By Sarah Condley

I  found today’s recipe at tasteofhome.com. The recipe sounded simple and the picture, though small, looked pretty good.

Chicken and Shrimp Fettuccine

INGREDIENTS

— 8 ounces uncooked fettuccine

— 4 bacon strips, chopped

— 3/4-pound boneless skinless chicken breast, cubed

— 1 can (14.5 ounce) diced tomatoes with garlic and onion, drained

— 2 cups fresh baby spinach, coarsely chopped

— 3/4 cup heavy whipping cream

— 1/2 teaspoon dried sage leaves

— 1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese, divided

— 3/4 pound peeled and deveined cooked medium shrimp

INSTRUCTIONS

Cook fettuccine according to package directions. Meanwhile, in a large skillet, cook bacon over medium heat until crisp. Remove to paper towels with slotted spoon; drain, reserving two teaspoons bacon drippings.

In the same skillet, sauté chicken in reserved drippings until no longer pink. Remove and keep warm.

Add the tomatoes, spinach, cream, sage and 1/4 cup parmesan cheese to the skillet; cook and stir over medium heat until slightly thickened and spinach is wilted. Drain fettuccine and add to skillet. Stir in the chicken and shrimp; heat through.

Remove from the heat. Sprinkle with bacon and remaining cheese.

The only way I like shrimp is fried, but I was willing to try it in this recipe, thinking if I didn’t like it, I could always just pick them out of my portion and put them on Brad’s plate.

I found this recipe while trying to decide what to prepare for supper for the following night. Since I didn’t have all of the ingredients, I made a list, and during my lunch hour the next day, headed to the grocery.

Brad said he would cook the bacon for me so it would be ready when I got home.

I headed to the grocery store on my lunch break and had a difficult time finding all the ingreadients, but I was finished and back to work with a few minutes to spare on my break.

When I got home, Brad had cooked the bacon and cleaned the chicken for me. He’s so thoughtful.

I filled a pot with water, added a little salt, turned on the heat, and opened the cabinet to get the fettuccine. The box was open and there was not enough in it for this recipe. OK, now what? I figure pasta is pasta. I had a box of whole wheat rotini and decided that should work just fine.

Next I found a skillet, added some bacon drippings and cubed up the raw chicken. By the time the chicken was cubed, the bacon drippings were hot. I added the chicken, and in no time, since the pieces were on the small side, the meat was done.

While the chicken cooked, I weighed the shrimp, put it in a colander and ran cold water over it to thaw. This shrimp still had the tails on it and I started thinking we probably didn’t want to fool with removing the tails while trying to eat.

When the shrimp were thawed, I removed the tails. In between removing the tails, I washed my hands and turned to the stove to stir the chicken. When the chicken was done, I scooped it into a bowl and placed it in a warm oven.

I added the drained tomatoes and the spinach to the warm pan.

Sage can be overpowering so I measured out half of what the recipe called for and added it to the skillet. Once in the pan it didn’t look like much so I went ahead and added the remaining sage leaves and cream to the pan.

In no time the mixture had thickened and the spinach was wilted. I turned the heat down and tested the pasta, it was almost ready.

Once done, I drained the pasta, poured it into the skillet, then added the chicken and shrimp. After a few stirs to combine everything I thought to myself there is way too much pasta in that pan, so as the chicken and shrimp were heating in the pan, I started scooping out some of the pasta into a large cereal bowl. When the bowl was almost full, I decided I’d removed enough and let Brad know supper was ready. Before removing the skillet from the stove, I sprinkled the bacon (six pieces not four) and the remaining parmesan cheese on top.

We sat down, Brad prayed, and we began to eat. The first bite I took included chicken and I liked it, next bite was with shrimp and to my surprise I really did think it was good, even though it wasn’t fried.

Brad said he thought it could use more spinach, and we both thought it was lacking when it came to the seasoning so we both added a little salt and he added pepper to his.

None of that stopped Brad from helping himself to seconds. In fact, he liked the dish so much he said he could probably eat what was left in the pan, but he stopped himself when I told him I wanted to take some to a coworker.

I’d mentioned to Michala I was preparing a new dish that evening. From what was left I fixed her a sample. The rest went into the freezer for Brad to have for lunch one day soon.

The next day Michala heated her portion up for lunch and let me know it was delicious.

This recipe definitely falls into the nailed it category and will be added to my self-made cookbook.

I’ll tweak it a bit the next time by adding a little salt and pepper, more spinach, less pasta, and it wouldn’t hurt to add more bacon.

This recipe turned out to be pretty easy to get on the table after a long day at work. With the prep work Brad did, supper was on the table in less than an hour.

Sarah Condley is an amateur baker and chef who is compiling a cookbook of her favorite recipes.