Pretty Little Apron

organic bread crumbs

Crispy Blackened Chicken and Broccoli Pasta

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Blackened Chicken and Broccoli Pasta. A delicious, creamy pasta topped with blacked chicken and broccoli.


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!

Blackened Chicken and Broccoli Pasta. A delcious, creamy pasta topped with blackened chicken and broccoli. || www.3boysunprocessed.com

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!

Blackened Chicken and Broccoli Pasta. A delicious, creamy pasta topped with blackened chicken and broccoli. || www.3boysunprocessed.com

 

 

Mini Meatball Stir fry

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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. 😉

meatballstirfry

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.

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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 non-GMO 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!