Chicken & Sausage Scarpiello Arrabbiata

Here's another sauce that was sent to me by Bertolli - Arrabbiata sauce. I followed their recipe for chicken & sausage scarpiello arrabiata. Again, I was surprised to find that the sauce needed more salt. I also would have preferred pasta over potatoes, but the recipe called for potatoes, so that's what I used. Otherwise, it was tasty and made a great meal.

Recipe:
6 servings
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 45 minutes

1 Tbsp olive oil
1 lb. boneless, skinless chicken thighs, cut into bite-sized pieces
1 lb. hot or sweet italian sausage links, cut into 1 inch pieces
1 large sweet onion, thinly sliced
1 small fennel bulb, trimmed and thinly sliced
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1/4 cup red vinegar
1 jar (7 oz) roasted red peppers, drained and thinly sliced
1 jar Bertolli Arrabbiata Sauce
2 Tbsp finely chopped fresh parsley
1 lb. all-purpose potatoes, peeled, cooked and cut into wedges

Heat oil and brown chicken and sausage in 12 inch deep nonstick skillet or 5 quart saucepot over medium high heat; remove. In same skillet, cook onion and fennel over medium high heat, stirring occasionally, 6 minutes or until tender and starting to brown. Add garlic and cook 30 seconds. Stir in vinegar and roasted red peppers and cook 1 minute. Stir in Bertolli Arrabbiata Sauce and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and add back chicken and sausage. Simmer covered 30 minutes. Stir in potatoes and parsley and cook 5 minutes.

Teriyaki Chicken

When you order teriyaki chicken at a restaurant, it's usually just grilled (or even boiled) chicken smothered in teriyaki sauce. Not too exciting. I really like teriyak chicken, but just not when it's made like that. I like marinating the chicken in the sauce instead and then grilling it up. A light drizzle of extra sauce over to eat with the rice or veggies is fine, but I don't want it drowning in sauce.

So, this is how I make teriyaki chicken. Super simple, super delicious.

Ingredients:
- Boneless, skinless chicken thighs
- Teriyaki sauce
- Sesame seeds and green onions as a garnish
- Rice and steamed veggies to round out the meal

Directions:
- Marinate the chicken in the teriyaki sauce for a few hours (I tend to do it overnight)
- Grill the chicken
- Garnish the chicken with sesame seeds and green onions
- Serve it with rice and veggies

That's all!

Nachos Grande

The hubz pointed out that we eat a lot of Mexican food. I never noticed but suppose it's true. Maybe that's a product of growing up in San Diego, but honestly, I didn't eat much Mexican growing up. I eat as much as I can every time I visit these days, but as a kid, it was always Chinese food, even when we went out. It's interesting though. Mexican food is one of those cuisines that you can't really find outside of Mexico, California and Texas. When I was living in Hong Kong, boy did I crave a good burrito! I was really excited when we planned a trip to New York and I thought I was finally going to get some decent Mexican, but nope, I was sorely disappointed.

On that note, we love Chevy's. Yes, I know it's "gringo" Mexican food, but that doesn't make it any less tasty. They have the best chips and salsa. So light and flaky. And you can't beat El Machino, pumping out fresh tortillas right before your eyes! A great bonus is that Chevy's has the absolute best happy hour. $3 margaritas (and beer and cocktails) and $3 for select appetizers. Full-sized appetizers, and their appetizers are big!

Even before we tried out their happy hour, the hubz and I always enjoyed going there for a few margaritas and getting a nachos grande to share. Now with the discovery of happy hour, we can't go back to paying full price. So when I came home from work too late to make it to happy hour, we decided to make our own at home.


Ingredients:
- Tortillas chips
- Salsa
- Refried beans
- Chicken
- Shredded cheese (mexican blend)
- Additional things that I didn't have on hand but would be super tasty if I did are tomatoes, avocados, corn, black beans, sour cream, guacamole etc.

Directions:
- Lay a thin layer of salsa on the bottom of a oven-safe plate. (I used a casserole dish)
- Put down a single layer of tortilla chips.
- Put a few dollops of refried beans every few inches.
- Put a few dollops of salsa every few inches.
- Put a few pieces of shredded chicken on the chips, also a few inches apart.
- Sprinkle everything with shredded cheese.
- Lay another layer of chips and layer of beans, salsa, chicken and cheese.
- Pop it in the oven until it's warmed through and the cheese is melted.
- Top it with diced tomatoes, avocados, sour cream, guacamole, etc.
- Serve with margaritas.

Tsatziki (on a Chicken Plate)

Back in college, we used to live off of Durant Food Court aka Asian Ghetto. And while most of the restaurants there are Asian, there was a non-Asian place that we really enjoyed as well - Meesha's Gyros. We'd always order the same thing when we went there, "Chicken plate over rice, with hummus, extra yogurt sauce and spicy on the side - to go". The thing that made this dish was really the yogurt sauce, which I how realize was probably tzatziki.

I hadn't thought about that dish since we graduated (there's no need to mention how long ago that was) until a few weeks ago. It was like all the stars aligned and I really had no choice but to try and recreate it. I had leftover grilled chicken thighs in the fridge, a cucumber that I didn't know what to do with, and a tub of plain yogurt that needed to be eaten before it went bad. The other ingredients I needed are constant staples in this household, so I was set. I cooked up some rice in the rice cooker and got to work on the highlight of the dish, the yogurt sauce, and was very happy with the results. It's quick, easy, healthy and delicious. I'm definitely not going to forget this dish again any time soon.

Ingredients:
- Chicken (I like thighs)
- 1 cup of greek yogurt or plain regular yogurt, drained
- 1 to 2 cloves of garlic (to taste)
- 1/2 cucumber
- juice of 1/2 lemon (to taste)
- Salt & pepper

Directions:
- Salt and pepper the chicken thigh and grill until cooked through. Let it rest, then cut it into bite size pieces and set it aside.
- Put the yogurt in a bowl. If you're using regular yogurt, put in a cheese cloth and let some of the excess liquid drain for a little while first.
- Using a microplane zester, zest the garlic into the yogurt.
- Wash and peel the cucumber. Cut the cucumber in half length-wise and scoop out the seeds (I find using a spoon works well).
- Grate the cucumber and add it to the yogurt mixture, squeezing out the excess liquid with your hands first.
- Add lemon juice to taste.
- Add salt and pepper to taste (though I found that I didn't need any at all).
- Mix well and let it sit in the fridge for a while for the flavors to really meld together (or serve immediately if you're impatient like me).
- Serve the chicken over a bed of rice with a healthy dollop of yogurt sauce on top, a sprinkling of chili powder if desired, a side of hummus and some steamed vegetables, and you've got yourself a healthy and delicious meal.

Chicken Orzo Soup

The weather is getting cooler and while I'll definitely miss the summer, I will also enjoy the fact that it's also soup season! Plus I've been saving all the bones from all those summer bbq's in my freezer and have lots of stock on hand for some great soups.

This is a simple and easy classic, but instead of using noodle, I used orzo. I love the fun shape and texture of orzo, it's like fat rice!

Ingredients:
- Chicken (I used chicken breast)
- Onions
- Celery
- Carrots
- Potatoes
- Orzo
- Chicken stock (recipe can be found here)
- Salt & Pepper

Directions:
- Dice the onions, peel and chop the carrots, and chop the celery. Set everything aside.
- Heat a heavy bottomed pot and add a bit of oil. Add the onions with a sprinkling of salt and saute them until they're soft.
- Add the carrots and celery and cook until they've softened as well.
- Add chicken stock to the pot and bring it to a boil.
- Add the potatoes and orzo and chicken.
- When the chicken is cooked through, pull it out, let it cool, shred it, and put it back in.
- Salt and pepper the soup to taste and let it warm you up on a chilly night.

Moo Shu Chicken

Moo shu is essentially a stir fry, except that it's served in a pancake instead of over rice. Stir fries are quick, easy, healthy, and great for clearing out leftovers in the fridge. I had leftover shredded chicken and half a head of cabbage, so I decided to make moo shu out of it! I added a bag of bean sprouts and a carrot that I added mainly for color more than anything else. Oh, and a bit of wood ear since I had it lying around the house too. You can put whatever you like/have into yours and I'm sure it'll turn out great! Some other popular moo shu ingredients are scrambled egg, bamboo shoots, lily buds, bok choy, etc, but you should really just put what you like or what you have on hand. You can also replace the chicken with any (or no) protein you want.

And since stir fry is the first thing that comes to my mind when I think of woks, I'm submitting this recipe to Joelen's Tasty Tools event. She's highlighting woks during the month of March. Check out her roundup to see what other goodies people have made using their woks!

Ingredients:

• 1 leftover chicken breast shredded
• 1 bag of bean sprouts
• 1 clove of minced garlic
• 1/2 a head cabbage, cut into strips as if for coleslaw
• 1 carrot julienned
• a few wood ears also julienned
• soy sauce
• oyster sauce
• tortillas (you can find mushu pancakes in the freezer section of asian stores, but tortillas work just fine)
• hoisin sauce

Method:
1. Prep all your ingredients so that they're ready to go!
2. Heat your wok/pan until smoking hot, add a bit of oil and swirl it around. Then add the garlic.
3. Since the cabbage takes the longest to cook, add that in.
4. Next, add the carrots and wood ear.
5. Last, add the sprouts.
6. Add soy sauce and oyster sauce to taste.
7. Toss in the turkey last since it's already fully cooked (You'd want to cook this first, before any veggies if it was raw).
8. Make sure everything is heated through but the veggies still have a bit of crunch to them.
9. Smear a bit of hoisin sauce on your tortilla, add some of the filling, roll it up like a Chinese burrito and enjoy! You can garnish it with a bit of scallion sliced on the bias too.

Jerk Chicken

I can't believe it took me so long to try to make jerk chicken. The first time I tried jerk chicken, I instantly fell in love and was so upset that I hadn't discovered it earlier and was determined to learn to make it myself so that I could enjoy it whenever I wanted. That was almost 10 years ago!

When I saw that Kevin from Closet Cooking made his own and it looked sooo good, I knew I couldn't wait any longer, and boy am I glad I didn't. I absolutely LOVE this stuff! If you've never tried jerk chicken, I highly encourage you to do so. It's sweet, savory, fragrant, and best of all, spicy!

Don't let 10 years pass you by before you try this wonderful chicken...


Inspired by Closet Cooking

Ingredients:

1-3 scotch bonnet peppers (I couldn't find scotch bonnet, so I used 3 jalapenos and it was still plenty spicy)
1 onion (chopped)
4 cloves garlic (chopped)
3 green onions (chopped)
1 tablespoon ground allspice
1 tablespoon dried thyme
1 1/2 teaspoons ground black pepper
3/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup dark rum
1/4 cup white vinegar
1/2 cup orange juice
1 lime (juice and zest)
Chicken (I used a dozen drumsticks but anything will work, even other meats like pork, etc)

Method:
- Puree everything except for the chicken.
- Place the chicken in the puree and let it marinate overnight.
- Heat up your grill (or oven) and grill until the chicken is cooked through.
- My personal favorite part of jerk chicken is the marinade and I always ask for extra gravy at restaurants. At home, I like to take the marinade and boil it down into a sauce and spoon it over the chicken, the rice, the veggies, everything!

BBQ Chicken Quesadillas

I promised my friends over at am i wrong? (to hunger) and seven by seven that I'd blog about these. Sorry it took so long guys!

We had a few friends over for what my hubz called Rocktoberfest. It was October and the intent was to play Rock Band 2. Get it? Rocktoberfest! He's so clever! Oh, and don't forget the beer! NEVER forget the beer :)

Along with the drinks and rock band 2, we also served a few simple snacks, and these BBQ Chicken Quesadillas were one of them! It's so easy to dress up something as simple as a quesadilla into something a bit fancier. And the nice thing about these is that it's so flavorful that it doesn't need salsa or any other toppings (though you're more than welcome to add them), so it makes great finger food without the mess.

Ingredients:

• Flour Tortilla
• Mexican Blend Shredded Cheese
• BBQ Sauce
• Corn
• Black Beans
• Chicken Breast (grilled with salt and pepper and then cubed)
  

Method:

• Lay the tortilla out in a pan on medium heat. You'll have to move relatively quickly to keep things from burning, but quesadillas are not difficult to make, so it shouldn't be a problem.
• Spread a thin layer of bbq sauce on half of the tortilla.
  
• Sprinkle cheese on the entire tortilla.
  
• Sprinkle some corn kernels, black beans and the grilled chicken on the same half that you put the bbq sauce on.
• After the cheese has melted a bit, fold the quesadilla over and let everything melt together.
• When the first side is nicely browned and crispy, flip it over so the other side can get browned and crispy.
• Cut into wedges and serve!
  

Pressure Cooker Chicken Stock

Homemade chicken stock is so much better than store bought. I save all of my chicken bones in a bag in the freezer and then pull them out when I've collected enough to make chicken stock, which I then freeze and stick back in the freezer in smaller batches so that I can take a bit out whenever I need. I've also started freezing the tops and leaves of celery that I cut off when making celery sticks, etc to use in the stock.

The problem with making stock is that you have to let it simmer for hours and I'm just not that patient. Plus, when you only notice that you're out of frozen chicken stock the morning of Thanksgiving and already have a million other things to do, you don't have time to wait hours for the chicken bones to release their goodness into the stock. That's when I'm especially glad that I have a pressure cooker.

This is my entry for Joelen's Tasty Tools event which features stock/soup pots. I love soups, so check out her blog to see what other tasty dishes others have made!

Ingredients:

• Chicken bones
• Water
• Carrots
• Celery
• Onion
• Salt (optional)
• other herbs (optional)

Method:

• Put the chicken bones in your pressure cooker and cover it with cold water until the bones are just covered. Be sure not to fill it over the recommended limit for your pressure cooker (pressure cookers should NOT ever be filled to the brim).
• Rough chop some carrots, celery and onions and dump them in. There's no need to peel the carrots or chop them finely, etc since it's only there for the flavor, not to be eaten. Just be sure to wash them.
• Add salt, herbs, or other flavorings that you might want. I tend not to add any of things since I don't always know what I'm going to be using the stock for in the future and can add those things later.
• Close the pressure cooker according to the manufacturers instructions and put it over high heat until the maximum pressure is reached. Then turn down the heat just enough to maintain the pressure for about half an hour.
• Turn off the heat and let the pressure dissipate naturally.
• Carefully open the pressure cooker. Make sure you've gotten all the goodness out of the bones by breaking them. They should be so weak that they just fall apart with minimal effort. If they haven't reached this stage yet, go ahead and put the lid back on and turn up the heat again for another 10 minutes and let the pressure come down on its own again.
• Strain out all the bones and veggies.
• Now, you can either use a fat separator to get rid of the excess fat or chill in the fridge and remove the fat that solidifies on top.
• You can use the stock immediately or store it in the fridge for about a week, or freeze it practically for ever. Use it in your favorite soups, sauces, etc.

Crispy Yogurt Chicken

After reading so many blogs raving about Pioneer Woman's Crispy Yogurt Chicken, I finally gave in and decided to give it a try. It was mostly because I had leftover yogurt from the naan and everything else necessary already in the house, so why the heck not?

Unfortunately, I gotta say that I am not a fan, sorry. While the chicken (I used chicken tenders instead of drumsticks) was very tender from the yogurt, mine wasn't particularly crispy and it was a bit on the bland side. And it came out really pasty white and never browned nicely either.

One trick that I would try next time is one that I learned from America's Test Kitchen when they did baked chicken parmesan. They pre-crisped and pre-browned the panko crumbs by toasting it in a pan with a bit of oil, and then breaded the chicken with it. What a great little trick, much better than the pasty white things that came out of my oven!

It could be entirely my fault, and probably is. I'm not good at following directions. I read recipes to get a jist of it and then wing it from there, adding and adjusting as I go along according to how lazy I'm feeling and what I have laying around the house. I guess winging it just didn't cut it this time. Oh well.

Anyway, below is how I did it, but I definitely don't recommend it...

Recipe:
inspired by Pioneer Woman's Crispy Yogurt Chicken

• Chicken (I used about 10 chicken tenders)
• Yogurt (I used about a cup of non-fat plain yogurt)
• A few minced garlic cloves
• Lemon juice from half of a lemon
• Salt
• Panko crumbs

1. Mix the garlic, yogurt and lemon juice together.
2. Salt the chicken generously.
3. Dredge each piece of chicken in the yogurt mixture, then the panko crumbs. Lay flat on a cooling rack over a cookie sheet.
4. Place the cookie sheet, cooling rack and chicken in a 350 degree oven until cooked through. For these chicken tenders, it took about 20 minutes. Maybe leaving them in longer (and topping them with a pat of butter) would have made them browner and crispier. Who knows...

Indian Chicken Curry

I made a curry chicken as part of the Indian feast we had. I admit, I used jarred curry sauce. Please don't judge me. This was my first attempt as Indian food and I was scared. I did make the naan and aloo gobi on my own though. I'd say that's pretty impressive, right? And now that I've dipped my toes into the world of Indian cooking and have learned that there's nothing to be afraid of, I'll definitely try to make this sans the jarred sauce next time.

Besides, I wasn't particularly impressed by the flavors that came out of the jar so I ended up tweaking it a bit by adding some sliced onions, a bit more curry powder and lemon juice to brighten it up along with a dash or two of some other spices here and there, and last but not least, a few slices of peaches! Yup, peaches. It added a bit of sweetness to the sauce that was really nice and and super subtle since it practically disintegrated after being stewed for a bit. Toss in some chicken and you're good to go! Chickpeas or green peas would be a good addition too!

Chicken Katsu

Panko is everywhere these days, and why shouldn't it be? It makes things much lighter and crunchier than traditional bread crumbs - it's great!

Before the whole panko craze, I always kept it in my pantry for making katsu and it's still one my favorite uses for it. Just fry up a few of these babies and serve it with some rice and steamed or sauteed veggies and you've got a great meal. You can use pork instead of chicken for tonkatsu too!

Ingredients:
- Chicken
- Flour
- Salt
- Egg
- Panko
- Oil

Take boneless, skinless chicken breast or thighs and either cut or pound them to an even thickness.

Mix the flour with a bit of salt in a plate. Mix an egg with a bit of water in another plate. Spread panko crumbs out in a third plate. Here's what my breading setup looked like.
Heat up enough oil to cover at least half the thickness of the chicken to about 300 degrees.

Take each piece of chicken and lightly coat it in the flour mixture and pat off the excess flour. Then drag it through the egg mixture and let the excess drip off. Lastly, pat it in the panko crumbs. I found that holding the corner of the chicken with your thumb and forefinger and dipping it in each mixture without letting go was the best way to go. Yes, one corner won't have breading, but honestly, after it's been fried up, you can't even tell which corner you were holding on to.

Next, carefully put it into the hot oil and fry it for a few minutes on each side until golden brown and cooked through.

Dip it in some katsu sauce and enjoy. You can probably make the sauce yourself with some ketchup, worcestire sauce, garlic powder and maybe some vinegar? Add some honey and/or brown sugar if you like the sweet hawaiian style sauce better. I've never tried making the sauce, but if I were to, I'd start with that and then make adjustments as needed. Or, you can just buy this -
I hope you like it!

Tortilla Soup

I love soup. Whenever restaurants ask if I want soup or salad, I always go for the soup. I made this soup with the leftover liquid from the carnitas. It would be such a shame to waste all that flavorful broth. Why do they sell chicken and beef broth, but not pork broth? Pork broth is yummy too, isn't it?

Anyway, this soup is also a great way to use up stale tortilla chips or the small broken ones at the bottom of the bag. Unfortunately, I was a dummy that forgot to add the tortilla in before taking the picture. Oops. But I'm sure you can use your imagination.

Since I used leftover carnitas liquid, I don't have measurements for ingredients. Mine are always just estimations anyway and really done more by taste than anything, but here it is...

Ingredients:
- Pork broth (chicken would work fine too)
- 1 chicken breast
- 1 can of corn
- 1 can of black beans rinsed
- 2 ribs of celery sliced
- 2 carrots diced
- 1 onion diced
- 2 cloves of garlic minced
- 1 jalapeno minced finely
- cumin to taste
- chili powder to taste
- salt to taste
- black pepper to taste

Method:
- Saute the onions until soft and add the garlic, cumin and chili powder. Toast the spices until fragrant.
- Add the carrots and celery and saute for a few minutes.
- Pour in the broth and bring to a boil.
- Add the jalapeno and chicken breast. Simmer until the chicken breast is cooked. Remove the chicken breast, and shred it.
- When the vegetables are soft, add the chicken back in, the corn and black beans.
- Heat everything through, add salt and pepper to taste and serve it with some tortilla chips and a dollop or sour cream if desired. Diced avocado would be a wonderful addition too. Enjoy!

Chicken Fajitas

First of all, I apologize for the lack of posts lately. Work and life have been busy, but I have lots of pictures in my backlog that I'll hopefully get around to posting about one of these days. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like work or life is gonna let up for a while, but here's a quick and easy fajita recipe for now...

I grew up in a Chinese household that ate mostly Chinese food. I learned to cook various Chinese dishes and spaghetti out of a jar. Fajitas were my first attempt at something that was non-Chinese and non-spaghetti. It seemed like a simple enough dish to use as a means of "popping my cherry" into the world of western cooking, but guess what...it tasted like Chinese stir fry! What the heck? I didn't use any soy sauce or chili paste or anything else remotely Asian, I swear!

After that experience, I shyed away from western cooking and tried to stick to what I knew, happy to live in culinary ignorance. After all, that's what restaurants are for, right? Then one fateful day, after years of cooking Chinese food day in and day out for my man, the hubz (boyfriend at the time) mentions to me in casual conversation that he's not really a fan of Chinese food and would much rather eat Western food. What?!?! NOW he tells me this??? I had no idea! He ate everything I made without complaint for years, how was I supposed to know? I guess that just goes to show you how much loved me, not wanting to hurt my feelings and showing support for my efforts. What a sweetie pie, huh? I guess he was just being sweet like that...smiling his way through torturous meals.

Well, wanting to be a good girlfriend and make his tummy happy, I started to branch out a bit. It's been a long road and I still have much to learn and am continuously improving, but I'm having lots fun in the process! I also finally figured out how to make fajitas that don't taste like stirfry!

Ingredients:
- tortillas
- 1 chicken breast
- 1 bell pepper (sliced thinly)
- 1 onion (sliced thinly)
- salt or seasoned salt
- pepper

Optional condiments:
- salsa, guacamole, sour cream, cheese, mexican rice, beans, etc.

Method:
Salt and pepper the chicken and grill. Let rest and slice.

Grill the peppers and onions or sautee with a bit of oil, salt and pepper.

Stick everything in a tortilla and add condiments as desired.

Mango Chicken Stir Fry

Yup, another mango recipe!

I'm a salty kinda girl. Give me a slice of cake and a slice of pizza and I'll pick the pizza 99% of the time. And as you can see from my blog, I generally don't make sweets. Fruit is sweet. So leave it to me to try to turn it into something savory =)

One tip I have for this dish is to err on the side of not ripe enough over too ripe. Heating the mango will mush it up a bit, so the firmer it starts off, the better.

Ingredients:
- 1 mango cut into slices
- 1 chicken breast cut into bite size pieces
- 1/2 onion sliced
- 2 red chilis sliced at an angle (red bell pepper can be used too if you don't want it too spicy, or more chili or red pepper flakes if you want even more heat)
- Bok choy cut at a bias
- Cashews
- Salt
- Corn starch


Method:
- Marinate the chicken in corn starch like I did for the pad thai. You can also add soy or xiao shing wine or other flavoring if you'd like, but I didn't this time around.
- Heat your wok/pan until almost smoking.
- Add a splash of oil and heat through.
- Toss in the chicken and keep it moving in the pan until mostly cooked.
- Add onions and chili and some salt to taste and toss it around. Then add the bok choy. And lastly the mango and cashews. This should all be added in pretty quick succession and shouldn't be left to cook for too long since they don't take long to cook and you want all the veggies to remain crunchy.
- Serve over rice.

Pasta Primavera with Chicken

It's springtime! The weather is great, my veggies and herbs are in the garden (I sure do hope I have a green thumb. I guess only time will tell...), it's time for pasta primavera!

Here's my version - which was dictated mostly by what veggies I had in the fridge


Ingredients -
- 1 lb whole wheat Fusili
- 2 zucchini
- 3 big handfuls of spinach
- 1 large can of tomatoes (I always use whole tomatoes and chop them into cubes)
- 2 cloves of minced garlic
- 2 grilled chicken breasts
- 1 onion diced
- 1 tsp sugar
- salt and pepper to taste

Directions -
- Cut all the vegetables and meat into bite size pieces
- Put a little oil in the bottom of the pan/pot and saute the onion until soft
- Add garlic and saute a bit longer
- Add zucchini and cook until halfway done
- Add tomatoes (and half of the juice from the can) and sugar and cook down
- Undercook the pasta by ~2 minutes
- Drain pasta and add to sauce and veggies and the spinach
- Salt and pepper to taste and stir to mix sauce, pasta, and to wilt the spinach

Southwestern Chicken Salad

This Southwestern Chicken Salad was inspired by Chevy's and their salsa vinaigrette that's yummy AND healthy! Fat free baby! I love it when healthy things are delicious...

Ingredients:
- Romaine hearts cut, washed and dried
- One chicken breast grilled with salt and pepper, sliced
- Black beans (from a can and washed)
- Corn (I prefer canned for this because it's sweeter)
- Avocado (sliced or diced, your preference)
- Tortilla chips (I used the crumbs left at the bottom of the bag that are too small for scooping salsa)
Other possible ingredients that would be yummy too:
- Diced tomatoes
- Crumbled bleu cheese
- Crumbled bacon bits

Dressing (the best part):
- Salsa and Balsamic Vinegar (I used a 3:2 ratio, but you can do whatever you want based on your own preference) and fresh cracked black pepper.

Quick, easy, healthy, and delicious!