One of his favorites

In our household, we make a lot of chicken. I would like to emphasis a lot. I will never tire of it. Clearly, since I’ve been eating it mostly every day for years now.

Sure I like to change it up a bit by having fish, burgers, pork or (rarely) ham. But for the most part it’s just chicken on the menu. I’ve become pretty creative when it comes to making our chicken suppers. I’m really terrible with coming up with recipes myself. Whenever I’m eating out, or my family cooks something for me, I grab their recipe. Usually it’s not measured. I also like finding recipes online especially a site that is just catered to chicken: http://Chicken.ca. Uh, heck yea.

I’ve decided to share with you another step-by-step recipe. One of my boyfriend’s favorites: Rich ‘n creamy white chicken spaghetti. Except I use spaghettini. Oh details.

My Mom made this for me when I was back home in Newfoundland during Christmas two years ago. It’s so simple. Look:

  • Milk
  • Cream Cheese
  • Chicken
  • Bell Peppers
  • Spaghetti noodles

That’s it.

I’ve started to play around with the recipe, adding in things like dill, or garlic to the mix. It basically tastes the same every time.  I don’t know why I bother making it more complicated.

Honestly I don’t measure, because I always have to add more of the original ingredient list, after the fact anyway. I’ll try my best ;)

Start heating up your frying pan, and set to medium heat.

Add in half of one tub of cream cheese. I use the light, just because the entire base is cream cheese and probably not the most healthiest meal you can eat. But it’s good. Can you believe I don’t like alfredo sauce, but I really love this? I don’t get it either. I try not to make too much sense of it.

At the same time, add in ¼ cup of milk. I use skim. You can use whatever you please.

While that’s simmering down to a sauce. Cut up some cooked chicken and bell peppers. Add in any other veggies you may want to incorporate into this recipe. Also while you’re waiting, put a pot of water on the boil, for your spaghetti noodles.

Cook it until the cream cheese melts into the milk and creates a nice sauce that looks a little like this, or until it gets bubbly. Stir occasionally, so the sauce doesn’t stick to the pan.

It may have lumps in it. I’m not a perfectionist in the kitchen. I leave them there, lol. Those black  specks are the lemon pepper seasoning I added. As I stated before, I don’t know why I try to make things more complicated because I honestly couldn’t tell the difference.

Now it’s time to add your bell peppers and chicken breast into the mix. I used one green pepper and two boneless skinless (cooked of course) chicken breasts.

Giv’er a good stir around, and put the top on your pan and let science do its thing.

Your water should be just about boiling for your spaghetti; boil spaghetti for 8-9 minutes.

The chicken and bell peppers suck up the moisture of the sauce. So now I like to go back in an add more milk, to make sure that the sauce is more creamy, instead of sticky and dry.

Ding ding ding! That’s the sound of the buzzer. It went off so now that the spaghetti is done it’s time to strain the noodles and serve your supper!

And there you have it my friends.

A #NoNakedChicken, creamy chicken spaghetti recipe. If you cook your chicken and chop your veg beforehand, your supper will be ready in 20 minutes tops. So easy, right?

Disclosure – I am participating in the Chicken Farmers of Canada program by http://ShesConnected.com.  I received compensation in exchange for my participation in this campaign.  The opinions on this blog are my own.

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Summer carb addiction

I wish I had taken a photo of my supper tonight. I had another set of chicken wraps made with the always juicy Maple Leaf Prime chicken breasts.

I will never get sick of making these, or eating chicken altogether.

For the past few months all we’ve been eating is chicken or pork. That’s it. Sometimes fish. I should start diversifying our meals and get back onto doing my weekly menu’s. It definitely saves a lot of time, especially when you don’t have that much of it.

I know this isn’t a valid excuse, in fact it’s a great one because I’m keeping my health my #1 priority right now. My schedule is just honestly jam-packed in the evenings. I’m trying out new work out’s with my co-worker L. Yoga, TRX, Running, Climbing and of course keeping CrossFit going as well. I love keeping my workouts different from each other. That way I can never get bored.

I was like a starved gull there tonight and really didn’t feel like making anything gourmet-like. So it’s either been chicken wraps or chicken sandwiches on these new ACE chewy ciabatta buns found at Zehrs and Sobeys. They’re amazing!!

Okay so it looks like I’ve lied and I only eat those ciabatta buns. I do make those wraps at least once a week for either lunch or supper. I guess I’m too hungry to take a photo of them before I eat.

I even order them when I’m out at restaurants! You may remember this photo that I posted a few weeks ago, when I was up in Ottawa visiting my bestie.

I usually keep the recipe fairly the same with a few different variations to it:

  1. Fresh mushrooms
  2. Bell peppers
  3. Tomatoes
  4. Spring mix lettuce
  5. Boneless skinless maple leaf prime chicken breasts
  6. Ranch dressing

OR

  1. Grated cheese
  2. Red bell pepper
  3. Boneless skinless maple leaf prime chicken breasts
  4. Lettuce
  5. Roasted red pepper aoili 

The last one listed is my go-to sandwich or wrap, it’s soo crunchy and fresh. Especially good served with a side of in season veggies.

I’ve scoped out the Maple Leaf Prime website for some new wrap ideas.

Like the Chicken Artichoke wrap (minus the olives) and…

I’m sure my Boyfriend would love the Buffalo Chicken wrap much more.

What is your favorite way to prepare chicken?

What meal to you make for you/your family when you don’t have much time?

You can find more information about Maple Leaf Prime on their Facebook page, Twitter, and even Pinterest!

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Getting crafty with Sharpie

Remember last month I was counting down the days until Christmas? How about I give you some Christmas present ideas for birthdays, anniversaries or anything of the like?

To give you a low down, I have a total of four nephews. The littlest ones are 6 and almost 5. For Christmas last year I had planned on painting them some ceramic piggy banks and painting their favorite animals on it. Dinosaurs for one, monkeys for the other. It was poor planning on my part as I went into a pottery painting studio a little too late and the piggy banks were out of stock. My plan was ruined! Never the less, I saved that idea and that’s what I plan on getting them for Christmas this year. Ha! I just have to get my butt down to the studio and paint them up. I’ll probably blog about my experience, since it’ll be kind of neat.

Plus it’s such an inexpensive, yet such a personalized that it makes the gift even that more special.

How true is that, right?

While I’m on the topic of making your own gifts, I wanted to show you a mug that I painted for myself, with these new Sharpie Brush tips! I can use this to either hold my sharpies, or for drinking tea at work. Yumm-o.

I’m sure everyone is familiar with Sharpie® markers, and know that they have some pretty fun ink colors. I’m already a huge fan of them and use them all the time at my work. Look at my Sharpie (fine point) collection!They’ve recently come out with a new brush tipped Sharpie that creates fine lines, brush strokes and shading all with a single marker! So you’re definitely not limited to the amount of fun you can have with them all.

Parents, you’ve only got a few weeks until your children go back to school (hooray?). Perhaps you’re wondering what to do with them at the end of the summer, and have no other activity ideas left for them, to keep them all occupied? Let their creativity go wild and get them to decorate their t-shirts, bicycle helmets, notebooks for school, or even their skateboards! They are a permanent marker, so be careful what you give them :) The brush tip sharpie’s are really easy to work with and you can create bold lines with more pressure on the marker, or less pressure for fine lines.

They come available in twelve visit colors. You can pick them up at Staples, Walmart, Real Canadian Superstores and DeSerres, and sold individually and in 4 and 8 packs with prices from $1.79 to $13.99.

But guess what? Oh I’m not leaving you guys out at all. One of you lucky folks gets to win three packs of the new Sharpie Brush markers, as well! 

Please note this giveaway is for Canadian residents only. Giveaway ends on August 10 and the winner has 48 hours to get back to me with their mailing address or a re-draw will occur.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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