Another Try at Healthy Original Cooking and Stuff

Yesterday was a rest day, so I had some time to try my hand at at coming up with something semi-original and relatively healthy.

When grocery shopping this past weekend, I decided to get more things that could transition from full family (or as much as is left of it) to cooking just for me.  So I grabbed a bag of frozen grilled chicken strips.  (Don't worry, I had a coupon for them)  I also had picked up some whole wheat linguine.  If you haven't tried whole wheat pasta yet, do it.  It actually is really tasty.  It's a more 'meaty' experience than regular pastas, and takes a little longer to cook, but it actually brings some of it's own flavor to the party.

I started by getting some water boiling on the stove for the pasta, heavily salted.  With that started I got to work chopping up some bacon.  Not much, mind you, this was really just for flavor.  Maybe three strips worth.  I started sauteing it in a large pan.  Once it was mostly crispy, I added some chopped onion.  As this was cooking the water had started boiling, so it was in with the pasta.

With the pasta rolling, I added the frozen chicken strips to the pan and about 1/3 cup of olive oil.  Not extra-virgin, regular olive oil.  To this was added a generous amount of chopped garlic and crushed red pepper flake.  I also added some Italian seasoning, which is like oregano and parsley and dreams of Sofia Vergara's chest all combined into one, although I'm not sure she's Italian.  I'm sure she has amazing breasts though.  Really.  Just magnificent...oh no...I'm drifting here, sorry...anyway...

I then added some of the frozen chicken strips and got that all working together in the pan.  I threw some corn in the microwave while my daughter made up a spinach salad.  Once the pasta was ready, I took out about 1/3 cup of the water it was boiling in and added it to the pan, drained the pasta, and added it to the pan as well.  Tossed it all together for a couple minutes, then we sat down to eat.

It was actually pretty good.  I put a little Parmesan cheese on the top of it, had some corn and some salad with it.  It could have used more red pepper for my taste, and I actually needed to add a touch of salt, which I didn't think would be needed.  But I was happy with it.  The kids all seemed to enjoy it as well.  I probably ate too much of it, as I went in for a second helping, but I was still hungry.

After dinner Seth, Conrad and I played some video games together, mostly Nazi Zombies.  Once they went to bed, I nailed a personal high score on Galaga on the arcade cabinet, then sat to watching the Syracuse and Celtics games.  It was a good night.

I'm a little nervous about today though, Seth woke up with a bloody nose, so everything in the morning routine got a little compacted, I wasn't able to get a good breakfast, just scarfing down some turkey sausage, and I'm feeling a little anxious.  But, I've got practice tonight then my workout, both things that I really enjoy, so that should be fun.

I'm also contemplating joining this.  Anyone else in?