Pesky Leftover Chicken & What To Do About It!

When I did that wonderful chicken stew last week, I cooked extra chicken breasts.

Then I had to figure out what to do with them.

I didn't have ingredients for some of my faves... the Stove Top chicken bakes or quesadillas, and I didn't have the right kind of bread for paninis, but I got an online idea and voila!

Chicken deliciousness!

It was a one-pot idea, but I don't like overcooked pasta and I didn't want the sauce runny (fussy, fussy, fussy) so I used (GASP!!!) two pots and cooked rotini on the side...

And did the chicken with a tomato base on the other side.

Super simple:
2 cans diced tomatoes

Put that into large frying pan or saucepan. Add chopped sweet onion (about 1/4 large onion) and simmer until onion is tender. Add about a tablespoon of each of these:

Parsley
Garlic
Sugar

And about a 1/2 tablespoon of these:
Black pepper
Basil

When onion is cooked, stir in cut up cooked or roasted chicken and half-a-stick of chopped pepperoni.

Serve over pasta.

The pepperoni gave it a nice Italian kick and the whole flavor blend was wonderful.

And that made me happy. :)

Because so many of us got sick with something over the holidays, we had a kid gathering last Saturday to make gingerbread houses.

I bought KITS. :)

There are some things I don't need to do myself, LOL!

And Beth and Mandy put the kits together under protest.

Their protest was that if they wanted to be Pinterest parents, they wouldn't be related to me and therefore it was my job because I actually like working with hordes of small children and messy items, but they did it and they were cute and fairly good natured about the whole thing.

:)

And we had fun!!!!

More on that next week, but here's a glimpse:

Did you know that with proper marshmallow placement, you can balance a spoon horizontally on a cup rim????   NOW WE KNOW!!!!

French Toast triangles and brown-and-serve sausage for lunch... and goofy kids!

This was a day for making memories... houses... and family.  We are so blessed!

Quiet and demure (okay, that is not true), bestselling author Ruth Logan Herne makes her home in a woodlands not far from a great and shining water with the rest of the dryads and fairies. On a clear day, one might find her making up stories about sweet small towns, nebulous friendships, old hurts and new beginnings... That's just about her favorite thing to do.

Friend her on facebook, follow her on the very unhospitable Twitter, visit her website ruthloganherne.com or email her at loganherne@gmail.com. She'd love to hear from you and possibly share fairy and unicorn stories. You never know.