Cooking for One

It's time for another food post!  With Marshall switching back to 12 hour shifts on nights, I have to once again sharpen my creative cooking skills and learn how to cook for one (and a half if you count Jill, hee hee).  Tonight was the kickoff of my culinary sharpening, with me running around peeking in the cupboards to see what I can scrounge up.  Tonight ended up being a slight revamping of a recipe I made up a couple months /\or so ago.  It's my very own pasta dish, tonight with whole wheat penne, chicken breast, and bell peppers in a fettuncine inspired sauce.

While the penne pasta was cooking, I cubed a chicken breast and placed in a skillet with olive oil over medium heat.  I used pepper to season the chicken, and browned it in the skillet.  Then, I added in half each of a red, green, and yellow bell pepper, when the chicken was 3/4 done.  Cook until chicken is finished and peppers are crisp tender.  I added in around a half teaspoon of prepared chopped garlic, and sauteed for just long enough for the garlic to turn clear.  Set aside.

Strain the pasta.  Using the same saucepan the pasta cooked in, and over medium heat, I added in 1/2 an 8 oz. tub of regular cream cheese, a just about equal amount of sour cream (I just added a couple heaping scoops with one of my large silverwear spoon), and 1 cup of milk.  This ended up making way too much sauce for what I needed, and would definately be enough for a regular 4 servings of pasta.  (This means I got to keep some extra for later!)  I added in a pinch of red pepper flakes, some pepper, a Tablespoon of dried basil leaves, and a teaspoon of garlic.  After the ingredients combines, I added in 1/3 cup of shredded parmesean, and stirred until completely mixed.  Lastly, and the most deliciously, I added in the zest and juice from one lemon.

Let the sauce cook, stirring frequently, until slightly bubbly.  Add in the chicken and peppers and the pasta, then stir.  Voiila! 

Quick, easy, and delicious.  The picture definately doesn't do the dish justice!  The lemon really brought the sauce up a notch.  The great thing with this, too, is that you can sub in other veggies if you'd like.  I really liked the sour cream in here also, it really made the sauce creamy.  And I accidently made enough to have leftovers for a midnight snack tonight.  Yummy!