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.

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.