Crispy Blackened Chicken and Broccoli Pasta,Mini Meatball Stir fry

Crispy Blackened Chicken and
Broccoli Pasta
First, who else is watching The Voice right now? All of these
guys are so amazing!
And second, a big Happy Birthday to my first born baby, who
turns 8 today! I know, I know, shouldn’t I be posting a
cupcake or something? Well, those babies were all finished up
last night around…..11:30 PM. Every procrastinating parent has
been there, right? Luckily my cupcake game is on point and his
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle cupcakes made it to school without
anything tragic happening!
So after I completely turned my kitchen upside down last night
and left the mess to deal with this morning I didn’t really
feel like putting something super special together for dinner.
You know, when you’ve spent your entire morning with a bottle
of bleach in your hands, cleaning up your kitchen and, oh
yeah….the pee around the toilet (that whole boy thing is no
joke), and you have little energy left for dinner? Sure, it
happens to the best of us. And then we make some super easy
and delicious Blackened Chicken and Broccoli Pasta and all is
well! Not bragging or anything but my husband totally tasted
this and said “Chik-fil-a doesn’t have anything on Mommy.”
Score!
Ok so yeah, that’s a flax seed in that picture. It has nothing
to do with this recipe. Opppps!
This is a two step recipe that involves just one pan. I’m
going to quickly sum this up to make this real simple and easy
(full recipe below):
1) Coat your chix (restaurant lingo for chicken) in seasoning,
dip in breadcrumbs, BAM!
2) Into EVOO drenched and heated pan for some sizzlin’ action.
POW!
3) Remove the chix when it is nice and crispy. Deglaze pan
with some chicken stock to get all the goodies off the bottom.
WOW!
4) Add some butter lovin’ and some flour, then liquids (stock,
milk), pasta, and cheese, and simmer that goodness until pasta
is about half-way cooked. Add broccoli, allow to cook, and
DONE!
Is it just me, or was that really exciting?
What I love most
about this is the ease of cooking the chicken. No annoying
waste of an egg to coat your chicken, no 3 step flour, egg,
seasoning mess, just an easy cut, coat, and cook method that
delivers the crispiest pan “fried” chicken ever!
*For this recipe, I used a store-bought organic breadcrumb.
Although these are not 100% whole wheat, they are a great
convenience product that doesn’t include any unnecessary
ingredients like hydrogenated oils, HFCS, MSG, etc. Here’s a
link if your interested!
Mini Meatball Stir fry
Meatball Stir Fry… is this even legal? Why yes, yes it is and
I believe they (whoever they are) like to call this Fusion
Food. You know, taking two things and putting them together to
create something so much better than the two things by
themselves. Yeah, Fusion Food people. Let’s all get on the
Fusion Food Train!
Truth be told, there is a restaurant by my house that I pass
often called Fusion Fire. They have a bunch of creepy statues
outside but I’ve heard the food is good. Another truth be
told, when you have kids you don’t get to go out to eat unless
you want to deal with someone peeing their pants at the table
or knocking a drink over on the waitress. I kid, I kid, those
things never happened but they could have if we were brave
enough to take our kids out to eat in the first place. Maybe
in about, I don’t know, 10 years or so we will get to Fusion
Fire, but for now I’m doin’ it homemaker style and it is kind
of awesome.
Can I just point out the fact that meatballs are ugly. Like
step-sister with a wart on her chin ugly. But come now, let’s
not get all judge-y and such. Let’s forget about those warts
and remember the truth. Meatballs are delish. And step-sisters
with warts are people too!
Now you may have taken notice… I’m using white rice. Yes, I’m
a person too (just like that steppy sis) and sometimes I bend
the rules. Brown rice is not bleached but it just isn’t the
same. If I’m eating a bunch of veggies with a few mini
homemade meatballs then I’m going to have my big mound of
white rice and drops of soy sauce on top. You know, Fusion
Food just isn’t the same without the white rice, right?
Precisely.
If you are feeling like you can resist the sticky white rice
and soy sauce drizzled on top, please do! Brown rice would
also go lovely with this. And just because I used white rice
once doesn’t mean I’m selling out and going all Dump Cake on
everyone. Don’t worry, the unbleached grains will be back
tomorrow!
No Dump Cakes, and no nasty breadcrumbs either. Believe it or
not those canned breadcrumbs (Progresso, Kraft, etc.) all
contain a slew of ridiculous ingredients that have nothing at
all to do with bread. Not even remotely! Progresso’s
“breadcrumbs” contain 59 ingredient. Why??????????? Is all I
have to say to that! Just so you can’t say I didn’t warn you….
buy the organic whole wheat version or make your own using 2
slices of whole wheat bread toasted and processed in a food
processor.
This is a two step recipe. Make the balls (oh the kitchen
jokes that come about when people are making meatballs,
especially in a room full of guys!), and then make the veggies
and sauce. Of course you can throw your rice on at any time
during this process as well. If you don’t want your balls to
be spicy, just omit the fennel and red pepper flakes.
Veggie Stir Fry
Ingredients:
1 tsp sesame oil or olive oil
1 bell pepper
1 cup sugar snap peas
1/2 cup corn kernels (I removed them from one of my nonGMO sweet corn cobs that I got at the market.)
2 Tbsp reduced sodium tamari soy sauce
2 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 Tbsp sweetener (I used molasses. You could also use
honey.)
1/2 tsp garlic powder
Directions: Heat large sauté pan with sesame or olive oil. Put
veggies in pan, and cook over medium heat until veggies are
beginning to get tender. Add tamari soy sauce, balsamic
vinegar, sweetener of choice, and garlic powder. Mix
everything well and allow to cook to desired tenderness (I
like crunchy veggies). Cook rice according to package
directions. When meatballs are finished toss in pan with the
stir fry and love on some Fusion Food!