Yes. I said pasta. And that is because since June 26th, I've lost 25 lbs following the No S Diet. And can I tell you how much I have enjoyed food again? There's not enough exclamation points in this world.
So last night, I made something I had been envisioning in my head for about a week. I thought "This SHOULD work" ... and it did. And even my kids (one of whom was saying "I no like mushrooms, mommy") ate this down. The non-mushroom eater eating off her brother's plate, in fact.
I told my husband "I gotta write down what I did before I forget". He agreed.
Ingredients
1 lb pasta - shape of your choice (I had a weird shape from Costco, it was good)
1 stick butter
3 chicken breasts (or about 2 lbs chicken, cut into bite-size pieces - I did about 1" cubes)
5 cloves garlic
1 can Cream of Mushroom Soup (I get the one with less sodium, but NOT the one without fat)
1 cup sour cream
1/2 cup chardonnay
1 package sliced mushrooms
2 handfuls grated parmesan (probably about 3/4 cup -- up to you)
Salt/Pepper/No Salt Seasoning/Garlic powder
Start water boiling for pasta as you assemble ingredients and dice chicken.
Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat and add 2 T. butter. Season the chicken with salt/pepper/no salt seasoning/garlic powder and sear in batches in the pan. Hopefully you're not using nonstick so you'll start to develop that brown crust, which makes everything in life so delicious. The chicken shouldn't cook all the way through, you just want to develop flavor.
Remove the chicken, and add the remaining butter and plop the mushrooms in. Season them with pepper and salt and let them hang out a bit while you chop the garlic and throw that in there, too. Mushrooms should cook about 2 minutes or so, until they get super delicious looking/smelling.
Return the chicken to the pan with the mushrooms and add the wine, making sure to scrape up any bits of goodness that were sticking to the pan. Let simmer about 2 minutes to let the alcohol kind of "mellow out", and add the soup and sour cream. Turn the heat to low and just let it simmer a little while -- gently -- while the pasta cooks.
When the pasta is done, add the parmesan to the sauce, put your pasta in the strainer and pour your sauce into the large pan you just used to boil the pasta ((stay with me -- this is awesome, I swear)). Add the drained pasta to the pan you used to cook the sauce, and let it sop up alllllllll the bits o' delicious sauce that clinged to the pan. Pour the pasta into the large pot with the sauce, add more cheese if you like, and more black pepper and serve. If you have some parsley, throw that on top (much to my chagrin, mine was gross) ... some fresh thyme would also be LOVELY here.
**If you're curious about No S, nosdiet.com ... it has changed my life. For reals.
