Pat-on-the-back pasta

My hubs deserves a shout out every now and then. He is a wonderful husband and fantastic father, he's supportive of me in every way. He works hard all day, comes home and hangs with the kids, then after getting them in bed he makes time for both me and all his coursework for both his masters and JPME (Navy stuff for all you non-Navy folks). He's been training super hard for his first Tri coming up next weekend for which I am VERY proud of him! He has been running for awhile now, but the biking and the swimming were new for him and he really stuck to it and put in the time and hard work involved. I am just so proud and feel very blessed to be the one he comes home to every night and gets to wake up with every morning.

So, now that I've gushed about enough to make you all want to gag, I'll stop. But, because he is so great, when he asks for a special dinner, I can hardly refuse. A few nights ago he requested a "different" kind of pasta. Meaning - no lasagna, spaghetti, or my "spicy" noodles. Well, seeing as how those are my "go-to" pasta dishes, I had to get creative, so I turned to the goddess of Italian cooking, my favorite - Giada. Plus she is just too darn cute! I flipped through my cookbook I have by her, and decided to go with her Chicken Carbonara. I have made it once before, but it was WAY back when we lived in KB so I'd say it's been at least two years. Her recipe is a bit on the heavy side, and it makes a TON so I halved it and made a few other changes, but it came out fantastic!! If you're looking for a different spin on spaghetti noodles this was a big hit and I recommend it! Here is a link to the original, I'm going to post it the way I made it.

Ingredients

Cooking Spray
2 ounces thinly sliced bacon, chopped
1 teaspoons minced garlic
1 cup milk
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan
3 large egg yolks
1/8 cup chopped fresh basil leaves
1/8 cup chopped fresh Italian parsley leaves
Salt
1/2 pound spaghetti
2 cups coarsely shredded chicken, cooked
Freshly ground black pepper
1/2 tablespoon finely grated lemon peel

Directions
Spray heavy pan with cooking spray and add bacon and garlic and saute until it is brown and crisp, about 8 minutes. Cool slightly.
In a large bowl, whisk together the milk, cheese, yolks, basil, and parsley to blend.
Meanwhile, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil over high heat. Add the spaghetti and cook until it is just tender but still firm to the bite, stirring occasionally, about 10 minutes. Drain.
Add the chicken to the pan with the pancetta and stir to combine. Next, add the spaghetti and the cream mixture and toss over medium-low heat until the chicken is heated through and the sauce coats the spaghetti thickly, about 4 minutes (do not boil or you might end up scrambling the eggs). Season the pasta, to taste, with pepper and salt if needed (the pancetta will likely add all the salt you need). Transfer the pasta to a large wide serving bowl. Sprinkle lemon zest over, and serve. (Her recipe calls for toasted walnuts as well but the hubs doesn't like nuts in his pasta so I leave those out)

Also, because I don't eat a whole lot of pasta, so I made myself a nice salad to be my main dish. It's got chicken, broccoli, yellow tomatoes, and some other stuff that I can't remember now, but it was delicious!