asparagus – So Lush Lifestyle

Here is yet another recipe that I found on Pinterest. I like pasta, I like asparagus and I’m okay with lemons, so I figured I would try it. I did make one kind of big mistake though. I must have glossed over the part where the recipe said that the chicken would need to be grilled prior to making this dish. I don’t have a grill or a grill pan (but they are on my wedding registry) so I just through the chicken in a regular pan and cooked it. So I’m pretty sure that this meal would’ve tasted ten times better if I had actually grilled the chicken first. Other than that minor issue, the recipe was very easy to make. And it lasted for a very long time. My fiancé went out of town for a work trip and I literally had 1 ½ weeks’ worth of food. Also, one serving of this recipe is less than 400 calories. I’m counting calories now (can’t eat more than 1200 a day) so that’s really important to me nowadays.

INGREDIENTS

1 pound of boneless, skinless chicken breasts, grilled and cut into strips
1 pound of asparagus, ends removed, cut into 1 inch pieces
10 ounces of linguine pasta (spaghetti or fettuccine will also work)
¾ cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons of butter
salt and pepper to taste
1 tablespoon lemon zest
1 tablespoon lemon juice
⅓ cup finely shredded parmesan cheese
Optional garnishes: lemon slices and ¼ cup chopped parsley

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Now that I’m in my own place and cooking is a responsibility of mine (and my boyfriend; he cooks too), I’ve been using Pinterest to find new recipes to try. So far I’ve tried “baked ravioli”, “cheesy chicken & broccoli with rice”, and “baked salmon with asparagus”. All of the recipes have been a success but I only have pictures of the baked salmon.

The baked salmon recipe was the third recipe that I tried and I’m really proud of how it turned out. I actually don’t even like salmon that much but it was a relatively low maintenance recipe that required very little clean up afterwards so I decided to go for it. Since everything is baked in foil, you literally don’t have to do anything besides throw the foil away when you’re done eating. That was the best thing about cooking this. Oh, and it smelled REALLY GOOD while it was in the oven.