a kitchen adventure - spontaneous spaghetti

When I cook I almost always find myself just throwing things into pots and pans with no real recipe. This is my method. Sometimes it doesn't work out how I wanted it to and sometimes I surprise myself. I had a big surprise about a week ago when I wanted to make tomato sauce with spaghetti. This is a thrown together recipe, so use your own taste while making it!

Ingredients:
2 small chicken breasts
9 oz spaghetti
1 whole roasted red pepper, diced
1 cup of sliced mushrooms
4 roma tomatoes at least, diced
half a medium onion, cut into strips
1 tablespoon Italian seasoning
handful of fresh basil, cut into strips OR 2 teaspoons dried basil
1 tablespoon dried parsely
salt and pepper to taste
lemon juice to taste (I used at least 1 tbsp)
1 tablespoon granulated sugar

Directions:
Saute onions until translucent with Italian seasoning.
Add tomatoes, roasted red peppers, basil, parsely, salt, pepper, mushrooms, lemon juice and sugar.
Simmer covered for 10-15 minutes.
Add chicken breasts to pan, cover and cook until juices run clear and remove.
Roughly blend sauce with immersion blender.
Cook pasta halfway and finish in sauce.
Put chicken back in pan to warm and add cheese until melted.

cinnamon rolls in the waffle maker - how about cinnamon sticks?

I first saw this idea on Pinterest about a week ago. It stuck in the back of my mind because I adore waffles and their texture. What person wouldn't want cinnamony goodness in waffle form? Well, I was pretty sure that person would be me. The best part of a cinnamon rolls is the soft doughy center and squishy goodness topped with freakin' sugar sauce, I mean, come on. Then I thought, okay just because you try the cinnamon rolls as waffles doesn't mean you still can't enjoy the doughy squishy goodness some other time. So when the craving for something sweet came upon me, I set out to make these cinnamon roll waffles.
I hate store bought cinnamon rolls because they are so salty and processed, blech. I didn't feel like going on the marathon of cinnamon roll dough making that I normally would so I went the very waffely way and used pancake mix. I'll give you a rough ingredient list, but I have some very important things to tell you.

Ingredients:
Pancake/Waffle mix
Milk
Butter
Cinnamon
Sugar

Now, my main goal of this dough was to make it as moist as possible. I was hoping that I could achieve a similar effect as the moist and squishy cinnamon rolls that I prefer. I used butter and milk to bring the pancake mix to a consistency just before stick-to-everything moist. I rolled it out to about 1/4 inch thick and started on the cinnamon goodness part. My first batch was unfortunately lacking in the cinnamon flavor I wanted, so don't be shy with it. I also added a lot of melted butter along with the cinnamon on top of the rolled out dough. No really, a lot of it. I was hoping that as well would keep the texture moist and sort of doughy. I finally rolled the dough up and cut it into about 6 pieces. I put 4 at a time into my waffle maker and hoped for the best.
The result wasn't what I had hoped for in my mission for squishy goodness. It tasted great and the texture was a little denser than a normal waffle. I wasn't a fan of pouring the icing all over the waffles either, it didn't soak in the way I wanted it to. But I did have this flashback to my childhood home and all those mornings I had to eat french toast sticks nuked in the microwave. I look back at those with a sort of fondness as I do with all of the foods I ate as a kid. After reflecting, I had an idea. I made the cinnamon roll waffles the same way, but this time I cut them into strips and dipped them into the icing. Sure, I'm eating the same thing I didn't really like before; but, I was viewing them in the wrong perspective.
All in all, this was not a bust because I found something sweet to snack on that isn't hard to make at all. I can also guarantee that my teenage brother would eat an entire batch of these - as waffles or dippers.

Icing Recipe

Ingredients:
1 cup powdered sugar
2 tablespoons melted butter
Milk to consistency
Small squirt of maple syrup

Directions:
Whisk. Add milk to desired saucey consistency.