Herb Roasted Chicken, Stuffed Mushrooms, and Asparagus Fettuccine

Wow! It's been awhile since I've made something and posted it on here. But let me tell you what, my friend Alicia and I decided to make a homemade dinner for Memorial Day and we came up with some yummy stuff!!

Herb-Roasted Chicken Thighs
Ingredients

• 4 chicken thighs, deboned and chopped into bite-size pieces (or equivalent of any cut of chicken)
• Olive oil
• Fresh herbs (the more the merrier!)
• We used basil, lemon balm, thyme, parsley, and rosemary
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced
• Salt and pepper
• Panko breadcrumbs

Preheat your oven to 400°F.
Toss the chicken in about 3 tablespoons olive oil (if you cook with a less-fatty cut of chicken, you probably want to add more oil) and then lay it in a small, glass baking pan. Then sprinkle all the herbs over top of the chicken and toss again.  Then sprinkle the garlic over the chicken.
To make a breadcrumb topping, mix Panko and olive oil until lightly moist. Then, sprinkle the Panko topping over the chicken.
Place chicken in the middle of the oven and cook for about 40 minutes. The topping should be dark-golden brown.

Stuffed Mushrooms
Ingredients

• 2 packs of mushrooms, stems removed
• 3 cloves of garlic, minced
• Basil and parsley
• Salt and pepper
• Italian bread crumbs
• Asiago, Parmesan, and Romano cheese
• Olive oil

Preheat oven to 400°F.

Finely chop the mushroom stems, putting the caps in a baking pan.
In small bowl, mix chopped stems, garlic, herbs, salt, pepper, and about 1 tablespoon of italian breadcrumbs. Once even mixed, cook in olive oil over medium heat for about 3-4 minutes, until the mixture is warmed. Then put the mixture back in a bowl and mix in about 2 more tablespoons of breadcrumbs and about a tablespoon of the mixed cheese until incorporated into the mixture. Then fill the mushroom caps and top with more cheese. Pop in the oven, on a lower level, for about 15 minutes. Or until the mushrooms are cooked thoroughly.

Kickin' Asparagus Fettuccine

Ingredients

• Fettuccine, half of a box
• 1 bunch of asparagus, julienned
• Soy bean oil
• Olive oil
• 2 cloves of garlic
• Cajun salt
• Pepper
• Habanero sauce

Start to brown the garlic in 1 tablespoon of soy bean oil and once it begins to brown, add asparagus and toss. Cook asparagus for about 2-3 minutes before starting to cook the pasta. Toss in cajun salt and pepper in the asparagus.  You can continue cooking until the pasta is finished, or take off the heat once the asparagus reaches the desired consistency.
When the pasta is finished, drain it and toss it in the pan with the asparagus.  Add salt, olive oil, and habanero sauce to taste, continually tossing until it is incorporated into the pasta.

Pretty proud of this meal! It wasn't inspired by any recipe - it was totally off the top of our heads!! Yummy!!!

:)

Asparagus, Shrimp, and Campanelle with Basil Pesto

I found this recipe on an amazing food blog, Gimme Some Oven, and I edited it due to my Kroger's lack of gnocchis.

By the way, this recipe only takes like 15 minutes! It's so simple, you might just die. Seriously :)

Oh, and PS, campanelle is a kind of noodle-yeah, I know-and it is fantastic.  Any larger and rounder noodle will do if you don't have gnocchis, but I'm sure it's about 100% better WITH gnocchis. But then again, I love gnocchis but am too lazy and poor to make them. Anyways.

Ingredients

• Campanelle (or gnocchis, as the recipe calls for)
• Raw shrimp (I used larger prawns and cut them up, but any size will do)
• Basil pesto
• Asparagus
• Salt and pepper
• Paprika
• Olive oil

While cooking your noodles, heat olive oil in a large sauté pan on medium-high heat and add your asparagus, cooking them for a couple of minutes (about 3-5, depending on how you soft you like your veggies) and then add in the shrimp
Once shrimp are added, sprinkle in a happy amount of salt, grind in some fresh pepper, and add in some paprika and stir them in
Allow the shrimp to turn pink, and occasionally stir in the process (or do some awesome pan flipping like me :])
Put the cooked noodles and asparagus/shrimp mixture into a separate bowl and toss
Then add the pesto, however much you'd like, and then toss it in
You can add some fresh parmesan on top, maybe a little fresh pepper :) have some fun!

Suggestions:
According to my friend, I could have added in lemon. And I totally agree. Lemon or lime would have been fantastic.  And definitely more heat.  So cajun salt, or some chipotle Tabasco sauce would definitely be a good choice next time I made this recipe.