Looking for an easy, delicious dinner? Try this Chicken Broccolini Pesto Pasta! Made with gluten free quinoa penne, it’s such a treat! This post is sponsored by NOW Foods + FitFluential, but all opinions are my own!
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Seriously…what a crazy few weeks it has been! Last week I had the privilege of visiting Chicago with NOW Foods for their #NOWGetFit Blogger Immersion event. NOW Foods generously flew me out to Chicago along with other FitFluential bloggers to learn all about their brand, meet their amazing employees + visit their facility where they make some of my favorite products that I use pretty much every day.
I’ve been a fan of NOW Foods vitamins and supplements for years. When I first got involved with health + fitness, I was drawn to their products because of the prices. Whenever I was in the market for new supplements or vitamins, they always had extremely low prices compared to other brands. Low prices are great, but as you know…ingredients are important too. I found that as I was comparing NOW side by side with other brands, I was finding that a lot of companies had some sketchy ingredients, and were listing special ‘blends’ as ingredients, but not divulging what was actually in the product. Not cool. I won’t name names.. but seriously guys, you have to check out your ingredients in your products. I always have (and still do) choose NOW for a majority of my supplements because of the price and the ingredients in them.
As I started shopping online and in stores.. I started noticing NOW more and more.. when I needed essential oils, they were the most affordable and didn’t have ‘perfumes’ added to them like other brands. When I needed bags of almond flour for recipe testing that weren’t $15 for an ounce of flour..I turned to their brand. Simple pantry staples like their cocoa powder, olive oil, nuts and seeds slowly started to fill my pantry. It was mostly out of the fact of convenience (they’re sold basically everywhere), price (lower than almost every brand out there) and quality (no weird ingredients!).
However, after this trip – I’m without a doubt choosing them for my goods.. and not just for the reasons I listed above. When I had a tour of their facility I was so impressed by the quality standards. They test, and test, and test their products again and again to ensure that they’re giving consumers only the best. While I won’t get into specifics (science is not my forte!). I’ll tell you this – they have millions of dollars of specialty equipment for testing their products that most other facilities don’t. They test their raw ingredients when they arrive, when they’re being blended or made into the products they’re intended for, and then again after they’re finished and ready to go to all of our homes! They had tons of chemists that were testing all the different products while we were there.. it was SO cool to watch. (It also gave me high school chemistry flashbacks.. oy!) Don’t I look pretty in the gear we had to wear while touring the plant? 🙂
I always talk about how healthy eating is affordable if done right.. and it’s because of brands like NOW. They truly care about the products they’re making, they’re passionate about what they do, and the products they make are AMAZING! Seriously you guys.. LOOK at all of these cool goodies! (One of you is going to win this!)
Being the foodie that I am, some of my favorite products that they offer are the food related ones. They have so many fun different oils for cooking, pastas, baking mixes + ingredients…. The list goes on and on. When I saw the quinoa penne in our goodie bags, I knew I had to make something delicious with it!
With all the delicious fresh produce that is emerging with the warm weather, I knew I wanted to make a pasta dish with lots of veggies + fresh spring flavors. I paired sweet cherry tomatoes with baby broccolini, pesto + the quinoa penne. This pasta wasn’t like any of the other gluten free pastas I’ve tried.. Some of them can be gummy, and fall apart when you use them. Not this one! It held up when I tossed it around in the pan!
It was so much fun learning about NOW Foods and trying all of their delicious products. As you guys know, we only write about or work with brands that we truly love. There are so many brands on the market, especially in the vitamin/supplement world. It can be challenging to choose the right one… but after seeing the testing that goes into the NOW Foods products, learning about their quality standards, and meeting the people that are responsible for building the brand..it makes those decisions a whole lot easier 🙂
Pesto Pasta with Chicken, Tomatoes + Broccolini
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp Olive oil
- 1 lb chicken breasts
- 1.5 cups dry Living NOW Quinoa Penne Pasta
- 1 cup cherry tomatoes
- 8 oz broccolini cut into small pieces
- 5 tablespoons pesto
- Optional: grated cheese + red pepper flakes for garnish
Instructions
- Cube chicken breasts into 1 inch pieces. Heat 1 tablespoons of olive oil and sauté chicken until golden brown (approx 15 minutes)
- While chicken is cooking, boil water for pasta.
- Remove chicken from pan and set aside.
- Add 1 tablespoon of olive oil to the pan and allow it to heat. Add broccolini and halved cherry tomatoes to the pan. Add pasta to boiling water and cook per directions. Sauté broccolini + tomatoes until tender., approximately 10 minutes.
- When vegetables are tender, add chicken back to the pan along with pesto. Stir in cooked pasta
- Garnish with hot pepper flakes or parmesan cheese if desired + enjoy!
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