Meat, meet Pasta

It's easy, it hearty, it's healthy, and it reheats well....who could ask for anything more?!

Ingredients:
- 1 package of ground turkey (I was trying to keep it lean, ground chicken or beef works just fine too)
- 1 large can of diced tomatoes
- 1 small can of tomato sauce
- 3 red jalapenos (I like things spicy so I use 3. Also, I find red jalapenos to be a tad sweeter than the green ones, and I think they blend in with the color of the tomato to keep the dish pretty.)
- 1 package of whole wheat macaroni/elbow pasta
- hot sauce (depends on how spicy you like it, I use Tapatio.)
- Seasoning (to taste): salt, pepper, garlic salt, chili powder, chili flakes, cayenne pepper

Directions:
- In a medium sized sauce pot, bring water to a boil to cook the pasta in.
- In a large skillet over medium/high heat, drizzle a little bit of olive oil and add in ground turkey. Break it apart and move it around until it is mostly browned.
- Add seasoning to taste.
- Add jalapenos diced and cook down a little bit with the meat.
- Once meat is completely browned, add in entire can of diced tomato including juice and the small can of tomato sauce and hot sauce. Add more seasoning (tomatoes need a lot).
- Stir meat and sauce and cook uncovered on high to let some of the liquid evaporate. (Tip: you could put the heat a little lower and cook the meat in the tomato a little longer)
- Use a slotted spoon or a spider spoon thing to scoop out pasta and add right into meat sauce. Cook on medium/low for a few minutes until pasta has absorbed a lot of the extra liquid in the sauce.

 

Always Thyme for Chicken!

This is a chicken recipe that is super juicy, super yummy, and pretty easy. I wrote down the amount of ingredients I used (shown in the picture), but you can always add or subtract ingredients based on your taste and the number of people you need to feed.

Ingredients:
- 4 Chicken hind quarters (legs and thighs with bone and skin)
- 1 yellow onion (1/3 finely diced, 2/3 thinly sliced)
- 3 Roma tomatoes (cut into wedges)
- 1 red bell pepper (rough chopped into squares)
- 1 bulb of medium garlic (Yeah...the whole thing. Half of cloves crushed, other half chopped.)
- 1.5 tlbsp of thyme (fresh chopped)
- 1/4 cup lemon juice
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 1 tblsp BBQ sauce (I use Bulls-eye)
- 1 bag of small gold potatoes (cut into fourths)
- SEASONING (to taste): salt, pepper, garlic salt, chili powder

Directions:
- Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
- Add finely diced onion, crushed garlic, thyme, lemon juice, olive oil, BBQ sauce and seasoning to a bowl and mix it together. Add more lemon juice if more liquid is needed.
- Place chicken pieces in a roasting pan. Use a spoon to scoop onion/garlic mixture under chicken skin and all of the top and bottom of the chicken. Pour extra mixture on top of chicken.
- Spread out cut potatoes all around the chicken.
- On top of potatoes, surround the chicken with sliced onion, chopped garlic, tomato wedges, and red bell pepper.
- Drizzle olive oil over the top of everything and add salt and pepper.
- Place in oven for approximately 1 hour.

You can always drizzle some olive oil and a little bit of salt to asparagus and throw on top of the chicken about twenty minutes before taking the chicken out of the oven to have a delicious vegetable side dish. Serve the chicken with some potatoes, tomatoes, onions, and bell pepper for a complete meal.