Chicken and Broccoli Dish

I came up with this last night. It was really yummy! (Sorry about the bad picture).

Chicken and Broccoli
4 boneless skinless chicken tenderloins
1 cup noodles- I used penne, but bow tie would be fun too
1 cup broccoli-I used frozen, but fresh would be good too
1 1/2 cup cheese
1/2 can cream of chicken soup
1/2 c. sour cream
salt and pepper to taste

Boil noodles and chicken together. Strain and separate. Dice chicken. Add back into sauce pan noodles, chicken, broccoli, soup, sour cream and 1/2 the cheese. Stir together then pour into a 9x9 baking dish. Sprinkle remaining cheese on top. Bake at 400 degrees for 10 - 15 minutes. Serve with a delish side salad.

Freezing Fresh Basil

First, you've got to have some basil growing that needs to be harvested. Here's how my basil looked before I trimmed the plant and pulled off the big leaves.
These instructions came from this blog. It thought it was too useful not to share.

Basil will actually produce more if it's vigorously trimmed a few times each year. Just be sure to leave on a few leaves (remember high school botany, that's where the plant gets its food.) Here's my plant after I trimmed it.

I pinch off all the basil leaves, discard the stems, and wash the leaves very well in a salad spinner. Spin them as dry as you possibly can.

Put a couple of handfuls of the basil into the food processor at a time.
Drizzle about 3 T extra virgin olive oil over the basil and pulse about 15 times, until all the basil is coarsely chopped and coated with olive oil

I have two sizes of these little plastic containers with tight lids that I use to freeze the basil in. This was 6 bushy plants worth of basil.