Taco Pasta

I told you a pasta craving was sparked after lunch today! 😀

Tonight’s dinner included fettuccine noodles, but *shockingly* marinara sauce did not make an appearance.

Before I left for work, I prepared taco-seasoned chicken in the crock pot which made our apartment smell amazing when I walked through the door this afternoon.

I used the chicken to create taco pasta!

I made the pasta by combining the following:

• Cooked fettuccine pasta
• 1 c. broccoli slaw
• 1/2 tomato, chopped
• 1 wedge Laughing Cow light original Swiss cheese
• 3 oz. taco-seasoned ground chicken

I added the cheese to the noodles right when they were done cooking, so the cheese melted and coated all of the noodles perfectly.

The addition of the chicken made the dish take on a Mexican flava that was delicious!

This was a great twist on my normal noodle bowls which almost always feature marinara sauce and Parmesan cheese.

YUM!

Rollin’ In

Look what have started rollin’ in…

Wedding RSVP cards!

We got a bunch in the mail today… and so far every single one is a YES!

I’m off to sort the RSVP cards in a mini filing box that my mom gave to me before doing some dishes.

Why do dishes seem to accumulate so quickly?

Overcoming Fallback Recipe Mode

With such gorgeous weather outside, Ryan and I knew we had to take advantage of the wonderful breeze before the sweltering Florida heat kicks in.

We decided a trip to the dog park was in order and Sadie was more than happy to romp around with a stick the size of her face.

Sadie and Her Stick... Err... Log

Nom, Nom

Clearly Sadie couldn’t get over how fantastic her stick was…

"Oooh Stick, I Love You"

Sadie + Ryan (+ Stick)

Smilin' at the Park

"I'm Just a Love Machine!"

 After the park we headed home to make some dinn-ah.

Dinner

I didn’t realize it at the time, but Ryan and I bought three packs of chicken (two packs of breasts and one pack of ground chicken) at the grocery store earlier this week.

Oddly enough, I’m not a huge fan of chicken unless it’s really doctored up in a tasty recipe. It bores me otherwise.

Seeing the numerous chicken packages we had to use this week, my mind went into instant “fallback recipe mode,” and I figured we’d use the chicken in three dishes we make for dinner regularly:

• BBQ pulled chicken
• Slow cooker chicken tacos
• Grilled chicken

Though they’re delicious, I realized I wasn’t really looking forward to any of these dinners.

That’s no way to live!

A big turning point for me in adopting healthier eating habits was making healthy meals I wanted to eat and couldn’t wait to enjoy.

Before work today, I still had my “fallback recipe” blinders on and threw the ground chicken into the crock pot with taco seasoning and ¾ cup of water to cook on low all day. I figured we’d behaving tacos tonight.

When I thought about dinner on my drive home, I realized I wasn’t in the mood for tacos. I knew I’d just be eating them because they were there and easy.

So, what’s a girl to do? Get creative in the kitchen!

Oh Crock Pot, How I Love You

Instead of using the chicken in tacos, I decided to use it to create taco pasta!

My taco pasta included:

• One serving Carba Nada egg fettuccine noodles
• 3 ounces ground chicken (prepared in the crock pot with taco seasoning)
• One Laughing Cow light Swiss cheese wedge
• 1/2 c. diced portobello mushrooms, sautéed
• 1/4 c. diced onion, sautéed
• 1/4 c. corn
• 1 hard shell taco, crushed

While I cooked the noodles, I sautéed the mushrooms and onion and microwaved the frozen corn.

Onion + Mushrooms

When everything was ready, I drained the noodles and topped them with the veggies, chicken, crumbled hard shell taco and cheese and stirred it all up until everything was taco-tastic!

Taco Pasta

With the Fixins

 

Fiesta in a Bowl

Close Up

Though tacos are delicious, this meal tasted like victory! I overcame the fallback recipe hump and made myself a dinner I wanted to eat and thoroughly enjoyed.

Dessert

Dessert was simple and simply delicious: Gingersnap cookies.

Gingersnaps

They were a great conclusion to a great meal.

So what about you… Do you ever fall victim to fallback recipes?