Creamy Tuscan Chicken Pasta Casserole

 

This is a creamy, cheesy pasta casserole that in my ever so humble opinion hits all the notes. The recipe is from Recipe Tin Eats. This casserole re-heats well and tastes even better the next day.

Creamy Tuscan Chicken Pasta Casserole

Serves 6-8




Ingredients:

12 oz penne pasta

2 teaspoons Kosher salt

5 oz bacon slices, chopped

2 full cups fresh baby spinach

½ cup sun-dried tomatoes in oil, chopped


Chicken:

1 lb chicken breasts or boneless skinless chicken thighs, chopped into ½-1 inch pieces

2-3 tablespoons butter


Tuscan Sauce:

2 tablespoons butter

2 cloves garlic, minced

¼ cup dry white wine or chicken broth

⅓ cup all-purpose flour

2 cups milk

1 1/2 cup heavy cream

1 ½ cups chicken broth

½ teaspoon onion powder

½ teaspoon garlic powder

1 teaspoon Kosher salt

1 teaspoon black pepper

1 cup finely grated parmesan cheese

2 ½ cups grated mozzarella cheese

Garnish with parsley


Preheat oven 350 degrees


Boil pasta as per package directions, drain and cool

Chop uncooked bacon into small pieces and cook in a large frying pan /large Dutch oven until crispy

In the same  pan that you cooked the bacon, add the butter.

Season the chicken with salt and pepper.

Cook chicken for about 8 minutes, turning the chicken to cook on all sides, remove from pan

In the same pan, melt butter on medium heat.

Add garlic, cook until just fragrant

Add wine, cook for 2 minutes or until most of the liquid has evaporated

Add flour, stir one minute

Whisk in milk

Whisk in cream, the mixture will thicken

Add chicken broth

Simmer mixture until the sauce coats the back of a wooden spoon

Stir in spices and salt and pepper

Add ⅔ of the mozzarella cheese

Add ⅔ of the parmesan cheese

Stir in spinach, sun-dried tomatoes and ¾ of the bacon

Add pasta, stir until all combined

Pour mixture into a deep 13x9 inch casserole pan

Sprinkle the remaining cheese and bacon over the tip of the casserole

Bake for 30 minutes or until the cheese is nicely melted and golden

Garnish with parsley

PRINT RECIPE  Creamy Tuscan Chicken Pasta Casserole

Boil pasta

Cook bacon

Cook the chicken

Remove chicken from pan and set aside

Grate the cheeses and cut up the sun-dried tomatoes

Add butter. Saute garlic and add wine.

Add flour

Add milk and cream. Whisk until thickened. Then add chicken broth.

Add 2/3rd of both cheeses. Add spices. 

Add spinach, sun-dried tomatoes and 3/4 of chopped bacon. 

Add cooked pasta. Stir well to combine.

Pour mixture into a 13x9 inch casserole dish. Sprinkle remaining cheeses and bacon. 
Bake in 350 degree oven for about 30 minutes

Garnish with chopped parsley

Taco Spaghetti

Who doesn't love tacos or spaghetti. This one-pot dish combines both. This is a great week night meal with hardly any clean-up afterward.

Cold Brew Coffee

 

It is that time of year I start to crave cold brew. I have tried many recipes and contraptions and I have found that this is the easiest and tastiest. All you do is steep ground coffee in cold water for 24 hours and voila you have cold brew. You will need a fine mesh strainer, cheese cloth and a jug to store the brew in. Then add ice and cream and you are good to go. Much more affordable than buying it from the coffee shops. The process of steeping the coffee for 24 hours creates a sweeter less acidic drink than  "iced coffee". You can scale up or down the recipe to suit your needs. Store cold brew in a sealed jug for up to 2 weeks. 

 

 I don't particularly like bagels from the grocery store or from the various fast food outlets. They are dense and gummy, fills the void but nothing else. My first introduction to bagels was back in the 80's at a little bakery on the west side of Edmonton called the Bagel Bin. These bagels were freshly baked daily right in the bakery.  Oh those were the days my friend. Sadly, little mom and pop bakeries such as the Bagel Bin are very few and far between. I probably would have to go to New York or Montreal to get a good bagel now. 

So I went on a little quest and I think I found a winner from Sally's Baking Addiction.  These bagels are a little crispy on the outside but very tender and chewy on the inside. What I love about this recipe is that you have the option of making the bagels on the same day or you can make the dough the night before and then store it away in the fridge overnight. Then, in the morning you have fresh bagels for breakfast. Toppings and flavours are endless. My favourite bagels are "everything" and jalapeno cheddar. 

One recipe yields 8 bagels. These bagels freeze well.

 I love garlic but hate mincing it, but I don't like to buy pre-minced garlic as it contains unwanted preservatives and stabilizers. I like to buy a bunch of bulbs of garlic and mince my own and then store in freezer to have at my fingertips. The hardest part is peeling the garlic but put on a good podcast or some great music and the job is much more enjoyable. Once all the garlic is peeled it is minced in the food processor. I add a little olive oil to the garlic and pack into little plastic containers and store in the freezer. I keep one container in my fridge and when I am out I know I have a good supply in my freezer. My future self is always so grateful. 

Homemade Frozen Diced Hashbrowns

Ultra Processed Food: "It's not food. It's an industrially processed edible substance". Fernanda Rauber



I read a really interesting book this winter called Ultra Processed People by Chris Van Tulleken. He explores how Ultra Processed Food ( UPF) impacts our bodies and the planet. An easy way to know if a food is UPF is to look at the list of ingredients and if you don't recognize or you couldn't find the ingredient in a home kitchen than it is UPF.
So with this in mind, I read the frozen diced McCain hashbrown list of ingredients that I had in my freezer. I like to make hashbrown casserole at Christmas or for brunches etc. I never looked at the ingredient list. I just assumed there would be the usual cast of characters like potatoes, fat and salt. Well was I surprised to find there was 25 ingredients. Yes 25 ingredients. These little potatoes were filled with colours, sugars, starches and stabilizers to just mention a few. I couldn't with good conscience buy these hashbrowns ever again. I also couldn't find another brand of diced hashbrowns that would work so I decided to make my own. These homemade hashbrowns have 3 ingredients, potatoes, olive oil and kosher salt.
They were easy to make and tasted better too.
Please read the ingredient list of all the food you buy and avoid UPF as much as you can.



Ingredients McCain Diced Frozen Hashbrowns:
Potatoes, Vegetable Oil (canola And/or Soybean And/or Cottonseed And/or Safflower And/or Sunflower And/or Corn), Modified Potato Starch, Wheat Flour, Rice Flour, Modified Corn Starch, Hydrogenated Soybean Oil, Salt, Dextrin, Corn Flour, Baking Powder, Yellow Corn Flour, Sodium Phosphate (to Retain Natural Colour), Sugars (dextrose), Xanthan Gum, Corn Starch, Potato Starch, Autolyzed Yeast, Modified Cellulose, Guar Gum, Natural Flavour, Natural Beef Flavour (wheat And Milk), Citric Acid, Caramel, Annatto. Contains: Milk, Wheat

Chocolate Cake

 

This is my favourite go to chocolate cake. It is moist and very quick to mix up. It is frosted with a simple buttercream icing. I like to make it in a 9x13 inch baking pan but if you want to make it extra special you can make it into a layer cake.