Mom gave me a full regimen of home economics training throughout my teens—I had no excuse. But the year that I left home, I got lazy. I loved good food still but hated the time (and the dirty dishes) that it took to create a full meal, quickly turning to peanut butter and jelly, macaroni and cheese, and my most insidious go-to, ramen. All Mom’s great training about sugars, proteins, fats, and carbohydrates—and how to create a healthy balance with them—were forgotten. And boy, did it begin to show!
Thank goodness that our bodies are built to complain at us when we don’t treat them well! Today, I’m grateful for that good lesson (even if learned the hard way) and for rediscovering Mom’s recipes (adding some super-simple ones to my culinary lexicon along the way).
I’m convinced that if you start kids cooking young, they can easily fall in love with healthy eating and with cooking at the same time—and create a lifestyle that follows them into adulthood (even if it takes a rough patch to wake them up and makes them miss Mom).
When you use easy recipes, like this chicken linguine, you put success within their reach even at the beginning of their training.(Plus, the really good news is that this recipe doesn’t leave a bunch of dishes to wash either.) Win-win.
20-Minute Chicken Linguine
Ingredients
- 2 boneless skinless chicken breasts
- 3/4 tsp salt
- 3/4 tsp pepper
- 3 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
- 2 cups cherry tomatoes
- 1 small onion, sliced
- 8 cloves garlic, sliced
- 1 tsp dried oregano
- 2 cups firmly packed coarsely shredded radicchio (or firmly packed whole spinach leaves)
- 4 green onions
- 12 oz. (375 g) linguine pasta
- 1 cup Parmesan cheese
Instructions
- Cut chicken crosswise into strips; season with half each of the salt and pepper.
- In large skillet, heat 1 tbsp of the oil over medium-high heat; sauté chicken until golden, about 3 minutes. Transfer to plate.
- Add tomatoes, onion, garlic, oregano and remaining oil, salt and pepper
to skillet; sauté for 2 minutes. Add radicchio; sauté until tomatoes
begin to split and soften, about 2 minutes. Return chicken to skillet;
add green onions and heat through. - Meanwhile, in large pot of boiling salted water, cook linguine until
tender but firm, about 10 minutes. Drain and return to pot; add sauce
and toss to coat. - Serve sprinkled with Parmesan cheese.
See more easy recipes for kids to make in the Kids Quick Cook article series page.
