Baked Artichoke Chicken Pasta Recipe

2-3 TB olive oil, divided
1/3 C yellow onion, diced
salt & pepper
4 cloves large garlic, thinly sliced
1 lb boneless & skinless chicken breasts, cubed
1 tsp Italian seasoning, crushed
12 oz rigatoni pasta
3 TB butter
3 TB flour
3 C whole milk
pinch nutmeg
1 heaping C grated Parmesan cheese
12 oz artichoke hearts, quartered (use jarred, packed in oil & drained)
1 C mozzarella cheese, shredded

Instructions
1. In a large skillet heat a tablespoon or 2 of oil over medium heat and add the onions. Season with a dash of salt and pepper, cook 5 minutes, stirring often. Add garlic and saute until fragrant. Remove to a small bowl and set aside.
2. Season the chicken well with salt and pepper. In the same skillet heat another tablespoon of oil over medium heat and add the chicken. Cook through, stirring every few minutes so all sides get browned. Remove from heat.
3. Cook pasta to al dente in plenty of salted water. Meanwhile make the sauce and preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
4. In a medium saucepan melt the butter over medium heat. Whisk in the flour and cook 3 minutes, whisking often. Slowly whisk in milk, bring to a simmer for 3 minutes, whisking often. Turn heat to low, whisk in nutmeg, 1/2 teaspoon coarse salt, 1/8 teaspoon black pepper, Italian Seasoning and the parmesan cheese. Turn off heat.
5. Generously butter a 9x13-inch casserole or baking pan. Drain pasta, add back to the pot and toss with the chicken and onion/garlic. Add about 3/4 of the sauce to the pasta and stir well. Pour into the casserole pan and spread out evenly.
6. Scatter the artichokes evenly over top then spoon the remaining sauce over them. Sprinkle with the mozzarella.
7. Bake 40 minutes until bubbly all over and golden on top. If the cheese starts to get too brown cover with aluminum foil. Allow to set 5 minutes before serving.
(Recipe found at: http://www.cinnamonspiceandeverythingnice.com/)


My notes:
1. If you follow the directions as written, everything gets done in a timely order. Don't start the noodles before it says otherwise they will probably get over-done or get cold. The sauce doesn't mix as well with cold noodles.
2. The first time I followed the directions for the artichokes as written, and it was good but Ryan and I didn't think the flavored blended with everything as well as it should have. So the second time around, I used our "Slap Chop" on the artichokes to make them much, much smaller. You could also use a knife and mince them as well. It turned out so much better that way! The overall taste of each bite was just right instead of some bites having large chunks of artichokes while other bites having nothing at all.
3. When I make this again, I think that I'm going to 1 1/2 the sauce recipe instead of doing it as is. This is why. I love to dip garlic bread or bread sticks into stuff like this. While we were able to do that with the bread sticks I served, I would have preferred to have the whole thing a bit more saucy. It would just add that extra little bit for my delicious bread sticks!

This recipe is seriously SO GOOD!!! It's probably my new favorite Italian dish. It does take some time to make (I'd guess about an hour and a half or so from start to finish) but it's actually quite simple. I'm not a chef by any means, so if I can do it I'm sure that you can! And you most definitely should!!! :)

Xoxo!

The Fabulous Month of July: Part Two

    So not only did we get to play with my family this month, we also got to spend a week with Ry's dad! See why our month has been so fun?? Papa Deuel flew in on Sunday night (the 21st). On Monday, we both worked so we didn't get to play that day but we made up for it that night. Because it was a full moon, Sundance Resort does a lift ride at night that we wanted to take dad on. It's the same ride that Ryan and I did the night we got engaged, just after he proposed. We had some time to kill after work before that started, so we decided to begin the evening by taking dad to dinner at a local Mongolian BBQ. Seriously, one of my favorite places to eat! Soooo good!! Once we had our fill, we took dad up Provo Canyon and made a stop at Bridal Veil Falls to let him take in that beauty. If you live in Utah County and haven't been up there recently, you should go! Right at the base of the waterfall, they've added a little fish pond type thing with a gazillion fish! They even have some dispensers that take a quarter and you get fish food pellets in return. Because they all want to eat, they swarm right up next to the rocks which allows you to stick your arm into the water and touch the fishies! Since I love animals, that sort of thing excites me. It was really fun, for real. Check out my fishy friends below!

    After I got my fill of the fish, we decided to go up to Deer Creek Reservoir to watch the sunset. It was beautiful!!!! It had dad saying that he wasn't sure he wanted to leave Utah. We'd be ok with that!! Haha.

       Magical, right? So pretty. After we left Deer Creek we went to Sundance for the lift ride. We had to wait maybe 15 minutes in line, then enjoyed the 50ish minute ride to the top and back. On our descent we noticed that the fairly short line we had to wait in had expanded almost to the road!! No 15 minute wait for those folks! Yeah, it's blurry but the lift chair wasn't holding still! Anyway, you can still see how long the line was! All in all, it was a lovely evening!

    On Tuesday we grilled up some chicken and made mashed potatoes, along with some biscuits. Then, we headed off to the Spanish Fork Fiesta Days Rodeo! Again, it was a lovely evening. It was sold out, and there was a lot of energy in the crowd. My favorite was the mutton bustin'. Seriously, those kids are so funny! Several of them rode their sheep backwards, which seemed to help them hold on for a bit longer. That's how the winner was riding, so I guess that really is the way to go!

We left right before the last riders went, so we were able to beat the rush of everyone leaving as well as the traffic jam. That made me very happy! Also, they kept mentioning how much the different riders made at the various rodeos that they competed at each season, and I was blown away. I mean seriously? They are essentially teenagers making up to 6 figures each season! Good grief! I want that kind of money! I'm sure it makes all the pain and such they can experience worth it, so I guess good for them. I'm still jealous though!

    Wednesday was Pioneer Day, so we had no work! Those are always exciting days. I made a big breakfast with a new recipe. Banana & Nutella Stuffed French Toast. It was good, but I think if I make it again I'd rather just add the bananas to the top for garnish. I discovered I'm not a big fan of heated bananas. After that we cleaned up and head up Hobble Creek Canyon to go shooting. Other than it sprinkling a little bit, the weather was perfect. It was overcast and the air was cool. Usually the spot we go shooting is pretty populated, but there was only 2 guys there besides us, which was great. Nothing like shooting without distraction!

We drove around the canyon a bit after we were done shooting to show dad the giant houses that are back there. I rode in the truck bed and loved having the wind in my hair! And I had unrestricted views of everything we were passing. So fun.

     We went home after that and took naps, then ate more yummy food, and decided to make funnel cakes and watch a movie. Ryan was our funnel cake chef and made fantastic & delicious cakes.

    Thursday I made Baked Chicken Artichoke Pasta, which was delicious. I'll post the recipe soon because I'd highly advise you making it too! Later that evening, we decided that dad needed some Hawaiian Shaved Ice. It has ice cream on the bottom, then the flavored ice, and topped with sweetened condensed milk that Ryan likes to call "frosting". It's so yummy.

   On Friday, we decided that we needed to go to Park City. We took the scenic route to get there, going through Big Cottonwood Canyon and over Guardsman's Pass.

It's a beautiful drive. Once we got to Park City, we chose this amazing BBQ joint to eat at. And oh boy was that an amazing choice!!! The food was delightful. Definitely a place we want to go back to!

We walked around some of the streets and the little shops before going home.

    Our last day with Dad was on Saturday. We took him to Kneader's to experience their fabulous french toast breakfast. We ate such yummy food while he was here!! After that we went over to the Provo Beach Resort and played some mini croquet. I had never played before and had a lot of fun. Dad ended up winning, which made him just happy as could be.

    We then went up to Salt Lake to walk around Temple Square. There is a log cabin that is over between the genealogy & church history building called the Deuel Cabin. Obviously, you can see why we would want to show that to dad. It's a pretty cool little piece of history. Ryan has done a lot of his family history work since becoming a member of the church, but never found the connection from his family line and the cabin. He's going to talk to my grandpa (who is like the family guru) and see if together they can figure it out. It'll be fun when they do! We also showed him some of the fun things in the different visitor centers & the tabernacle. Then we walked around the new City Creek Mall for a bit before taking him to the airport. We were sad to see him go, but again so grateful that we were able to have that time with him. Up til the end we were trying to convince him that retiring from the Fire Dept in California would be a good step for him, especially if he moved out this way. Haha. If we keep working on him, maybe it will happen!!
   
    July has been such a fun month for us. We're sad to have all of our family gone and not knowing for sure when we'll see them all again. But I do have to admit, it will be kind of nice to get back into our normal routine again. I'm a creature of habit and after so long I get the itch to get back to normal. Since I'm such a home body, it was nice to have the motivation to get out and do stuff. Maybe I'll have to start motivating myself to get out more often even without family being involved. Or maybe that's just wishful thinking...haha.

Xoxo!

The Fabulous Month of July: Part One

    This month really has been fantastic! It's been like one great thing after another. The first exciting thing was that my Mom, sister and niece came to visit for 3 weeks. We had them down at our place in Springville for the first weekend they were here, and then we met them up in Ogden at my grandparent's whenever we could get up there.
    While they were down here, the main thing we wanted to do was go camping. Because Heidi is still little (only 18 months), we decided just to do an overnight thing. We went up on Saturday morning and got the camp set up. We went to a campground that's up the canyon about 5 minutes from our place. Super convenient! Even though we got up there in the morning, it was soooo hot!!! You would think that being up a canyon, in the morning would reduce the temp at least a little, but we weren't so lucky. In order to keep Heidi entertained while Ryan was putting the finishing touches on the tent, I took her down an embankment to the river. Mind you, this is a river in a canyon. Which means it was ice cold. Snow run off will do that. Now, one thing to know is that Heidi LOVES water. Any type. In fact, when we first got to our camp site, she found a muddy puddle next to the picnic table and promptly sat right down in it and started splashing. She was covered in dirt from head to toe within the first 5 minutes of being there. Typical kid stuff. It was so funny! Anyway, back to the river. I was holding her hands and letting her walk in the water. She's kicking and splashing and having a grand old time. Monica came and joined us at this time and told Heidi that she could splash, but wasn't allowed to sit in the water. Heidi looks right at Monica, gets a wicked little grin on her cute little face, and promptly sat right down in the water. She started to giggle as the water passed over her, and Monica just shook her head. It was so funny. And even though the water was beyond frigid, she splashed and played in the water until Monica forced her to get out (since she was covered in goose bumps and starting to shiver). She was NOT a happy little girl when we made her get out. And since we hadn't planned on anyone swimming, all we had to dry her off was a hand towel. We stripped her down, removed her 20lb diaper (full of water those suckers get heavy!) and passed her to mom with the hand towel. We got her dressed again, and once again she was off, looking for mischief like little kids do. For dinner, she didn't want to eat anything except baby oatmeal. And she wanted to feed herself. I had her on my lap with a red solo cup filled with oatmeal, and a spoon. She stoke the spoon from me and tried to feed herself, but instead of getting spoonfuls she just dipped the spoon in the oatmeal and sucked it off. Obviously that wasn't getting her very much, so very quickly she abandoned that idea and started using her hand instead. She treated it like a shovel, and in a very short span of time had herself covered literally from head to toe in yummy, drippy, sloppy oatmeal. And off and on the whole time, she kept saying "mmmmmm....mmmhmmm". It was hysterical. She is such a character! All in all, it was a great first camping experience for her. Even though she won't remember it! Haha.
    They returned to Odgen on Monday morning, and we joined them Wednesday night after work. Thursday was the 4th, and we went up to Herriman to watch some of our cousins run in their annual race. We ate breakfast there, and since Heidi LOVES pancakes, she kept stealing our food.

 

    We went back to grandma's after that, and pretty much everyone took a nap since we had all been up since 5am. After our naps, we hung out around the house, using Heidi to keep us all entertained. She's such a little diva and loves to be in the spotlight. I've tried to insert a video of her silliness, but it's not working. So tragic. Anyway, later that night we watched fireworks and she loved those. I so wish that they lived here in Utah instead of Indiana! Maybe one day we'll all get to live closer.
    We were able to stay and play in Ogden through Monday night, which was a great mini vacation for both Ryan and me. The week passed by fast and then Friday we headed back to Ogden to spend their last weekend with them before they headed back to their respective home states. We played, laughed, I caught snakes, we played in water, went to garage sales, ate yummy food, played cards, went Geo Caching, and so much more. It was just an all around good time. Of course we always wish for more time with family, but we are so grateful for the time we did get. Looking forward to the next time, whenever that will be!!