ThOrNtOn ThOuGhTs: Pesto & Nutella...You had me at hello

Pesto and Nutella....These are a few of my favorite things. Thought I would share some recent recipe's.

*If you're looking for a quick delish meal try this one. I found it on the back of a Cream of Chicken soup can.

Creamy Pesto Chicken and Bow Ties

Ingredients:

Servings: 4

3 cups bow tie pasta, uncooked
2 tablespoons butter or 2 tablespoons margarine
1 -1 1/4 lb boneless skinless chicken breast, cubed
1 (10 3/4 ounce) can cream of chicken soup
1/2 cup prepared pesto sauce (I use Classico Basil Pesto Sauce)
1/2 cup milk

Directions:

1 Boil water for pasta; cook and drain.
2 Meanwhile, in a skillet, melt butter or margarine and brown cubed chicken.
3 Add soup, pesto sauce and milk to skillet; bring to a boil and cook on low for about 5 minutes.
4 Stir in pasta and heat through.

Prep Time: 5 mins Total Time: 20 mins

SOOO YUMMY!

Now for my second food love--chocolate cake and nutella

For my friends 40 Birthday I wanted to try to make my own butter cream. I found this nutella butter cream recipe and had to try it.

Chocolate Cupcakes with Nutella Butter Cream

Ingredients:

· Devil’s Food Cake Mix

· 3 eggs

· ½ cup oil

· ¼ cup milk

· ½ cup water

· 1 teaspoon vanilla

· 1 cup sour cream- Adding sour cream to any cake mix makes it so yummy and the M word. For those of you who know me, know what word I’m talking about but hate saying or even typing. Lol

Nutella Buttercream:

· ¾ cup Nutella

· ¼ cup butter, softened

· 1 ½ -2 ½ cups powdered sugar

· 1 teaspoon vanilla

· 3-4 tablespoons heavy whipping cream

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line 24 muffins tins.

2. In a large bowl, whisk eggs, oil, milk, water and vanilla.

3. Sift in cake mix and stir in sour cream.

4. Fill cupcake liners ¾ full and then place a teaspoon of Nutella on top of each one. Using a toothpick, swirl the Nutella into the batter.

5. Bake for 14-18 minutes or until the sides spring back.

6. Remove the cupcakes from the oven and place directly into airtight containers so seal in moisture.

7. Buttercream: Beat the Nutella and butter for 3 minutes. Add vanilla, then alternate between adding powdered sugar and heavy whipping cream. Taste the buttercream until you reach your desired sweetness. You may need to refrigerate the buttercream before piping it onto cooled cupcakes.

Note: It definitely will take some practice making your own icing. Until you perfect your butter cream consistency, I would suggest using this frosting for a sheet cake rather than cupcakes.

My cupcakes were super cute the night before… I spread the nutella on the cupcake, then used some vanilla on top of that for added decor. I bought these cute little paper flowers at Michael's.