Chicken and Pasta with Soup Mix Sauce

I know, I know, I've been such a slacker! I haven't cooked much lately; the kitchen has been piled with dishes and I've been feeling lazy. We've been eating pizza and Chinese food mostly. Last night I did my old fallback guaranteed-good meal, Chicken and Pasta in Soup Mix Sauce. I think the actual name of it was something like Herbed Chicken Fettuccine, but 1) I rarely actually have fettuccine in the house and usually just use whatever pasta is around, and 2) if I CALL it that, Alex will not have any idea what I'm talking about. I have two other guaranteed-good dishes (which I have made numerous times), which are my chili and my bbq meatballs. Both are quite tasty, as long as I dice the onions small enough.

Before I get on to the recipe for the chicken, I'd just like to take this moment to point out that I got a fit-n-fresh "bento" kit yesterday for $20. It comes with a thermos, a salad bowl w/ built in dressing dispenser, and a box that holds a large entree and two sides. All of them come with ice packs that fit in neatly. Also Alex ordered me a Mr. Bento on Saturday! YAY!

So here's the chicken recipe.

Chicken and Pasta with Soup Mix Sauce

1 lb chicken breasts, cut into strips
1 tsp poultry seasoning
1-2 tsp salt-free seasoning blend
4 tbsp butter, divided
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp dry onion soup mix
1 packet savory herb and garlic soup mix, divided
2/3 cup water
1 tbsp teriyaki sauce
1 tbsp parmesan cheese
2 tbsp worcestershire sauce
8 oz uncooked pasta

Toss chicken with seasonings. Saute in 2 tbsp butter and 2 tbsp olive oil until cooked through, about 5 minutes. Add water, onion soup mix, 2 tbsp savory herb and garlic soup mix, and teriyaki sauce; bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer 15 minutes. Meanwhile, bring pot of water to a boil and cook pasta until al dente. Drain pasta, add to skillet. Toss with remaining soup mix, remaining butter, parmesan, and worcestershire until well coated.

More Bento

So lately I've been sticking with the Babybel-matzo-koala snack. Pretty tasty stuff. My main-dish has varied though. Yesterday, getting tired of the nutty pork stuff, I brought some pork-cabbage dumplings I bought at the Asian market, along with organic vichysoisse and edamame. (And forgot my pineapple juice because I was rushing due to cat piss on my backpack, but that's a story for the other blog.) The vichysoisse was a little more leek-y than the stuff I make at home, and very mild-tasting but otherwise not terrible. The dumplings, I was surprised to discover, taste exactly like my husband's mom's pyelmeni! Except less peppery, which is good for me, cause she puts WAY too much pepper in hers. I just ate them plain yesterday and found myself yearning for some butter and salt to put on top.

So today, more of the same. Probably not the vichysoisse today. Maybe some grapes or something. We'll see.

Also I have found I bought too many things that may go bad before I get a chance to use them, such as mango, grape tomatoes, a loaf of bread (we don't make sandwiches very often!), and a tub of roasted deli turkey. I must expand my horizons! Well, Labor Day is this weekend, and we both have arranged 4-day weekends for ourselves, so I may eat some of that stuff then.

Quasi-Bento

Is quasi-bento somewhere between "proto-bento" and just plain "bento"? I'll pretend it is.

This weekend we went out and got cupcake cups so yesterday I brought:
Brown rice w/ leftover sweet and sour pork on top (the pork did not taste right, it was all nutty and it hadn't been the night I cooked it)
Babybel gouda (does NOT taste like the gouda we usually get, tastes more like string cheese!)
Canned pear half in juice (in cupcake cup to prevent leakage)
About 2/3 of a salted matzo cracker.
3 Koala March cookies.

Had the gouda, crackers and cookies as a snack. The pear juice didn't LEAK, like out over the top of the cup or anything, but it did soak through and make the bits of matzo directly underneath a little moist. So today I arranged it differently and we'll see if it makes a difference. Also today I brought rice/pork again but rather than stacking them I put them side by side, it's more artistic and hell maybe it'll change the flavor, or something. Also EDAMAME!!!! today. Also I almost forgot to put the koala cookies in! I'll have to remedy that as soon as I finish this post which would beeeeee now!

Bento creation on the horizon!

I'm very excited. Tonight we went to Dillon's and I bought a bunch of bentoey things. Like matzo crackers, and a mango, and grape tomatoes, and some pear slices in juice. Excited!

Ravioli and Garlic Bread

I really need to get around to getting an actual bento and some of those mini-sauce holders shaped like fish and elephants and stuff. We're going to Ho's again this weekend (I hope) but I have no idea if they have them or not (we didn't have much time to really explore last time).

Today I'm taking storebought fresh 4-cheese ravioli, with Prego sausage-garlic tomato sauce, and homemade garlic bread (toast one slice of bread, slather it with margarine the second it pops out of the toaster, realize the margarine is not melting fast enough and microwave it for 10 seconds, then rub with a cut garlic clove and slice into quarters). Yesterday I was bad and had taco bell because I was really not in the mood for cooking and all my nice snacky things (grapes, grape tomatoes) were all gone. Also I'm all out of deli turkey now.

We should be going to the grocery store this weekend (the regular kind, and HOPEFULLY Hen House if I can convince Alex that the increased cost is worth it) and I intend to pick up lots of bentoriffic things.

Herbed Mushrooms/Proto-Bento

Tonight Alex did Parmesan-herb-encrusted Cornish game hen halves, which were actually QUITE tasty, and I napped and at the last minute threw together some steamed broccoli in the microwave and sauteed button mushrooms. The mushrooms actually turned out a little MORE intensely-flavored than I would have liked, because I cooked them at pretty high heat and they got quite browned (not burnt but yeah). After they had cooked for about 5 minutes in butter and olive oil, with me constantly stirring them, I added some minced shallot, cooked for another minute, and then sprinkled with dried parsley and tarragon (we actually did have fresh tarragon but I didn't want to mix and match and we didn't have fresh parsley... or actually maybe we do but if so it's close to a month old and it's the crappy curly Italian kind).

Also today for lunch I created a proto-bento. I sliced some English cucumber and romaine lettuce and arranged it neatly in a plastic container with a slice of lacy swiss cheese, a few thin slices of roasted turkey breast, and a few slices of dill pickle. I also brought in a pita (bread, not pocket, because I am an idiot and bought the wrong one), a light string cheese stick, and a roll of Smarties, as well as my usual can of Coke Zero. I learned some very valuable lessons.

1) Bring less toppings. I sliced WAY too much cucumber and lettuce.
2) Get a condiment dispenser. I had nothing to put mayonnaise in, especially since I don't like a whole lot of mayonnaise, so I ended up just squirting a few little dots over the top of everything, and when lunch rolled around and it was time to assemble my pita I had mayo all over my hands. Not cool.
3) Lacy swiss gets almost melty at room temperature.
4) Pita was the wrong choice, a whole wheat tortilla would probably have been better.
5) Get a real bento box!

I really like the idea of doing bentos for future work lunches, because up till now 90% of my lunches have been fast food or frozen Lean Cuisine/Healthy Choice/Smart Ones dinners. (I did bring a container of leftovers in when I made cod chowder... I had cod chowder with a side of applesauce... that was an easy-to-chew meal.) And finally I am getting sick of it. Especially now that we have found a good-sized Asian market nearby.

Also there is the rest of that bag of frozen tortellini in the freezer that is sitting there begging me to take it to work (cooked, of course). Problem is, I don't want to eat it plain, and while we do have a half-used jar of spaghetti sauce in the fridge I'm not sure that would be incredibly good for me.

Also I keep seeing pictures of bentos with gyoza and grape tomatoes and berries and spinach pasta in them and they look SO GOOD. I saw a recipe for a cucumber-radish-feta salad today and thought "Hmm I bet that would work well in a bento." I have become such a nerd. Also that salad is something I would never have considered eating a few years ago.