So, I have become a full blown Pinterest ADDICT!!! I get on there at work (don't tell my boss), at school (don't tell my teacher), on my phone, at home, I'm totally addicted. Anyway. I find things on there and try them or think, "Self, that looks good, but I think we can make it better!" So today that is what we did. I found a recipe that looked really good, it was for Spinach Artichoke Pasta or something like that. Well, if I tried to give my husband and kids a dinner with no meat of any type in it they would kick me out of the house! So, I made a few adjustments and here is what I came up with, Cheesy, Chicken, Spinach, Artichoke Bake. I have to make a ton of food b/c I have 6 kids so my recipes are large and I don't really measure a lot of stuff, I just go by taste and do what I think will have the best results.
The final product looks like this:
To make it I cut up several chicken breasts (about 4 pounds) into bite sized pieces and sauteed it in olive oil and Italian Seasonings. When it was almost done cooking I added a chopped onion and fresh minced garlic (4 cloves).
To make sure the kids got enough veggies I tried a new kind of pasta that had a serving of veggies included.
While everything was cooking, I chopped up two cans of artichoke hearts and squeezed out two boxes of frozen spinach. I mixed it in to a bowl with a package of cream cheese, 2 cups of sour cream, 2 cups Parmesan cheese, and a cup of mozzarella.
I reserved almost a full cup of the pasta water and drained the rest. Then mixed everything up in a greased 11x15 pan and covered it with another cup of Mozzarella cheese.
I baked it at 425 until it was brown and bubbly, let it cool a little bit and served it up! The family LOVED it and voted it into the "Make Again" files!
I will do a few things differently next time however. I will lower the temperature of the oven to about 400 to start with and will only use 1 1/2 boxes of pasta instead of 2. I think this will make it even creamer and tastier! I'll have to let you know how it works out!
