Creamy Chicken Pasta with Butternut Squash

I found this recipe in Cooking Light and I have made this in two different variations so far. Since I have been on a butternut squash kick, here is the recipe for the butternut squash one.

Ingredients

8 oz cavatappi pasta (I used orcchiette because that was all I had in hand)
cooking spray
12 oz chicken breast, cut into bite size pieces
1 tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper
1 cup unsalted chicken stock
1/3 cup mascarpone cheese
1/4 cup chopped parsley, divided
4 cups peeled cubed butternut squash
1 1/2 cups slices shallots
3 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
2 packages mushrooms caps
Cauliflower
 1 TBSP olive oil


1. Combine butternut squash, cauliflower, garlic, and onion with olive oil and roast in preheated oven (350 degrees) until squash is soft.

2. While the veggies are roasting, cook pasta according to package directions, omitting salt and fat, drain.

3.  Heat a dutch oven over medium high heat, coat with cooking spray. Sprinkle chicken with salt and pepper. Add chicken to pan, saute 4 minutes turning to brown on all sides.

Add stock to pan, bring to a boil. Add mushrooms.  Cook 2 minutes. Remove from heat, stir in 1/4 teaspoon salt, 1/4 teaspoon pepper, mascarpone, and 2 tablespoons parsley.

Add roasted veggies to the chicken and sauce and bring dish back up to simmer. 

Chinese BBQ Roast Pork (Char Siu)

I had a craving for some chinese bbq pork and chinatown was too far away so I decided to spend an afternoon trying to make chinese bbq pork. I called my parents for advice and you know parents, they don't give exact measurements so naturally I didn't really use exact measurements either.

Ingredients

Pork shoulder
Hoisin sauce
Five spice powder
Dark sauce soy
Chinese cooking wine
White pepper
 

Mix all of the ingredients (after pork shoulder) and use to marinate the meat.

Cut the pork shoulder into four sections and cut into eight long pieces.

The meat should marinate for 2-4 hours.

Once the meat has been marinated, roast pork in a roasting pan in a 400 degree oven. Every 20 minutes, take pork out and reapply sauce. Once the internal temperature of the pork reaches 160 degrees, change oven to broil and broil until outer skin is crispy.

Meatballs

This is a great recipe to have on hand. It is pretty quick and easy and you can always freeze half of the recipe to use for next time. I combed through many meatball recipes and the following recipe is what I decided to put together after reading through many meatball recipes.

Ingredients

1 pound ground beef
1/2 pound ground pork
2 TBSP chopped flat leaf parsley
1/3 cup grated Romano cheese
1/3 cup bread crumbs
2 cloves garlic
1/2 onion, diced
1 egg
Dried italian spice mix

Preheat oven to 375 degrees

In a food processor, pulse onion, garlic, and parsley unless everything is finely diced.
In a large bowl, mix meat together with onion mix, bread crumbs, cheese, and egg and spices. Mix together. I found that mixing it all together with my hands works the best.

Form meatballs into balls and place on parchment paper covered cookie. Bake for 15 minutes. Afterwards you can use the meatballs any way you like! In this picture below I put them in BBQ sauce for superbowl meatballs. Also keep in mind that the meatballs will shrink during the cooking process so keep that in mind while shaping your meatballs.

Sorry I have a habit of forgetting to take pictures when I am cooking so here are the pictures that I did remember to take.