Happy hump day! How’s your week going? The kiddos are gearing up for all things Valentine’s Day. They have parties at school, we’re having friends over for a party this weekend, I’m cutting out hearts as fast as my fingers will allow for them to decorate and we’ve had lots of envelopes going out to family all over the country with our masterpieces. Did I mention I’m not that into Valentine’s Day? Ha! Mostly I just kinda shrug and shuffle along. Hubs and I make a nice dinner at home and call it a day. We don’t even give each other cards these days. #oldmarriedcouple
But the kids have definitely brought a different level of fun and excitement to the holiday. I’ve been using my cookie cutter hearts to make their food extra fun this week and they are eating it up. (Bad pun totally intended.) They loved the mini chocolate cupcakes we’ve had over the past week and I promised M she could have more chocolate pancakes on Valentine’s Day. But in between all the madness and all the chocolate, I need some real food. Simple but with a few tweaks to make it special. Voila! This chicken spaghetti dinner is light but luscious. The sauce is goat cheese and chicken broth and loads of bright citrus notes from the lemon. And it’s a two-part wham-bam of lemon flavor: first you fry some slices in the pan and later you add some zest and juice. Thank you ma’am.
Sure, you could skip frying the lemon… but you really shouldn’t. It develops some good lemony bits in the pan that infuse the onions and chicken pieces as they cook. Plus it looks killer to top your plate with them! We eat with our eyes first, right? And even with that step, this whole chicken spaghetti dinner is ready in under 30 minutes. So I can get back to cutting out hearts for my budding artists. Hope you give this a try and enjoy!
** What are you doing for Valentine’s Day? I used a mild, unflavored goat cheese, but you could certainly make this with an herbed goat cheese. Also, sometimes my goat cheese comes in a 4 oz. package. Other times what I buy is a 5 oz. package. Go on and use the whole thing if you have 5 oz. More cheese is never a bad thing!
