pasta

Foodie Friday

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Today’s Foodie Friday post is a delicious pasta dish that you could make this Labor Day weekend to impress your guests! It’s super easy.. I based this recipe off one of my favorite pasta dishes at the restaurant Brio. I invented this dish because unfortuneately the pasta pesto dish I loved so much at Brio was discontinued! How rude. But anyway, here is the recipe!

Ingredients Needed: Sun Dried Tomatoes – Pesto Sauce – Pine Nuts – Baby Spinach – Penne Pasta (or whatever is your favorite pasta!) – Parmesan Cheese/Feta Cheese (optional)

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This is literally one of the easiest pasta dishes. First, cook your pasta (follow directions on the box). Once the pasta is cooked, drain it, and return it to your sauce pan. Turn the heat on low. Next, add in the pesto sauce, sun dried tomatoes and baby spinach. (I don’t give amounts because it really is up to you and what you like most). Why you need to turn the heat on low is to slowly wilt the spinach slightly. Add in the pine nuts, and feta cheese/parmesan cheese(if you want). Some people might toast the pine nuts, but that seems like a lot of unneeded effort. Normal pine nuts taste GREAT! So that’s all there is to this dish! I mean seriously, how easy is that?!  Another addition to this dish – you could add in cut up chicken tenderloins chunks to give it more of a hearty taste (obviously cook the chicken before you add it).

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Doesn’t that look SO delish!? Let me know what you think!

xoxo

Leftover Status

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So remember when I made paninis and said you could use the turkey bacon for something else? Well the time has come. I was super lazy tonight and didn’t want to spend much money, so I decided to use what I had around the kitchen. What did I have to work with from my panini day?? Turkey bacon and cracked pepper deli turkey. Hmm, sounds odd right. Wrong! I turned it into a delicious pasta. Here’s how:

First – ingredients:

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Farafelle Pasta – I use the grocery store brand. It’s super cheap, and does the trick. I think it was literally 98 cents. You can use any pasta you like. Bow tie just happens to be my favorite.

Alfredo Sauce – Your favorite type. I love this CLASSICO brand. Tonight I picked “Light Asiago Romano Alfredo” flavor, but any alfredo will do. I’m all about easy dinners because let’s be real, no one wants to cook after they have been working all day. #ick

Turkey Bacon – This is from the panini night. For this pasta, you need about 6 pieces (so still some to spare for breakfast!).

Deli Turkey – I had cracked pepper turkey from the panini night. There was about a 1/3 pound left of the pound I originally bought. Perfect amount.

Optional – Parmesean cheese or mozzarella cheese…your call!

DIRECTIONS:

Start your water boiling for your pasta. Fill your pot about 3/4 of the way full and salt your water. Put on high heat to bring to boil.

Start cooking your turkey bacon. Put a sauté pan on medium high heat and place 4 pieces of bacon in the pan (or as many will fit).

Once your water comes to a boil, pour in about half a box of pasta.

Your bacon should take about 7-10 minutes to cook. Once cooked, place on a paper towel to get any access grease off. **Turkey bacon is actually a lot less greasy then real bacon, which is a definite plus. I mean really, who likes grease?? Not me.**

While the pasta is cooking, cut the deli turkey into bite size pieces. Do the same with the bacon once it has cooled.

Once the pasta is done cooking, drain it and return it to it’s original cooking pot.

Pour the alfredo sauce on the pasta and stir to distribute. Then add in deli turkey and turkey bacon. Sprinkle some parmesan or mozzarella cheese on top (if desired). and BOOM! You’ve got dinner!! Like how easy was that?? Genius. AND you don’t even have to add salt or pepper, because the bacon is salty enough, and the cracked pepper deli turkey adds enough pepper to void out seasoning. It is literally one of the easiest things to make.

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Have you ever made pasta from leftovers?? What have you made? Let me know!

❤