Chicken Parmesan Rotini Primavera

This is another recipe I got for the Your Smart Kitchen Newsletter that I know you all will love. This was a discovery of a college student who was eager for a meal and looking to spend a little bit of time in the kitchen came up with this tasty meal on the fly.

   
Ingredients

• 1 2 Chicken Breasts, cleaned and cut into tenders
• 1/4 cup Cheez-Its, crushed
• 1/2 cup Croutons, crushed
• 1/4 cup Parmesan Cheese, grated
• 1 Egg
• Rotini Primavera Pasta
• Tomato Based Sauce
• 1 Zucchini, chopped
• 1 Summer Squash, chopped
• 1/2 Onion, chopped
• Basil
• Oregano
• 3 Garlic Cloves, minced
• 1 Beefsteak Tomato, chopped
• Extra-virgin olive oil
• Sea Salt & Pepper

Directions   

Mix the Cheez-Its, croutons and Parmesan cheese in a large bowl. In a separate bowl whisk the egg with a tad of water. Dip the chicken tenders into the egg, coating fully, then place in the large bowl, covering the chicken with the dry mix completely. Place the chicken in a pan that has olive oil heated to a medium high. Cook on each side till crisp and browned.

Heat up the Tomato based sauce at a medium-low heat adding the beefsteak tomatoes. In a large pan saute the zucchini, summer squash, onion and the garlic. Add the basil, oregano, salt and pepper to taste. Mix the saute into the sauce and maintain a low heat till serving.

Boil water for the pasta, adding a bit of olive oil to avoid the pasta sticking. Cook the Rotini Primavera for 9-12 minutes till Al Dente. Fill the base of the plate with pasta, placing the chicken over the top and scooping the sauce over the entire plate. Cover with Parmesan cheese.

Easy to prepare meal your family will love.

Video on How to Make Your Own Bratwurst Sausage

It's Bratwurst season and you may want to try making your own brats in your own kitchen! I've never tried this, though, but I might any of these days. Go ahead here's the video.

Like the usual way of making sausages or chorizo, making bratwurst is the same and requires 1 key piece of equipment before, a meat grinder. So if you're decided, make sure you also are ready with these things: 


1. You’re a true culinarian and want to impress your friends.
2. You’re a mercenary-for-hire and the bodies are piling up.3. You’re extremely bored and wanted to know if it was possible. Anyways, just do it and enjoy your sausages with your favorite beer! Get that Brats! :)     

                                 

Kinds of Sausages

Chorizo, bolognese, andouille, linguisa/linguica, keilbasa, are among the sausages that we perhaps encounter almost every time, but what are all of them? If you want to know other kinds of sausages, or at least the most frequently used ones for menu purposes, here's my list.

Don't get overwhelmed!

* Bangers (British Sausages)
* Italian Sausage
* Bratwurst
* Summer Sausage
* Salami
* Andouille
* Liverwurst
* Braunschweiger
* Pepperoni
* Polska Kielbasa or Polish Sausage
* Wiener/Frankfurter (hot dog)
* Bauerwurst
* Bierwurst or Beerwurst (Does not contain Beer)
* Bockwurst
* Chorizo
* Head Cheese
* Loukanika Sausage
* Blood Sausage or Blood Pudding or Black Pudding
* Weisswurst
* blutwurst
* boerewors
* boudin blanc
* boudin rouge
* chaurice
* chipolata
* chourico (Portugese!)
* cotechino
* Goetta
* scrapple
* haggis
* kishke
* knackwurst (knockwurst or knoblauch)
* kolbasz
* landjager
* lap cheong
* linguica
* linguisa
* longanisa
* loukanika
* medisterpoelse
* merguez
* mettwurst
* morcilla
* pickled pork (pickle meat or Creole pickled pork)
* pinkelwurst
* potato korv
* Sujuk
* tocino
* Toulouse sausage

Well and whew!

Don't Ever Boil Your Bratwurst Sausage

It's sausage time, it's bratwurst time!

Like many Bratwurst Day fans, I am now preparing for a brats week! Did I say week? My griller is now waiting, my coals at the corner. Before anything else, there's one thing I'd like to share - don't ever boil bratwurst!  

Parboiling is good, though, in fact you see recipes that call for it. What they actually mean to (or ought to) say is simmered in beer or water, usually with chopped onion added.  Simmering means bringing the liquid to the temperature at which steam rises from the surface, but not so hot that it bubbles.  Boiling will cause the casings to burst. Most understands boiling is to water..... so you have to make these things clear.

Also, you may see or hear the term "brat fry". The term is technically a misnomer.  Bratwurst can be pan fried, and you may see recipes that call for it... My family likes pan-fried bratwurst.  Nevertheless, at a Wisconsin "brat fry", the bratwurst are cooked on a grate over charcoal, usually on a kettle grill...that is how we are cooking our brats on my Bratwurst week.

I'm thinking of something refreshing to match the brats with this new-fangled drink that I found online. This is a classic Wisconsin recipe - a favorite accompaniment to grilled bratwurst, especially while tailgating at a Badgers, Packers, or Brewers game. 

You need:

1 Cooler
3 Bags Ice (cubes)1 Case Beer

Simply:

Remove cans from recyclable cardboard holder.  Place cans in cooler, intermingling with ice cubes.  Chill 45 minutes and serve. There's much more that goes into serving Kevin's bratwash than simply intermingling just any beer and ice into just any cooler.  Pick up essential points and tips on proper technique at Kevin's beer page.(I got this recipe from him).

Happy Bratwurst Day!

Have You Tried Pasta Pomodoro?

Generally, the word "pomodoro" means "tomato" in Italian. Pasta Pomodoro is therefore a dish that primarily contains pasta and tomatoes. Angel hair pasta is the most common type of pasta in Pasta Pomodoro, and it typically has other ingredients, such as olive oil and seasonings. Pasta Pomodoro is high in starch and low in fat. 

Ingredients

• 1 lb angel hair pasta
• 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1/2 onion
• 4 cloves garlic
• 3 Roma tomatoes
  (if you have fresh tomatoes from your garden, use those)
• 2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
• 1 can low-sodium chicken broth
• 2 tbsp chopped fresh basil
• Parmesan cheese
• Crushed red pepper
• Sea Salt
• Pepper

Directions

Cook pasta for about 8 minutes till al dente and drain. Add a splash of olive oil to the boiling water before cooking to avoid any sticking.Chop the onion, mince the garlic and dice the tomatoes. Add olive oil to a saute pan over high heat and saute the onions and garlic till slightly browned. Reduce heat to medium-high and stir in tomatoes, balsamic vinegar and chicken broth. Bring to simmer for around 8 minutes.

Serve More Than Just Refreshing Fruits

Summer Ideas for Lunch Simple Serve premixed frozen fruit salad with any lunch or eat a whole peach, nectarine, or plum (look for plain fruit with no added sugars or sauces). Don’t forget the napkins!  Moderate Slice fruit and serve with peanut butter on whole wheat toast. Nectarine or strawberries are fantastic summer options to jelly! Summer Ideas for Snacks   Simple Wash and serve a colorful bowl of stone fruit, berries, or other favorite fruit “as is”.  Moderate Wash and slice a variety of fruits and serve with low fat yogurt for dipping or chunk up melon and stone fruit, serve in martini glasses with a spring of fresh mint or grill melon or pineapple slices and serve up next to any meal as a side or dessert. Freeze berries into 100% juice and serve in ice tea or water. No matter how you like your refreshments served, go for it anyway. After all, it's SUMMER!