I Heart Pinterest: Dinner

Before I started having the organized days for my blog, I was already making recipes I found on Pinterest. You all seemed to really like it, so I've decided to continue it, I'll just be doing a bigger variety of foods :)
Today is dinner. But who knows, maybe a few weeks down the road...a dessert...breakfast..a snack!

I know you all have food boards on your Pinterest, and I hope this inspires you to start cooking too. It's really a great place to start when you have no idea what your doing, like me.

I made this recipe last Saturday, when I was back in the 'burbs at my parents. I don't think there is anything out there that says 'home sweet home' more than a Chicken Pot Pie. Strangely enough, I'm not a fan of the whole 'pie' part, but I came across a Chicken Pot Pie Pasta that looked just right for my taste buds. You can find the original recipe here. Go figure, Martha Stewart. Love that woman.

What You'll Need:
Salt N Peppa
3/4 lb Penne Pasta
1/3 lb Green Beans, cut into 1 in pieces
3 T Unsalted Butter
1 Small Yellow Onion, minced
1 Stalk Celery, thinly sliced
2 Carrots, diced medium
1/4 C All-Purpose Flour
2 C Chicken Broth
2 C diced Cooked Chicken

FYI: I had to double my recipe. This recipe says it makes six, but when its that good and you already have 6 people, make more.

So before I went up north, I had my dad pre-cook the chicken. If there is one thing I hate, its cooking chicken. It also just made the process go a lot faster.

As I always do, prepare the ingredients before hand. Sometimes recipes will say 'meanwhile, chop beans'. Well ya know what? I'm a slow cutter, mincer, slicer, and dicer. I get my stuff organized before I start (it gave the beans some time to thaw too which made them peeerfect).

All my things prepared :) Oh, and some wine. Always cook with wine.

After you've prepped, or maybe even at the tail end of prepping, start your water.

Once it boils, dump in your pasta and cook it 3 minutes less than the package instructions. For the last three minutes, dump in your green beans. Cook the beans and pasta together for the last three minutes, drain.

While Your Pasta is Cooking: 

• In a large saucepan, melt your butter on medium-high.
• Add your onion, celery, and carrots. Cook until your onion is translucent (kind of hard to tell with the butter, its about 4 minutes)
• Add in your flour, continually stirring for 1 minute
• Gradually add in your broth, while continually stirring, then bring to a boil.
• After you've reached a boil, let your mixture simmer for about 5 minutes.
• Add your chicken, salt, and pepper, and stir. 

You then have to combine this two together. In the orginal recipe, it suggested adding the pasta to the chicken mixture. No. Especially if you doubled the recipe. Way too much foid to fit in a large saucepan. I just threw it all in a big bowl and then mixed it up

Nom. Nom. Nom.