Prior to the holidays, my husband and I made a commitment to each other that we are going to pay down our debt. Like many other Americans, we have a lot, but we are now working on fixing this. Paying down our debt means we are adjusting our lifestyle a bit. We were never ones to really go out a lot, but we would, and when you tally up the cost per month, it was several hundred dollars. Additionally, since I am the one that does the food shopping, I have to really budget my spending. Many times I would just buy things because they are on sale, not necessarily something we needed because we were out. Well that is stopping and I'm working on creating easy meals based on what is in our home already.
When I originally thought of this dinner, I was going to do a tomato based chicken and pasta dish (which is what we'd always have), but when I opened the pantry and saw a jar of Classico light alfredo sauce, I came up with something else. I knew I had Boar's Head deli ham in the fridge and half a bag of Trader Joe's frozen peas in the freezer. So I created my own version of chicken carbonara and it was delicious!
I had 2 boneless chicken breasts already defrosted in the fridge. I cut them up into bite size pieces and seasoned them with salt and pepper. (Remember, do not use a wood cutting board when cutting up raw meats!) I had a skillet on the stove on medium heat with some olive oil in the pan and added the chicken to get it cooking.
On a separate burner, I had the water going in a pot to boil so I could add the Barilla fettuccine. Once the chicken had no pink visible on the outside, I added the peas and chopped ham and let that cook for a few minutes. Then I added the jar of sauce.
I lowered the heat on the pan and let the chicken mixture simmer until the pasta was finished. I drained the pasta then added it to the chicken mixture and stirred it together. It was such a tasty dish!
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