Quick (relatively) pasta dish

[SuperHero]

Made a delicious pasta tonight with random stuff in the fridge. From start to finish it probably took 30 minutes.

Ingredients:
- Chicken breast
- Frozen veggies - I had peas & carrots, and chopped broccoli
- Pasta - I used penne
- Parmesan cheese
- Olive oil
- Butter or substitute
- 1/2 and 1/2
- Italian seasoning, salt, pepper

Steps:
1. Cook pasta, throw in frozen peas and carrots 5 minutes before pasta is done to thaw. ~20 minutes.
2. While the pasta is cooking, cut the chicken breast into small chunks. Sautee in olive oil with Italian seasoning, salt and pepper. ~15 minutes
3. Drain and combine pasta and chicken over the stove. Mix in butter, 1/2 and 1/2, and appropriate amount of parmesian cheese. Add more seasoning 'til yummy. ~ 5 minutes.

I had cooked it before with fresh veggies - broccoli, mushrooms, zucchini, squash, red bell pepper, etc. But I hadn't gone grocery shopping in a while so I just grabbed whatever was in the freezer. Obviously it's nothing special, but it was extremely easy, and took less than 30 minutes.

 

[ImissWallyPryor]

One of my family's favorites is somewhat similar:

Grill a chicken breast first rubbed with olive oil and Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper (sometimes we use Emeril's Original Essence)

Serve it with whole grain pasta cooked for the minimum recommended time (Ronzoni Heathy Harvest Whole Wheat Blend or Whole Foods is better than something like Hodgson Mill sawdust pasta)

Drizzle the pasta with good olive oil like Goya, and toss it with pesto (Bertolli) or sun-dried tomato pesto (Classico), toasted pine nuts and salt & pepper to taste.

Serve this with a simple Romaine/Caesar salad.

Takes about 20-25 minutes total if you can multi-task.