Last night at about 6:35, when the first of the Sunday night couch club arrived at the front door, I realized that I had spent zero time planning for dinner.  So, in the spirit of throwing something together, and honoring the Sunday Night Dinner tradition, I grabbed a few staple ingredients and got creative with the rest.

Step 1: chicken breasts from the organic butcher went on the George Foreman.

Step 2: I threw vegetables in a pan to simmer with coconut oil, and put a pot of water on for the awesome new gluten free spinach fettuccine that I have been dying to try.  It’s made by a company called RP and is carried in most Whole Foods – even if you’re not gluten free, I highly recommend this brand.

My dad used to make a spinach fettuccine when I was little that he would toss with sour cream, salt, pepper, and parmesan.  I absolutely LOVED it, but now that I avoid gluten rich pastas and sour cream I’ve really been missing it.  Since I finally got my paws on some gluten free spinach fettuccine, the goal was to recreate the sour cream with a little twist.

I’ve done a good bit of experimenting with greek yogurt so I was pretty sure that this would turn out, at least reasonably well.

 Once the pasta was done I mixed in the avocado + yogurt sauce with salt, pepper, and the sautéd vegetables together and topped it with the grilled chicken.

Judge rules: It was amazing.  I realize that I’m a tad partial since A) I made it, and B) I love the combination of the spinach flavor of the pasta and tartness of the greek yogurt, but I had 3 other impartial victims judges that loved it as well.  I also gave one review +5 bonus points since it came from a McDonalds drive through VIP.

I should also disclose that I had grand plans for my favorite roasted (broiled) brussel sprouts with olive oil, lemon, salt + pepper.  I even chopped them up beautifully during the vegetable chopping phase of the night.

Unfortunately, in the excitement of the sauce experiment, I completely forgot about the brussels, and 10 minutes after everything else was consumed I pulled the partially burned sprouts out of the oven.   I’m not ruling it a fail yet because they were surprisingly good (despite likely being somewhat carcinogenic…), crisp on the outside and soft on the inside.  I actually saved them and am going to throw them into a cauliflower mash I’m planning for later this week.  Don’t worry, you’ll be the first to know how that turns out.

After dinner Kristin came over to trial run a modified + gluten free version of her favorite cherry chip birthday cupcakes.  It was a more than successful experiment, so  get excited for the full account and recipe that will be posted soon.