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The weather people here in Philadelphia finally got it right- the mercury this week SMASHED records that have stood for about 100 years. It has been SO HOT I have been sweating like some sort of farm animal.
Anyway.
At the beginning of the week (Monday) I realized that my best bet to keep as cool as possible was to try to avoid firing up the oven as much as possible.
So early Tuesday I threw together this pasta dish. I kept it in a giant bowl in the refrigerator and, along with some fresh veggies each night, it made enough for two dinners for the three of us, plus a couple of lunches. I figured I would share the recipe (I just kind of threw stuff together) in case you need a cold dinner option during the next heat wave. This meal was extremely frugal to make. Next time I might throw in some cherry tomatoes to give it some color- I didn’t think about that until after the fact.
Ingredients:
1 box whole wheat pasta
1 giant zucchini
1 small yellow squash
1 onion
1 green pepper
olive oil
1 boneless skinless chicken breast (cubed, cooked)
1 bottle Lawry’s marinade (anything lemon-y/dill/garlic/etc would work well)
What I did:
1) Put water on to boil for the pasta
2) Heat up a small amount of olive oil in a skillet (just enough to cover the entire skillet).
3) Saute all veggies together
4) Cook pasta while veggies continue to saute
5) Add chicken to veggies (I had marinated the chicken prior to cooking)
6) Add a little more marinade to the chicken/veggies
7) Cook pasta until al dente
8 ) Drain pasta and rinse with cold water to stop it from cooking
9) Dump pasta in large bowl
10) After veggies become tender, add chicken and veggie mixture to pasta (I actually put the chicken/veggies through a quick cold water rinse too- that part is up to you.
11) Combine thoroughly
12) If pasta seems a little dry, add some more marinade
13) Cover bowl and place in refrigerator to chill for at least 1 hour
14) Enjoy!
Total cost: Less than $5 for everything – and we got 3-4 meals out of it.
How about you? What are your “beat the heat” easy dinner recipes? I would love to hear them!