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?

First of Four Thanksgivings

Tonight was the first of four Thanksgiving meals I will be enjoying. After making a big bowl of stuffing, Ryan and I headed over to our gym for a Thanksgiving meal.

Thanksgiving Meal Numero Uno

The food was fantastic! The sweet potato casserole was by far the best thing goin’! All the brown sugar and pecans made it taste like an indulgent dessert.

For dessert we shared a big plate of cinnamon cake with streusel topping and German chocolate cake. Then we channeled our third stomachs and picked up Sadie to get a pumpkin milkshake from McDonald’s. 🙂 Hey, they won’t be around much longer!

Thanksgiving Dessert Ideas

In my latest Examiner article I’ve compiled a list of five low-calorie dessert recipes featuring pumpkin that would make a delicious addition to any Thanksgiving feast!

(Picture from Hungry-Girl.com)

These recipes are creative and use ingredients like Fiber One cereal, fat-free whipped topping and fat-free cream cheese to keep calories low but flavor high! Click here to check ’em out. No dessert has more than 230 calories per serving.

Enjoy your Friday night!