Monday meals #1. Smoked Butternut squash and tomato pasta with poached herbed chicken.

Cooking has always been a passion of mine and I was delighted at the reaction to the meals I have been sharing over on Instagram and the blog in recent months, so every Monday I will be sharing a new meal. Most weeks will be healthy family meals, but I do love to experiment with special occasion meals and baking from time to time, so I will hopefully always share something for any occasion.

This is one of my go to recipes that we will all eat and the sauce freezes quite well too, so whilst there is a little prep in cooking the chicken and butternut squash , this is a perfect batch cooking freezer meal. Huge bonus is both adults and kids love this!

Recipe:

1 Butternut Squash

1 Onion

2 garlic cloves

1 punnet mushrooms

1 tin chopped tomatoes

1 teaspoon paprika

1 teaspoon mixed Italian herbs( oregano,basil)

1 teaspoon Tumeric (optional ,I add this for health benefits)

1 tablespoon tomato puree

1 pint of chicken stock

1 punnet cherry tomatoes

Fusilli pasta

Six chicken thighs

Method :

Cook chicken in desired way. I find poaching chicken in chicken stock keeps it moist and juicy ,adding in some mixed Italian herbs in the liquid. I also always use chicken thighs as I find they are the nicest part of the chicken and again maintain moistness.

Chop the butternut squash into small pieces and boil until soft.

Roast Tomatoes in oven as long as sauce/pasta is cooking ( approx twenty minutes)

Cook pasta to your liking.

Sauce :

Saute onion and garlic.

Add mushrooms and gently fry, adding 1 tablespoon of tomato puree. Add in cooked butternut squash,tinned tomatoes, chicken stock and let stock reduce about a third of the way down the pan ( about fifteen minutes) Add herbs and paprika. Blitz with hand blender.