A Mildly Planned Meal

This is a day late but thats the life of a college student I suppose.

My roommate came home with a whole bag of fresh still in the husk white sweet corn. (I think I nearly died of happiness) I ADORE sweet corn, and fresh from the stand is even better! So I decided to try and make some kind of meal that we could have the corn with.

My two trusty friends and I set to work (The third was on RA duty and we brought her, her meal at the front desk), we took a quick trip to one of the campus stores to pick up some of those handy skinless bones frozen chicken breasts. (It sounds absolutely terrible I know.) This fed over 4 people and had at LEAST another serving which I packed a bit if it for lunch. (I'll post that later)

So here is where it started:

Whole wheat spaghetti
2 Boneless, skinless Chicken breasts
Half of a white onion
About 5 medium sized regular mushrooms
Any type of red pasta sauce
Oregano
Basil
Garlic powder
Parsley
Salt
Cracked pepper
Tablespoon butter

It took my two friends to husk 4 ears of corn, I'm not sure why it was such a complicated job but it was pretty funny. It's kind of funny the GUY was the one taking his time.

Some of the corn had to be trimmed because there were brown spots on the ends or some dried up kernels. I then cut them in half to boil.

Finely chop the half of onion, if you like your onion pieces larger thats ok too but it takes longer to caramelize. I just roughly chopped the mushrooms. (And had to stop myself from eating the pieces as I worked.)

Toss a tablespoon of butter into a cast iron pan, you can use pretty much any other kind of oil you want but I like to add to the seasoning of my pan. She is my baby and I make everything in her. (Sounds dirty) Boil water for the pasta and another smaller pot for the corn.

My friends hands sure are lovely as she chopped up the chicken, I suggest thinner and shorter strips since they will be easier to eat and cook.

As she chopped I tossed the onions into the skillet first, once they were about halfway done I tossed in the mushrooms and waited until they were halfway done before I tossed in some salt and pepper.

Pasta is done!! Whole wheat pasta takes a bit longer than normal pasta so I suggest being careful and testing it out as you go. We made the whole box because we knew it would be eaten.

Toss the chicken in and season with Oregano, basic, garlic powder, salt, pepper, and a little parsley to taste. (It SMELLED amazing) Usually I toss the sauce directly into the skillet because if you are using jared sauce I suggest playing around with the taste. I love to modify the sauce, I love to make homemade sauce more. But I wanted to try something different.

We served massive potions because we were all starving/drooling. This is after I poured the sauce directly into the pasta and then put the chicken, onion, mushroom mixture into the pasta as well and gave it a good mix.

Boil corn (What else is there to say?) I add a bit of salt to the water. It takes about 8-10 min depending on the type or corn and how in season it is.

I love corn on the cob, this was just teasing me.

I love my pasta with extra cracked pepper on top, and of course some (a ton) parmesan cheese has to be added as well. I suggest you pull out the grater and get it off the block but if you can't obviously any store brand works. Also I noticed now I didn't put the second ear of corn that I ate on there... It was delicious!

The decision was unanimous: MMMMMMMMMmmmmmMMmmmMmmm <-- In that order.

What I would do different:
I would have added fresh chopped garlic to the caramelizing pan
Used homemade tomato sauce
Put the sauce in the cast iron like I usually do
And have my friends roommate make her homemade bread. (Its to DIE for people, there will be a post on it.)

I hope you enjoyed some college family dinner time!

Band of the meal: Maroon 5 (We were singing as I took photos.)


******** BENTO LUNCH **********

I tossed together some of the pasta leftovers from dinner as seen above ^
Added some stolen dining hall carrots I acquired yesterday.
As well as half a whole grain oat bread sandwich with Smuckers grape jelly and organic cashew butter. (I like strange things I know)

By the way I eat the pasta with the little mini chopsticks the bento gives me. It's just highly amusing.

If you have any questions, concerns, trepidations or comments don't hesitate to ask!

Peace Out All

-Silver
<3