I kicked dinner's ass tonight!

Normally on a hot & muggy-assed day like today, we either order out or grill. Today, however, Floyd was mowing the lawn (sorta...its kinda broken, so he just does chunks of the lawn at a time) so the grill was out of the picture. We didn't want to order out cos we need to watch our money for the rest of the summer. Why have one meal for $20 (wings/pizza) when you can spend that amount on say, 3-4 meals? And so, in 90 degree weather I donned my long sleeved shirt to guard against the freezing chill of the overly air-conditioned grocery store.

I thought I'd share this evening's success. We only have air conditioning in one room of our house, so we have to be very careful about what we cook if we don't want to be steamed out. This worked (in that it didn't cook us out).

"Chicken Athena" (with slight modifications made by me)
Note: This comes from a cookbook my aunt bought me for xmas, I don't know the name of it cos the cover is now missing (casualties of the kitchen). Every year growing up I would reveive a nice makeup kit from Lancome or Estee Lauder--I never had to buy makeup, ever! Then I got married and started getting cookbooks. Go figure.

You need:

*1 lb chicken, cubed (tonight I bought the pre-grilled/frozen chicken to save time/heat)
*2 cans (14 1/2 oz) stewed tomatoes (i get the kind that are spiced up w/ basil, etc)
*one jar marinated artichoke hearts (the marinade is pretty universal, unless you go to some fancy schmancy store where everything is gourmet, in which case you probably don't need my cooking advice anyway!)
*1 medium sized onion, chopped into big assed chunks.
*1/3 tsp rosemary, crushed
*crumbled feta (optional, but damn good. I recommend the kind laced w/ tomato and basil)
*a few handfuls of fresh spinach
*package tortellini (i get the green kind so's I can tell it apart from the chicken chunks and artichoke hearts, otherwise there's not enough color)
*1 tbsp olive oil

1.) In a big-assed skillet, brown the chicken/olive oil, then add the onion.
2.) add the tomatoes (sauce n all) plus the juice from the artichoke hearts. This is also a good time to add the pasta, as it soaks up alot of the liquid. Despite a few attempts with this recipe, I have yet to have it "thicken" as the original recipe supposes it will. Nonetheless, stir often for about 10 minutes.
3.) Add the artichokes and rosemary, plus the spinach. By the time the spinach gets good n slimy, the artichoke hearts have warmed up.
Its ready to serve! Sprinkle with feta if desired.

The best part? It only takes about 20 minutes and one dish to make this!!