moments of zen

It’s cold and rainy here today and just the perfect setting for some belly-warming pasta.

This dish is a personal creation after picking out my favorite ingredients at Macaroni Grill in the Build Your Own Pasta dish, a fabulous choice for us picky eaters.

You can make this dish in 30 min start to finish, which is another huge plus.   We are also going to bake extra chicken to use in tomorrow night’s recipe: Enchilada Bake.

Go Go Green Pasta

Serves 2

Ingredients:

1 lb chicken breasts or chicken tenders (double up on the chicken for the two-fer option)

½ cup eggbeaters, or 2 eggs

2 cup Panko Bread Crumbs

1.5 cup shredded/grated Parmesan cheese

2 tablespoons Mrs. Dash Italian Seasoning

½ box Barilla rotini pasta (or your favorite whole wheat rotini will do)

½ cup sliced sun dried tomatoes

3 cups frozen spinach

2 cups frozen broccoli

3 tablespoons pesto

Chicken Prep:

• Grease a baking sheet (or use your Silpat- love that thing!)  and preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
• In a shallow dish/bowl, empty the eggs/egg beaters.
• In a second bowl, add the panko breadcrumbs, 1 cup of shredded Parmesan cheese, and 2 tablespoons Mrs. Dash Italian Seasoning.
• Dredge the chicken in the egg, then press it on each side into the breadcrumb mixture then place the chicken on the baking sheet.
• Bake at 350 degrees for 30 min, turning once at the 15 min mark.
• *Since we are already baking chicken, throw on the other pound of chicken tenders with no coating.  We will shred these up and use them for Enchilada Bake tomorrow.

Pasta Prep:

• While the chicken is baking, empty the frozen broccoli and spinach into a bowl and microwave for 4 min. It needs to be thoroughly cooked.
• Cook ½ box Barilla rotini pasta (should take about 10 min).
• While the pasta is cooking, slice up the sun dried tomatoes. I usually chop up about 6 or so or use the already sliced ones to make life even easier.
• Once the pasta is drained, empty it back into the pot, and add the spinach, broccoli, and chicken (I slice it into bite sized pieces)
• Next add in the sun dried tomatoes and the pesto.
• Stir it all up and let it sit on a warm stove for about 3 min to let all the flavors meld and the spinach cook down.

Serve it up with a handful of shredded Parmesan cheese (the remaining .5 cup) on top and enjoy!

Give it a try and let me know what you think.  Tomorrow we will visit Enchilada Bake with the pre-cooked chicken from this meal.

Posted by Ami at 4:25 PM  

Labels: recipes