Pesto Pasta

My friend Leah made me laugh when she said that every time she sees one of my pasta dishes with marinara sauce on this blog she feels like the dish isn’t living up to its true potential. She’s a strong advocate for the use of pesto with pasta!

What’s your favorite pasta sauce?

I have always been a red sauce lover. I’ve tried many different marinara sauces, varying from homemade, to gourmet, to five-star restaurant quality, and I’m a little ashamed to admit that my favorite red sauce remains Ragu marinara meat sauce. To me, there’s nothin’ better! 😀

After a little prodding from Leah, I decided I should give pesto a shot. Last night I prepped my lunch and made pesto sauce using a Knorr Pesto Sauce packet.

Knorr Pesto Sauce

The sauce was really easy to make, and I only needed to add water and olive oil to the mix, bring it to a boil and let it simmer.

While the pesto was simmering, I boiled 7-grain Ronzoni pasta.

Ronzoni

When the noodles were ready, I drained them before adding a can of chicken to the pasta.

Pasta + Chicken

I then topped the chicken and pasta with the pesto sauce and stirred it up to evenly distribute the pesto.

Pesto Pasta with Chicken

Ryah had some for dinner last night and really enjoyed it. I thought it was pretty tasty for lunch today, too! I wonder if pesto counts as a vegetable… 😉

(For those of you wondering, my hot lunch date with Ryan had to be rescheduled to next Friday. Work duty calls!)

Weekend Plans

I’m so happy it’s almost the weekend! I have a couple things on the agenda for the weekend:

Friday:

• Dog park (It needs to stop raining! Grr!)
• Dinner and a movie with Ryan
• Intensely search craigslist for a new apartment/house to rent in Orlando (Yep, we’re moving!!!)

Saturday:

• Volunteering from 8:30 a.m. – noon
• Enjoy a Gossip Girl season 3 marathon (& make Ryan’s valentine) with two of my girlfriends
• Mall
• Dinner with Ryan

Sunday (Valentine‘s Day!):

• Hiking with Ryan and Sadie
• Drive around to search for an apartment/house to rent
• Dinner at The Capital Grille with Ryan

$5 off $10 at Boston Market

Are you a fan of Boston Market? Click here for a coupon to receive $5 off a $10 purchase at Boston Market, valid through February 18.

Boston Market

I credit Ryan and Boston Market for opening my eyes to the deliciousness of sweet potatoes. Their sweet potato casserole is unbelievable.

How good does this sound??? Sweet Potato Casserole: Beauregard sweet potatoes slowly cooked, mashed, and mixed with spices and brown sugar. Sprinkled with an oatmeal streusel and mini marshmallows.

I instantly love anything with the word “streusel” in it.

After sampling the yummy side off Ryan’s plate back in college, I realized how good sweet potatoes actually are after living my whole life as a sweet potato hater.

One of my favorite things to do with Ryan when we first started dating was pick up a bag of tortilla chips and  swing through the Boston Market drive-thru to order big side of their creamed spinach to bring back to his apartment. Between the two of us, we polished off this special treat on several occasions. Yum!

What is one of your favorite simple date memories?

Sick Boy Soup

Poor Ryan stayed home from work today with a nasty cough, drippin’ nose and exhausted body. He spent the majority of the day sleeping with faithful Sadie by his side. I’m sure she was thrilled to have a cuddle buddy all day!

Little Sadie Girl

Soup for a Sick Boy

When I got home from work, I grabbed my grocery list and Ryan and I picked up some fresh veggies and goods for the week.

My Grocery List

We bought everything necessary for homemade chicken soup. At the first sign of sickness, I always crave a bowl of the good stuff. Tonight Ryan and I made a bubblin’ pot of soup full of vitamin-rich veggies to soothe his sickness.

The base for the soup was a box of chicken broth mixed with two cups of water and a packet of Knorr vegetable mix for tasty seasoning.

Cookin' Sick Boy Soup

Ryan added in thick pieces of chicken breast meat and let the chicken cook in the broth while I sliced and diced the veggies. Included in this soup was an onion, carrots, celery and portobello mushrooms.

Chopped Fresh Veggies

After adding the veggies to the pot, we let the soup simmer on low while I escaped to Great Clips for a haircut.

Gotta love cheap-o hair cuts! I’m not adventurous with my hairstyling at all. I’ve never dyed my hair and it’s been cut the same way for years. It’s kinda hard to mess up a half-inch trim, so I faithfully trust the Great Clips experts!

With freshly trimmed locks, I headed home to pour Ryan and myself two big bowls of homemade soup.

Big Ol' Bowl of Soup

We slurped and slurped until our bowls were empty and our bellies were warm. Yummy dinn-ah!

Unpacking and Cleaning

Remember that cleaning I said needed to happen last night? Well, I definitely neglected my duties and will be paying for it tonight.

I hate unpacking… even if it’s just from a weekend stay in St. Pete. My blue duffel haunts me until I empty it. The best unpacking experience occurs when all your clothes are dirty and you can just dump everything in the laudry basket. Not so this time since I didn’t wear 75 percent of the clothing I brought along for our weekend visit to my parent’s house. Oh well… unpacking here I come!

Last Chance

Tonight is your last chance to enter my first EVER giveaway. Just leave a comment on this post to be entered in a chance to win eight packs of Brothers-All-Natural fruit crisps!