Food Friday: 3 Great Recipes!

As promised, I am back with three great recipes that I have tried this week!

Sunday evening I was in the mood for pasta! Normally, the only pasta we have is in the form of Spaghetti or Macaroni and Cheese. I really wanted something a little lighter so I decided to search the internet. I found this recipe for Pesto Pasta with Chicken and thought I would give it a whirl. We LOVED it! It felt light and healthy yet very filling. Obviously you could make it a bit more healthy by using a whole wheat pasta. This will be a great one to have in our recipe file. Nick and I usually have supper around 9:00 each evening so it is nice to have lighter dishes to make.


Pesto Pasta with Chicken
courtesy of All Recipes

1 (16 ounce) package bow tie pasta
1 teaspoon olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite-size pieces
crushed red pepper flakes to taste
1/3 cup oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes, drained and cut into strips
1/2 cup pesto sauce

Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add pasta and cook for 8 to 10 minutes or until al dente; drain.
Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Saute garlic until tender, then stir in chicken. Season with red pepper flakes. Cook until chicken is golden, and cooked through.
In a large bowl, combine pasta, chicken, sun-dried tomatoes and pesto. Toss to coat evenly.

Super easy and super delicious!

Tuesday night I was in the mood to try something different. I have a few years worth of Simple & Delicious magazines and for some reason I haven't tried many of the recipes. I thought that would be the place to look! One glance at the first magazine in the pile and I found a recipe for Parmesan Crusted Tilapia that sounded yummy! On the following page was a recipe for Seasoned Corn with Bacon. These two together would make a fabulous meal! Living in the midwest we obviously don't have a great selection of fresh seafood. I decided to check out the frozen section at our local Hy-Vee and found a 2-pound bag of frozen tilapia fillets for $8.99! There are 6 large pieces in the bag, so I thought that was a pretty good price for 3 meals for the two of us! For those of you that have maybe not tried many different fish, this would be a good one to start with, it does not have a strong fish flavor! On to the good stuff!

Parmesan Crusted Tilapia
courtesy of Simple & Delicious

1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 egg, beaten
1/2 cup crushed butter-flavored crackers (about 10)
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 tsp salt
4 tilapia fillets
2 Tbsp olive oil
Lemon Wedges

Place flour and egg in separate shallow bowls. In another shallow bowl, combine the crackers, cheese, and salt. Dip fillets in the flour, egg, then cracker mixture.

In a large skillet, cook fillets in oil over medium heat for 4-5 minutes on each side or until golden brown and fish flakes easily with a fork. Serve with lemon.

Seasoned Corn with Bacon
Also from Simple & Delicious

2 bacon strips, diced
1 2/3 cups frozen corn, thawed
1 Tbsp finely chopped onion
1/8 tsp garlic powder
1/8 tsp lemon-pepper seasoning
1/8 tsp dried basil

In a large skillet, cook bacon over medium heat until crisp. Using a slotted spoon, remove to paper towels; drain, reserving 1/2 tsp drippings. (I refuse to fry bacon. Don't ask me why, I just do! I love to cook my bacon in the oven. I just line a baking sheet with a couple of layers of aluminum foil and lay the bacon in a single layer. Pop them in the oven and a short time later, like magic, perfectly cooked bacon. See directions on the back of the package for temp! this will also still give you some grease for frying the corn!)

Saute corn, onion, garlic powder, lemon-pepper, and basil in reserved drippings until corn is tender. Stir in bacon.

We loved this dinner and Nick said I could make it anytime!

I hope you enjoy these recipes as much as we did! Happy Friday everyone!