My Easy Breezy Down Home Italian Cooking

My Easy-Breezy Gourmet Pasta Dish

It was getting late and I had to get something together quick and I mean quick for sup! Yes indeedie...I whipped this up and it turned out good. And I mean good. Hubs wants me to make this again. : )

I had 5 half frozen boneless chicken breasts to work with. One was gigantic I will say... We have 6 in our family. I do not like standing over the stove so I use my oven as much as possible. I put the half frozen chicken breasts in a 13 x 9 pan. In fact my Italian grandma's stainless steel pan, no aluminum for Grandma. She lived humbly but had the best in pots and pans...She knew what was important! : )

I drizzled olive oil liberally in the pan before putting the chicken. I grabbed my garlic powder and Tony Chachere's seasoning and sprinkled away.

Baked the chicken til it started to brown at 400. As it browned (around 30 - 45 minutes) I split the breasts in halves and fourths. Brown a bit more.

Then I start artfully to do what I love to do... I dump-dump-dump!

I go into my handy dandy pantry and grab a regular size stewed tomatoes and dump with juice!

I also found the treasure of a can of artichoke hearts. I dump with juice!

Then to top off my delicious pasta gravy I found a regular jar of store-bought pasta sauce.

On that store-bought pasta gravy...(Please don't tell my Grandma...or my Grandpa) They are in Heaven now but they would look at me like I was crazy.) My grandpa would say "ick". ; ) Grandpa had a thick Italian accent and was a sweetheart, he could say "ick" like only Grandpa could...Grandma would say Grandpa is going to throw that store-bought out the winda! (window). Grandpa would never do that but you get the picture... Grandpa was from Sicily and Grandma was from Naples. Grandpa came here when he was 15 in 1915 and Grandma came here as an infant several years before. Grandma grew up in the South and her accent was somewhere between New Orleans and a Southern Belle.

Last but not least, I sprinkle Italian seasonings over it all and pop that masterpiece back in the oven til it bubbles delightfully and the chicken is tender.

In the meantime I simmer up spaghetti.

I saved the day with this, and the pasta gravy in the pan with chicken was ladled over the pasta with Italian cheese on top to everyone's fancy.

Here's your list:

5-6 chicken breasts (frozen is fine)
1 reg. can of stewed tomatoes
1 reg. can of artichoke hearts
1 regular size jar of store-bought (oh how it pains me to type that) pasta gravy, Americani folks say "sauce".

olive oil
garlic powder
Tony Chachere's seasoning
Italian seasoning
Italian cheese, Romano or Parmesan to sprinkle on top
Spaghetti


And yes, you read that correctly...It is Pasta GRAVY. That is what the real Italians call it here. : )
"Yes, I confess it was from a jar!"
The end.


If you think you may like to try this dish I think that's great. If you post this recipe please give credit where credit is due, it's hurtful finding your recipe on another's blog with no credit. As my old pastor once said: It's nice to be nice. : )
6.30.11 Linked to Full Plate Thursday.

Feel free to visit VisionForaGodlyHome for encouragements in your walk with the Lord and everyday happenings at My Forest Cathedral

The Stranger (1946)

The Stranger is an old suspense thriller. Edward G. Robinson is amazing as usual...The movie is about a Nazi war criminal, played by Orson Wellles marrying a young lady played by Loretta Young. I warned my girls as we watched the movie...

Do you see why you need to know someone very well before agreeing to marry them?

I wanted to just jump up and down and scream at the young lady to be careful, look out with both eyes wide open!

I would not recommend this for small children, it has some disturbing things in it that may frighten and disturb children such as scenes from the holocaust and evil done to the family dog. The ending is not pleasant for the Nazi. Hubs and I are very careful on what we allow in our home, our daughters are ages 17 to 28, plenty mature of course. Evil is portrayed as evil in this movie, not glorified.

You can see it in entirety here: The Stranger (1946) Your local library should also have copies as well as other resources.

A very interesting, suspenseful movie. Edward G. Robinson is a gem! I love his character in the movie. Great character lessons here as well as warnings!


"Charles Rankin is a professor in a respectable Connecticut town about to marry the daughter of a U.S. Supreme Court justice. But his name is fake and his past is filthy. An earnest convert to Christianity, who once ran a Nazi concentration camp, is capable of exposing him. So "Rankin" kills this little old man and buries his body in the forest. But he isn't safe because an investigator from the War Crimes Commission is on his tail. Rankin will need his own wife to help him elude capture. But his fascination with the local clock tower may prove his undoing." Written by J. Spurlin

May we as Christians remember we have an enemy that is just as sneaky and worse then the Nazi character in this movie...May we keep our eyes wide open! May we spend daily time with the Lord and know His Word for ourselves so we will not be deceived.

James 1:16 says Brethren, be not deceived.


Our little poodle, Esther and I on our front porch. I didn't cut my hair, it's simply back in a clip.

Here is a nice quote I've recently come across:

"The best reason to pray is that God is really there. In praying, our unbelief gradually starts to melt. God moves smack into the middle of even an ordinary day.... Prayer is a matter of keeping at it.... Thunderclaps and lightning flashes are very unlikely. It is well to start small and quietly."
~Emilie Griffin