Happy Thanksgiving to the US!  I hope you are having a great Thursday.  Remember yesterday I shared with you a quick sundried tomato pesto and I promised you I would show you a simple little dish to use some leftover pesto?  In case you didn’t eat it all directly from the bowl or on some homemade beer bread, this post is dedicated to a pesto pasta dish.

I am a a huge fan of pasta.  I tend to try and eat whole wheat pasta when I can but in this particular instance Mom just had traditional white flour pasta.  No big deal and still tasted great.  I basically just followed my normal pasta cooking rules that i spoke about a while ago and prepared that first.  I then went ahead and prepped my extras… cooked chicken I had leftover, some mushrooms and a zucchini.

It was a simple dish that was ready as soon as the pasta was cooked.  How do you like your pasta cooked? Al dente?  There is something about overcooked pasta that really turns me off.  I find it tastes like mush if you leave it in the water too long.  Below is the ingredients I used and the few steps I took to make this dish.

Ingredients

• 2 Cups Spaghetti Noodles
• 1/2 Cup Sundried Tomato Pesto
• Grape Tomatoes
• Zucchini
• Mushrooms
• 1 Tbsp. Olive Oil
• Salt and Pepper

Method

1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil and add pasta; cook according to directions.
2. Preheat a saute pan over medium heat and add olive oil.
3. Add mushrooms and cook down for 3-4 minutes
4. Add chicken and zucchini and cook for another couple of minutes



5. Once the pasta is cooked, add the pesto and stir through.



6. Take the chicken and mushroom mixture and add to pasta
7. Toss to coat.



8. ENJOY!

Zesty Tip: I like to add the mushrooms first as they will release moisture and burn off.  Otherwise, the moisture can cause the chicken and zucchini to almost poach and taste awful.

Today should be a fairly quiet day at the office since most of my clients are US based.  I am excited for that.  I have a bunch of reports I need to get caught up on and a few things to do regarding the house.  Time is going by so fast I cannot believe that December 10th will be here before you know it.   So with that I should keep moving along here and keep working.  I hope you enjoy this simple and quick pasta dish that you can whip up anytime – weekday or weekend.

Let me know if you have any questions about the preparation or the ingredients and I will try to help.

Take care

zesty

Holy cow it is Friday again!  I don’t have a whole lot of time to write tonight as I need to run to the house to prep some floors and move the dehumidifier to the south end of the house.  We passed the humidity test in most of the house and there is just a couple of areas that are a little high.  Needless to say we are getting the floor delivered tomorrow and the stairs material.

The upstairs window/door trim paint is coming along nicely so I think we may be getting some flooring starting on Monday.  Exciting I know.  We are still waiting on our tub upstairs which is causing a little undo stress….. just kidding.  It should be along soon and then we can cut the drain hole to get ready for the ceramic tile.

Sorry for the long winded reason as to why this post would be short.

On to the food

I do love zucchini and I am always looking for fun quick ways to add it as a side vegetable.  A while back I fooled around with garlic, an onion, an orange and turned regular zuke into a yummy side dish with some white fish.

Here we go with the 5 ingredients (6 if you count pepper ). I love making dishes with 5 ingredients or less.

Ingredients

• Zucchini
• 1 Orange
• 1 Clove of Garlic
• 2 Tbsp. finely diced onion
• 1 Tbsp. Olive Oil
• Black Pepper

Method

1. Preheat the skillet to medium high heat.
2. Add olive oil and onion and let it sweat for 2 minutes
3. Add garlic and zucchini and toss quickly for 3 minutes
4. Add juice of an orange and some zest and let reduce  for 4 minutes
5. ENJOY!

Zesty Tip: Use the zest!  Don’t be afraid to use the zest of the fruit you are using in the dish.  Be careful not to peel into the pit as that tends to be bitter.

So there you have it.  No need of making the plain old boring vegetables ever again.  Kick them up with some of your favorite flavors or for that matter – whatever you have on hand.  Just go for it!  If it turns out terrible, just don’t make it again – It is no big deal.

Have an awesome Friday and a great weekend.  I will be back in action on Monday via the Internet in Virginia.

Take care

zesty