Simple Cookin! (And a Bonus Section!)

Howdy all! Somehow it's the 10th of September today...so much for increasing the frequency of my postings. But, never fear, here I'm am, writing this post. And for those who are counting, this definitely wins more points than the homework I could be doing...let's write!

I rolled into my apartment at 8:30pm tonight and boy was I hungry...time to check the fridge and find out what I can cook. Operation inspiration began yet again. This one actually started with the freezer where I had some frozen chicken breasts - check. Then onto the fridge: pull open one of my drawers and there's a bag of broccoli - check. Went to the pantry next: my eyes settled on a 1/3 filled bag of pasta - check.
Chicken. Pasta. Broccoli. How'd I do it?

Chicken: shocker alert here, I followed the instructions on the bag. Preheat the oven to 375 F, place frozen breast onto a foil-covered cookie sheet, bake for 20 minutes. So I did all of that, but before I put the chicken in the oven, I sprinkled Trader Joe's 21 Seasoning Salute onto the chicken (you could insert you favorite spice blend instead).
Some notes to take care of: Make sure the chicken is cooked throughout! If you have a kitchen thermometer (that's probably not what's it's called), poke your chicken and see how hot it is internally. If not, the taste and eyes test can be deployed. Also, not all chicken can go straight from freezer to oven, you might have to thaw first. Check the instructions.

Pasta: Simple stuff here, I cooked orecchiette pasta (sounds fancy, I know). Remember to always boil the water first - especially if you live in my apartment where it takes quite a while to boil. Here's my sauce concoction for the evening: Olive oil, butter, alfredo sauce, red pepper flakes, oregano. I got these from my fridge and just put together a little bit of everything. I intentionally went light with most of it because I didn't want one flavor to complete dominate - every bite was more of an adventure this way!

Broccoli: I put the broccoli into a pampered chef microwavable steamer, added a little water, salt, and pepper, and put it in the microwave to steam - again, pretty simple stuff.

And poof, you've got yourself a well balanced meal that tackles multiple food groups! 

P.S. I really didn't go into a lot of nitty-gritty detail here, so if you'd like more info or instruction, just ask!

BONUS: Check out my dinner from last night:

And one more BONUS: Here's the crew I shared the meal with! The food is important but so is the company that you eat with!

Caution: Selfie Sighting!