Judging a Book by the Title

I am sure you have all heard the saying “Don’t Judge a Book By the Cover” and I am well aware that it is talking about a lot more than books… however, tonight’s dinner came from one of my neglected cookbooks (remember my New Year’s Resolutions) and it is safe to judge this one by the cover or better yet the title. Jessica and Scott gave me Southern Living’s Light and Easy Comfort Food well over a year ago and in that time I have used it once... So this weekend I pulled it off the shelf and began thumbing through it again and it is full off recipes that are just as the title reads light and easy comfort food dishes. None of the recipes are super complicated or time consuming, they are all on the lighter side, and they are all dishes that at some point in time during the year you crave. I found several recipes that looked tasty and perfect for a weeknight dinner. I couldn’t decide so I asked Russ to pick between the three and he chose the Lemon-Chicken Pasta.This particular recipe came out of a section on Cooking for Two. I want to point out that while it does make two servings that it would still be a good recipe for one person. You could easily half this recipe and most of the ingredients are ones that will save for later such as the frozen peas and extra dried pasta. Other ingredients such as the unused chicken and chicken broth could be frozen for later.

Russ and I both really liked this dish and it fit the title of the cookbook exactly as it was easy, light and comfort food. It wasn’t an out of the ball park homerun for us, but it was a solid, delicious weeknight dinner for just the two of us. One aspect of the dish I did really like is the use of chicken broth with cream cheese. The sauce is both light and tasty and one that you could adapt in so many different ways. I don’t know that I’ll follow this recipe exactly again, but I certainly will use aspects of it and then make it my own by adding different vegetables and flavors to it. You could easily sub asparagus (as long as you let them cook a little longer) and shrimp and I think it would be super tasty. I also think I would add a little lemon juice to it. Russ rates it an 8.
Quick Note: If you are interested in tracking my progress towards my New Year’s Resolution of cooking from my underused or never used cookbooks I am categorizing all applicable blog entries as “Cooking the Books”.

Lemon-Chicken Pasta, Southern Living Light and Easy Comfort Food
Yield: 2 servings

Cooking Spray
1 teaspoon olive oil
2 garlic cloves, minced
6 ounces skinless, boneless chicken breast, cut into ¼ inch-wide strips
½ cup frozen green peas, thawed
1/3 cup shredded carrot
½ cup condensed low-sodium chicken broth, undiluted
2 tablespoons tub-style light cream cheese
2 cups hot cooked farfalle (about 1 and ¼ cups uncooked bow tie pasta), cooked without salt or fat
3 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
½ teaspoon grated lemon rind
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper
Fresh chives (optional)

Coat a large nonstick skillet with cooking spray and oil and place over medium-high heat until hot. Add garlic; sauté 15 seconds. Add chicken and sauté 1 minute. Add peas and carrot; sauté 1 minute. Remove chicken mixture from skillet and set aside.
Add chicken broth and cream cheese to skillet, and cook over medium-high heat 3 minutes of until cream cheese melts, stirring constantly with a whisk. Return chicken mixture to skillet. Stir in pasta, Parmesan cheese, lemon rind, salt, and pepper; cook 1 minute. Garnish with fresh chives if desired.This is a family photo with the addition of Cash's cousin Hugo from our hike this weekend.