two pastas: one week

I have this tendency to go to the grocery store, buy a ton of produce and use less than half of it. It drives me crazy to waste things (which is why I love to utilize my freezer to its fullest potential) and I have begun to buy fewer items, but re-purpose them into separate meals.

And yes. We have established that homemade pasta is, above all else, heaven. However, during a busy weeknight its just not happenin'.

So last week this was nothing fancy, but I used squash, arugula, tomatoes, garlic, onion, goat cheese, chicken and pasta and stretched it to three dinners and two lunches.

first meal: roasted chicken, arugula, tomato and goat cheese pasta. For a sauce, I just used the pan juices from my arugula/tomato saute and the drippings from the roasted chicken.

meal two: chicken roasted with garlic, sauteed squash with onion, tomato and arugula, white wine sauce with goat cheese.

recipes below, feel free to combine all of the it as you please :)

roasted chicken:
seasoned with salt, pepper and red pepper flakes
pan fry on both sides until you have some color, then transfer to a preheated 350 oven and roast until cooked through (use a meat thermometer)
tip: add garlic during the roasting process

veggies:
dice, saute with olive oil, season with salt and pepper
tip: when sauteing veggies, add them to the pan first to last based on most to least firm. i.e. carrots will take longer to cook than onions, peppers will take a bit longer than garlic. plan accordingly when adding to the pan.

sauces:
in both cases I used the pan juices-for the white wine sauce, I added a bit of butter, flour and white wine and whisked together with salt and pepper
in the first sauce, I used the pan juices and added the drippings from the roasted chicken
adding goat cheese to both pastas helped to make the sauces really creamy

Enjoy!

I know they look oddly similar, but both were delicious in their own flavor!