Pasta la vista, baby

So I recently discovered my culinary prowess. I know. Me cooking, right?  I've always enjoyed baking--breads, cookies, desserts--that aint no thang! But cooking has always overwhelmed me. I've always felt like the time spent making a meal and the time spent enjoying the meal never quite balanced out. I spent hours creating a meal that took me ten minutes to eat and tasted just okay.

But I realized that if I ever have the hopes of landing a man (single 4 lyfee) I should probably be able to feed him something, right? Just kidding. Really I just like food and wanted to be able to feed myself things other than heated up cans of soup and Ramen noodles for the rest of my life.

So I made this goal for my short time home this summer: cook actual meals. So as any good goal-setter does, I created a Pinterest board. And searched all the interwebs and cooking magazines, shows, books, etc.

Through my searching I found many recipes that looked delicious and many I wanted to try.
The following recipe is a kind of mash up of several similar recipes I saw and it turned out pretty dang delicious, I'd say.

Chicken and Asparagus Pasta

3 c. whole grain bow tie pasta
2 chicken breasts, cubed
1 bunch asparagus, trimmed
1 stock green onion, sliced
1/2 c. baby spinach
1 Tbsp. olive oil
2 Tbsp. minced garlic
1 tsp. dried basil
1 tsp. dried oregano
3 oz low-fat cream cheese
1/2 c. plain greek yogurt
1/4 c. shredded parmesan cheese
1/2 c. chicken broth

1. Heat olive oil in a skillet and saute chicken for about 20 minutes.
2. Cook pasta as box directs and in the last five minutes add the asparagus to the water. Drain and set aside pasta. (You can use some of the drained pasta water to add in later if the pasta seems too dry)
3. Once chicken is cooked add basil, oregano, and minced garlic and saute for 5 minutes.
4. Add broth, cream cheese, greek yogurt and parmesan cheese to skillet.
5. Finally, add pasta and asparagus to the skillet and stir until you get the desired texture.

I should have taken a better picture of the pasta but unfortunately I only snapped this one of my plate.

This may seem like a small portion but don't worry--this was fo sho my second helping :)

Not to toot my own horn, but this was seriously so good and not even that hard to make! I personally have a hard time eating enough vegetables but throwing them into a yummy pasta like this is an easy way to get them! You could definitely add peas or broccoli or any other veggie and even if you don't like them they'd be masked by all the delicious seasonings.

Give the recipe a try. Or better yet, butter me up like a roll and maybe I'll make it for you :)