Sunday, February 6, 2011

Sunday Ramblings and a Recipe–Buffalo Chicken Pasta Bake

Ever have those days where your just kinda blah?  That is today.  I’m not sure what’s up.  I had a horrible night last night.  I woke up several different times, twice with nightmares.  I haven’t had a nightmare in a while.  I always wonder what causes them. 

Zack said I was being short with him off and on and I blamed it all on PMS, which probably isn’t far off because this coming week is that week.  However, I am just blah today.  I can’t blame it on the weather, today was beautiful.  Low 60’s, the sun was shining and I was able to wear short sleeves without freezing to death.  Maybe it could be the impending weeks forecast??  It’s gonna be cold and rainy.  I am ready for spring!  Seriously.

We went to Pier Park this afternoon to return a sweater that I ordered from Old Navy.  I ordered it offline and should have known that I would probably fall into the majority of the user reviews.  They said it hung odd and wore weird.  However, it was so cute and I had been eyeing it all season long.  It went on clearance and I had hoped that I would fall into the few that it worked perfectly for.  I didn’t have any plans on looking around, just go in return the sweater and come out.  However, it was dead.  You could have heard a pin drop in that store, which is rare so I thought yea, we’ll look around.  I got Kelsie a little ribbed tank and a hoodie for school.  {the couple I got her from Carters last year is getting a little too small} And both girls got a pair of flip flops.  That’s it.  I am not really crazy about their spring line.  I hope they do better for summer.

We went to Target and I grabbed a Café Mocha from Starbucks.  I never spend the money on coffee from there because I worked at The Coffee Beanery and can make them, however, I hadn’t had one in years and I was having a chocolate craving.  It was well worth it!  I shared it with Zack so it shouldn’t cut into my New Year New Me

And now for the recipe.  I have thought about some way to incorporate buffalo chicken into a pasta for a while and this is what I came up with.

feb 2011 009

What do you need?

  • Rotini Pasta {or whatever you have on hand, Penne would work great too}
  • Popcorn chicken {your gonna cook the whole bag}
  • Blue Cheese
  • Cheesy Ragu Roasted Garlic Parmesan
  • Wing Sauce {any brand you like, we always buy the cheapest}
  • Three Cheese shredded cheese, not pictured {Kraft makes this, it’s new}

What do you do?

  • Bake your chicken according to the directions.  When it’s done, cut up the larger pieces, you are looking for bite size.  The brand I bought up above had a lot of bigger nugget shapes.  Mix with wing sauce in a bowl, use as much as you’d like.  We used about a 1/2 to 3/4 cup. Set aside.
  • Put your sauce and half the blue cheese in a sauce pan and heat up.  Your wanting to melt your blue cheese.
  • Cook your pasta, drain well, mix with the sauce.
  • In a baking dish, layer your pasta and then a layer of your buffalo chicken bites, repeat until you’ve used everything.  Top with 1 cup shredded cheese and bake on 350 degrees for about 15 minutes or until the cheese is bubbly.

Garnish with blue cheese crumbs when you plate it up. 

feb 2011 012

1 comment:

Kelli said...

I've never seen this with pasta before...yum! I hope your tomorrow is less blah...I haven't felt well all day for some reason. I swear it's the winter blues. Hang in there friend :)