla

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350º. Line 2 cupcake pans with liners (18 liners). Set aside.

2. In a large mixing bowl, combine sugar, oil, and pumpkin. Mix with a whisk by hand until combined. Mix in eggs. Mix in cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and salt.

3. In a separate bowl, combine baking soda and flour. Mix in one cup of flour mixture. Mix in milk. Mix in remaining flour mixture. Do not over mix, mix until just combined. Divide batter equally among liners.

4.  In another bowl, mix together cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla with a hand mixer. Mix until completely smooth. Drop 1 tbsp of cream cheese mixture onto each muffin.

5. Bake in preheated oven for 15-18 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out with a few moist crumbs attached. Cool in pan for 10 minutes, then remove to a cooling rack. Cool completely before storage. I stored mine in a bowl with a kitchen towel over them due to how moist they turned out. Store in the fridge if you are not eating all the muffins within the first day or two.

Printable Recipe

Recipe adapted from Crazy for Crust.

Looking for other fall recipes? Try these!

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

Snickerdoodle Blondies

Creamy Pumpkin Custard

Linked to: Weekend Potluck, Foodie Friday, Foodie Friend's Friday Linky Party, Treasure Box Tuesday