Pinned it, tried it, liked it.

If you're like me (and probably 95% of the population) you could sit on Pinterest for hours on end, collecting all sorts of amazing ideas for my someday wardrobe, someday home, someday ... life.  So much time spent planning for someday.

Well friends, I'm sick of waiting for someday.  Aren't we all?  Ha.

I told myself that I wasn't allowed back onto Pinterest unless I actually TRIED something that I pinned.

So today I decided to try something fall-ish for dessert tomorrow.  When I opened Pinterest, I saw this little lovely staring me in the face.

Source

Chicken?  Got it.  Pasta?  Of course.  Pesto?  Yum.  Cream?  Even better.  Garlic?  Sold.

Lucky for me I had thrown some chicken breast into some zesty Italian dressing a few hours prior.  I still didn't have all of the ingredients that the recipe called for, but I had enough that I thought I could make it work.  And friends, I have to tell you, it worked.  So delish.  And since I used what I had, I made some funky adaptations to this recipe.  No tomato sauce, so I used tomato soup.  No chicken broth, so I used cream of chicken soup.  No garlic cloves, so I used garlic powder.  Still, it was yummy.  The smell of the burps that my husband is still gracing me with hours later?  Not so yummy.  Appetizing, I know.

OK, so here are the deets:

Garlic Pesto Chicken with Tomato Pesto Cream
adapted from Southern Girl Cooking

• 2 large boneless, skinless chicken breasts marinated in Zesty Italian dressing
• Balsamic vinegar
• 1 box pasta of your choice (I used elbow macaroni, because that's all I had.  I also didn't use the entire box, maybe 3/4 of it.  I don't measure things very precisely when I cook.)
• Olive oil
• Garlic powder (I'm guessing 2 tsp? ... I like garlic.)
• 3 spoonfuls pesto
• 1 can tomato soup
• 1 can cream of chicken soup
• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 cup sun-dried tomatoes (Optional.  We're big fans, so I add them to lots of pesto dishes.)

Cut chicken into narrow strips and put into skillet, along with marinade.  Add a few dashes of balsamic vinegar and cook slowly.  Add sun-dried tomatoes and keep warm.  Meanwhile, boil water and cook the pasta.  In another pot (I waited til the pasta was done and in the strainer and used that one.  I hate doing dishes.), combine the tomato soup, cream of chicken soup, pesto, and garlic powder.  Add milk.  Simmer 5-ish minutes.  Add pasta back to pot and toss to coat.   (like I said, I only used about 3/4 of the pasta.  I like saucy pasta.)  Serve the chicken on top of it or mix it in.  Whatever tickles your fancy.  

That's it folks.  Easy, peasy and super awesome.  I'm actually anxious to try the actual recipe next time to see how that compares to my piece-work version.  

To go with it, I roasted up some asparagus and broccoli.  I usually put it on some foil on a baking sheet, drizzle some olive oil, shake some garlic powder and kosher salt on them, and push them around with a spatula to coat.  Then bake at 400 degrees (convection oven) for 15ish minutes.  I like to sprinkle a little Parmesan in the last minute or so.  

Unfortunately, I forgot to set the timer today because I was too distracted by Mr Beckett trying to climb up my legs and back into the corner of my uterus.  I love that child to pieces but he is CLINGY lately.  So anyways, the veggies were a little lot to crispy charred for anyone's my liking.  I was super bummed and of course compensated with pasta and chicken and pesto garlic cream sauce ... oh my.

Seriously though friends, it's delicious.  Try it.  I triple dog dare you.