Pasta a la Procrastination

Okay, this blog post is not about food from Europe. But I wasn't really feeling inspired by all of my iPod photos of the seven different versions of Greek Salad I ate. Don't worry, I'LL WRITE IT. I just figured I would cleanse the palate with a recipe.

So I made this delicious pasta for lunch yesterday:

(Yes, that is the comforter on my bed. Our kitchen doesn't have windows, and my bedroom gets good lighting during lunch time. GET OVER IT.)

This recipe is actually one that I MADE UP. WOAH THERE MELANIE, SLOW DOWN, WHAT DO YOU THINK THIS IS, CHOPPED? No, voice in my head. I just threw a bunch of things that I was craving in a pan. Jeez.

The real story behind this pasta is pretty pathetic, too. Basically, I'm easily distracted in my Music History class. I sit down, open up my computer, set up a document for note taking, and then proceed to drool at all of the recipes on Pinterest. I don't know what it was, but I was like HARDCORE craving pasta. So I searched the tags for "healthy pasta" (because I am trying to be healthy now...but that's a whole other post!), and I was just not feelin' any of the pins I was seeing. I was craving something really specific...so I was once again distracted from our lecture on Oratorios, and started making a list of things I wanted in my dream pasta. This is what I came up with:

EVOO
Chicken
Mushrooms (sliced)
Garlic (minced)
Some cooking wine
Teensy bit of ragu
Basil
Little bit of cream?

1.) Thaw chicken in the microwave? Maybe boiling water?
2.) Dice up chicken real good. Cook it?
3.) Heat up some EVOO, drop some garlic and mushrooms into dat pan
4.) Deglaze w/ some crappy cooking wine.
5.) Throw some ragu in there. Heat it all up.
6.) Stir in some light cream cream? Like a tbsp...
7.) Mix it all up with the pasta that you should have been cooking this whole time.
8.) Toss in some low fat mozzarella and parmesan because whatever.
9.) Steal some basil from your roommate's basil plant, chiffonade that shit, and throw it in.
VOILA.

So that was a..uhh...rough outline of the recipe. It wound up being a tad different...but if you wanted to follow it step by step I'm pretty sure it would be the exact same dish. But you know what? I made an effort to take pictures of everything I did, SO YOU'RE GONNA SEE THE GAME, PLAY BY PLAY.

This is the cast of characters, mise en place version, minus the low-fat mozzerella and parmesan I threw in at the end. You get the idea. Also, GET OVER THE RAGU. I can feel you judging me silently through your computer screen. And don't hate on that jar of garlic, either. My mom minced that shit FRESH just for me.

The first thing I did was thaw the chicken breast I was working with, and then sliced it into cubes. See, we're using chicken breast. It's already off to a healthy start! I threw that into a pan coated with olive oil, along with some chopped up mushrooms and garlic. I cooked it all up with some Salt n Pepa, until the chicken was mostly done and the mushrooms were tender.

Side note: I am partially obsessed with mushrooms. If you don't like mushrooms, I respect that. But also I hate you. Just kidding.

After I got the goodies all cooked up, I threw in some of the cooking wine I bought back in June, because why the hell not. Also, I don't think that cooking wine is such a terrible thing...I'm not allowed to buy real wine yet sooo this is a good compromise. And I'm sorry, but if you give me a bottle of fancy white wine I'm not going to be like "OOOH PERFECT FOR MY PASTA DISH". I'm gonna put it in a plastic cup and drink it in my bath tub.

...this post just got weirdly personal.

Anyways, after the wine cooked down, I threw in some Ragu. Yeah yeah, I know. It's what we had in the fridge. I'M IN COLLEGE. Although, if I were making a version of this for more than one person, I would maybe use canned tomato sauce that is not seasoned.

I waited for everyone in the pan to become friends before adding a touch of light cream. It was maybe 1 tablespoon. I have no regrets. THERE AIN'T NO SHAME IN MY GAME.

In the mean time, I drained my pasta that had been cooking this whole time and threw it in a bowl. I used pasta that is "made with vegetables". Which is not really any more special than regular pasta. Except it is enriched...so there are some nutrients in it from the "vegetables" that aren't in regular pasta. Plus, I straight up hate whole wheat pasta. I might give this a try with the pasta that has fiber added. We'll see.

Besides, my nutritionist told me I'm allowed to eat pasta. SUCK IT, MOM.

Anyways, I put the sauce with the pasta and went to grab all the extra yummies for the finished product.

This basil plant belongs to one of my roommates. I'm super jealous of it, because I'm OBSESSED with basil. I almost took the basil without asking her...almost. I mean, I asked first. Obviously she was cool with it...because she has a whole basil plant.

I took a gratuitous shot of the chiffonade'd basil, because I'M OBSESSED WITH IT.

I also threw in some parmesan (from the plastic jar...ONCE AGAIN, I'M IN COLLEGE) and some shredded low fat mozzarella. They were totally unnecessary. Sooo...maybe next time I will leave it out and focus on the basil.

And once again, here is the same shot of the photo at the beginning of the post, because I was too hungry to take more than one picture of the finished product. But let me tell you, IT WAS SO GOOD. I think the cooking wine really made all the difference...because otherwise it would have been Ragu with chicken on pasta. Lame.

Here's why I think it's healthy: Chicken breast? That's a lean protein, and I used about 3 ounces--which is a normal serving. Mushrooms and garlic? Very few calories, but TONS of flavor. A splash of cooking wine? PLEASE. A cup of that stuff is only 20 calories. I checked. The ragu? Not so sure about this one, because I didn't check the label...but generally with tomato sauces (especially plain canned sauce), they are low on calories. Because it's made from tomatoes. So far, the bulk of the calories is coming from the chicken. I threw in the light cream because, you know what? It's light. And honestly, it bumped up the sauce with not even one tablespoon. I combined that with the low fat mozzarella and parmesan to count as a serving of dairy. And I underestimated the amount of pasta I need by kind of a lot, so the portion of pasta was a totally moderate one. Not bad! I felt totally guilt free about eating this for lunch.

I really should have taken more pictures of this dish.