Bethscetera: B's Home-style Blackened Chicken Alfredo

I love to eat alfredo pasta, but rarely find myself ordering it out because I always feel like I'm paying too much for something not so fancy. One of my frequent stops for fast eating - BJ's - has a great Blackened Chicken Alfredo, and I decided I would try it out at home.

First, I found this recipe for a basic Alfredo and followed it exactly for my sauce. The only thing I tweaked was...I like veggies a lot, so at the very end where it says to stir in parsley, I stirred in a bunch of spinach as well!

I also have a tip about the cheese - previously I had just been using Lucerne or whatever brand was on sale at Safeway for shredded Parmesan cheese. Well, this time, for about a dollar more I picked up a box of this:

I got it at my Safeway down the street - but not in the cheese aisle, in the deli section, on one of the little islands that holds all kinds of fresh cheese, right next to the island that holds all the salads and microwaveable soups. I was skeptical (in the box, it looked no different from the bagged kind I usually buy) - but it melted SO much better. I'm sold!! This will be my go-to cheese for sauces from now on. If you can grate your own cheese fresh that's the best of course, but I never have the time/energy/desire, plus it freaks me out to have my fingers running back and forth over a grater (if you, like me, also use your hands/fingers as a career you understand what I'm saying). Too close for comfort.

So here's what you need for ingredients:

1/4 cup butter

1 cup heavy cream

1 clove garlic, crushed

1 1/2 cups freshly grated Parmesan cheese

1/4 cup chopped Parsely

3/4 to 1 cup chopped spinach

1 package ready-to-serve grilled chicken breast

linguine

This is unrelated and obviously not pasta - but I wanted to share what I was munching on while cooking!! Anybody else like me - love eating so much you have to eat WHILE you're cooking the real food?!

Again - I'm always lazy/busy/tired so I like shortcuts. For $2.99 I picked up a large package of Tyson's ready-to-eat Grilled chicken breast strips at Safeway. They were of course tender and soft, but I wanted my chicken blackened. So I threw it on over the stovetop and let it sizzle until it was nice and browned on both sides. Easy and tasted perfect!