I have to say, coming back from vacation is WAY more work than packing for it and being on it. Especially when said vacationers have a rental car that is loaded with luggage and Christmas gifts. I wish I’d taken a picture of our car filled to the brim with stuff…it was pretty amazing! Even more amazing was the fact that we fit it all into my smaller car when we dropped off the rental and headed home.
Miracles DO happen people!
Yesterday we were fortunate enough to have the day off from work to celebrate the New Year’s holiday, and I have to say that we made the most of it. We slept in a bit, made waffles, ran a TON of errands, cleaned the house (when I say this I actually mean we cleaned up the mess we made when we dragged all of our stuff inside), and watched movies. And dinner? Probably the easiest thing of all! I took a hint from beautiful Julie and made this pasta sauce in a snap with the slow cooker. I have to say, the house smelled incredible and we couldn’t wait to dig in at dinner time!
SHREDDED CHICKEN PASTA
- 2 large chicken breasts (I threw mine in raw…I figured they were going to be simmering for 10 hours and would cook all potential bad stuff out)
- 1/2 of the sauce in this recipe (Mine was frozen, but I thawed it out in the microwave and added a little bit of chicken stock) – you could also use a jar of sauce and it would still turn out great!
- 1/2 lb of pasta, your choice, cooked to al dente in the last 20 minutes of cooking the chicken
Throw it all in a crock pot and cook on low for 8-10 hours. Right before dinner, while you’re boiling the pasta (or cooking spaghetti squash, which would be amazing as well), take the chicken out of the pot and shred it with two forks. Add it back in and serve hot over cooked pasta. Voila! Easy, tasty, and healthy…with a great amount of leftovers for tomorrow!
Just what the doctor ordered for our last day of Christmas vacation…now it’s back to the grind with a crazy-busy schedule and lots of resolutions (to come in a later post…jumpin’ on the late train with this one!) to plan out and execute. 2011 is going to be amazing, and I’m so glad to be back in the blogosphere with all of you amazing friends!
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P.S. Check out Faces of Beauty tomorrow for an amazing story from a beautiful girl!
Oooh that looks tasty!
Looks like a perfect, easy meal! I love getting multiple meals out of one cooking session 🙂 Always on the lookout for more of those!
slow cookers=winter time goodness 🙂
Um, I need a crockpot!! That looks so good, even though I don’t eat chicken 😉
Glad you guys made it home safely!
Unpacking is no fun! Sometimes I do it RIGHT away and other times my bag sits on the floor of our bedroom for weeks. True story. So glad y’all had yesterday off to get things done and ease into life at home. Hope your have a great week!
My least favorite thing to do is unpack. I also haaate putting clean laundry away. It took me a full week to unpack from Cleveland. Whooops!! Glad to have you back girlie 🙂
oh my goodness, tell me about it. the worst is washing laundry when you get back though! this time we washed as we went from house to house and only had a few dirty items!
I think the trick with unpacking is treating it like ripping off a bandaid- don’t sit down, don’t get a glass of water, just rip right into it and you won’t avoid it! That usually works for me and I’m the WORST at packing/unpacking! The pasta sauce looks great!
exactly! the second i stop it’s all over…no more cleaning for at least a week 🙂
DANG your chicken looks good!!! I love the idea of combining it w/pasta sauce. I need to try this! Yum.
it’s all because i saw your salsa chicken!
The crock pot is pretty much a savior in the kitchen. And it never fails to produce an aroma that teases you until dinner time 🙂
Lol, our car is always SUPER packed when we drive home after Christmas. We finally got a bigger car this year, so I’m hoping it won’t be *quite* as bad as it used to be…but I bet it still will be!
Glad you made it home safely!
bigger car = more stuff in my book 🙂
Welcome back!! It’s always amazing to me the mess that is made after vacation. I always, always clean my house before leaving, because I know I will bring in loads of stuff that I won’t get to for a couple of days.
mmmmm comforting pasta 🙂 looks so great!
I hate reorganizing and things after vacations. It always feels like so much work. You ended the night on a nice relaxing note though. That’s good!
The Mr. would be all over this!
That sounds and looks great and yet I still can’t do the crock pot. Growing up, all crock pot meals had a certain taste I couldn’t choke down. We probably had a cheapo crock pot that just gave off some flavor but to this day I can’t do it!
yikes, i’d be a little scared too!
Love simple dinners like this one that are still healthy AND delicious!
I always look straight-up ridiculous in my car on the drive home. I don’t pack things back in nearly as neatly and it’s just a huge mess of stuff in the back!
What a great recipe!!
Unpacking from vacation is my least favorite thing to do… I feel your pain 😉
I would LOVE just one more day of vacation…
wouldn’t we all?! 🙂
Man, I need to fall back in love with my slow cooker this winter — it does make dinner so easy (and make the house smell so good)! I’m also happy to rediscover that veggie pasta sauce from last April…. yum!! And so full of veggies….
it really is amazing…and it’s perfect as-is too!