Sun Dried Tomato Alfredo Chick and Broccoli Bake

The other night I was hungry, surprise, surprise, and knew I wanted to incorporate chicken into my dinner somehow. Well, I scanned the pantry, and am so happy with what I created! 

INGREDIENTS:

- 2 Chicken Breasts

- 1/3 of an onion

- 1 - 2 cloves garlic

- 1 - 2 C. Broccoli

- 1 Jar of Tomato Alfredo Pasta Sauce 

- Italian Seasonings ( I adore this one)

- 1 box Penne Noodles

- 1 C. Mozzarella Cheese

- Shredded Parmesan Cheese

- Bread Crumbs

INSTRUCTIONS:

1.) Boil noodles until al dente.

2.) While the noodles are boiling, add a bit of olive oil and chopped onion to a skillet. Season with salt and Italian seasoning. 

3.) Once onions are sautéed nicely, add chopped chicken breasts and garlic. Season generously with the Italian seasonings, and cook chicken until the middle is no longer pink. 

4.) During this time, also boil your chopped broccoli, until tender, and strain. 

4.) In a large bowl (there is a lot to mix, here - just warning...), mix 1 jar of tomato Alfredo sauce, cooked chicken, all of the noodles, mozzarella cheese, part of the parmesan cheese, steamed broccoli, and more seasonings if desired. Mix thoroughly.

5.) Coat a 9"x13" baking dish with non-stick spray, pour the mixture in, and smooth out. Top with bread crumbs, and bake at 350 degrees for about 25 minutes covered with foil, then 5-10 more minutes uncovered to get a crispier top. Let cool and serve! This turned out SO well.

Awesome Sugar Cookies From Scratch!

Sugar cookies are some of my absolute favorite cookies of all time. Especially when there's a little bit of icing and sprinkles on top. Cant beat it! This holiday season, I spent a little bit more time than I usually would, just making cookies from scratch. It was so much fun spending Christmas at home this year (I traveled to see family a couple of days in advance this year). 

So, these cookies represent new traditions, as well as just plain awesome and tasty treats. 

INGREDIENTS

3 C. Flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

2 sticks butter (at room temp or softened - but not melted)

1 1/3 C. sugar

2 eggs

2 tsp vanilla

Cookie Cutters

INSTRUCTIONS

1.) Mix the three dry ingredients and set aside.

2.) Once butter is softened, beat Butter for about 2 minutes, until fluffy. Add in sugar and mix about 2-3 more minutes. 

3.) Add 1 egg at a time, and vanilla, and beat about 2 more minutes. 

4.) slowly add dry ingredient mixture, and beat until combined and a dough forms.

5.) Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour (or even overnight is fine).

6.) Once dough has chilled, unwrap, and let the dough sit out to warm up a bit, about 30 minutes - 1 hour. 

7.) Place dough between 2 pieces of paper - parchment on bottom, and waxed paper on top - (making sure to put flour above and below dough). Get two magazines, that are about 1/4" thick, lay them on either side of the dough, but ON TOP of the waxed paper sheet. This will ensure you don't get dough on your magazines! 

8.) Roll out dough to be about 1/4" thick, remove waxed paper from top, and cut out shapes from dough. I used a fork and a spatula to remove excess dough from around shapes. 

9.) Put the shapes onto another cookie sheet or cutting board, and freeze shapes while you cut the next ones.

10.) Re-roll dough again, about 1/4" thick, and cut more shapes. Repeat the process of cutting shapes and freezing them as you go.

11.) Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Bake shapes, spread out on a cookie sheet, one batch at a time. Make sure to leave lots of room around each shape, just in case they spread out a little bit. If you do all the steps correctly, and take your time, the shapes should stay about the same size, just puff up a bit. 

12.) Use your favorite icing recipe, or I actually used some Funfetti icing, because I love the sprinkle colors :) I added a few drops of blue food coloring to achieve this pretty pastel blue color. Enjoy!!