Bacon and Chicken Farfalle

One time when I was sick, my dear friend Lynzee brought us some delicious pasta for dinner.  Everyone gobbled it up!  I asked her for the recipe and being the good friend that she is, she emailed it right over.  It's one of our favorites now.

I did adapt it a litte from the original recipe.  Originally it called for the chicken to be cooked in a mesquite marinade.  My kids thought the chicken tasted a "little weird."  The other thing I did is double the amount of sauce, cause around here a certain someone likes his pasta super saucy!  Also just for fun for the kids, I use the Piccolini Farfalle, which is basically just a mini bowtie pasta.  You could really use any pasta you have in your pantry.

Chicken and Bacon Farfalle

1 Box Farfalle Pasta
1 pound cubed cooked chicken
1 package bacon

2 tablespoon's flour
4  tablespoon's butter
3 cloves garlic finely minced
2 cups heavy cream
1/2 cup parmesean cheese 
salt
pepper
nutmeg




Cook the bacon - We like it crispy and cut into bite size pieces.  You could even use cubed ham if you had leftovers you wanted to use.  Cook the pasta according to the directions on the box.  While pasta is cooking, prepare the sauce.

Over low heat, melt the butter.  Sprinkle in flour and stir continously with a whisk.  You want the butter and flour to make a smooth paste.  Add in the garlic and then the heavy cream.  Bring to a boil and then lower the heat.  Add in the parmesean and stir until melted.  Add salt and pepper to taste and a dash of nutmeg.  Simmer for a few minutes.

At this point, I have to make a plate for my little one.  She likes chicken, bacon and pasta but doesn't like them all mixed up together.  

Drain the pasta, add in the cooked chicken and the bacon and pour in the sauce.  Mix it all up,  add a side of garlic bread and dinner is served!

This makes quite a lot of pasta.  Four of us all had generous portions, followed by seconds for the hubby and son.  There is probably still enough for two people to have lunch tomorrow.

A Yummy "Borrowed" Dinner

I had a plan to go to grocery store today, our larders are practically bare!  But for several reasons that didn't happen.  We ordered pizza yesterday, and my son had scouts tonight so I really needed to get something on the table.  I had some turkey Kielbasa  in the fridge and I remembered a recipe I had seen on my frined Jenny's Blog.  I remembered it because it had black beans in it which I love.

She calls it 3 Can Creole Dinner and it is something she created sorta by accident.  Well her mistake made what could have been a "bowl of cereal for dinner" into a yummy meal.

My version of Jenny's 3 Can Creole Dinner

1 Hillshire Farms Turkey Kielbasa

1 can green beans

1 can stewed tomatoes

1 can black beans

Cajun Seasoning to taste

2 cups white rice

Slice the Kielbasa into bite size pieces and saute in some olive oil.  (At this point I removed a little of the kielbasa for my son who is super picky)  Add in the canned goods and mix.  Add in some Cajun seasoning (I didn't measure, just added and tasted till it was to my liking.)  Bring to a boil and then simmer about 15 minutes.  I made some white rice in the steamer because it is always cooked to perfection that way.  I think this would be good on top of egg noodles too.

This made plenty for our family.  My son had plain Kielbasa and Rice, our toddler had plain rice LOL!  However, the rest of us (two adults and 1 child that eats like an adult) were very full and we even had leftovers.

Thanks Jenny - Hope you don't mind that I borrowed your recipe!