Eggplant and Mushroom Pasta with Chicken

Wow, I actually cooked something for once! Well, I guess half-cooked would be a better term, seeing as it was a very simple recipe (basically throwing things together). My friend and I decided to cook dinner together in her kitchen instead of eating out, and pasta seemed like an easy and delicious choice – a few steps above microwaved ramen in the college cooking context.

First we chopped up about half a container of mushrooms and half of a large eggplant. We threw the eggplant pieces into the pan first with some oil, and let that cook down for about five minutes before tossing in the chopped mushrooms. For fresh vegetables, sometimes all you need is a little salt and oil for the best flavor. After another five or so minutes, we poured in half a jar of jarred marinara sauce, and stirred everything together.

Meanwhile, the bow tie pasta was boiling in another pot. When that was ready, we drained the pasta in a colander. We took a shortcut on the grilled chicken and bought some pre-grilled refrigerated chicken strips from Whole Foods – classy, I know. It was really convenient though. Then we just served ourselves some pasta topped with the vegetable sauce, with chicken on the side.

Definitely nothing stunning (or even that blogworthy), but it covered all the nutritional bases (with an ample amount of vegetables!), was filling, simple and fast. The perfect type of meal for the standard busy intern or college student.