I’m sharing a recipe I made last night – a favorite in the home ever since someone brought it after one of the boys was born. I LOVED those days! A great dinner just magically appeared complete with salad, some type of yummy comfort food and, of course, dessert! The best! This CHICKEN PESTO BAKE is always a hit but extrmely heavy on the whipping cream, butter and cheese. I’ve lightened, and my family is none the wiser!
Click here to see the page on Sparkpeople.com. and the nutritional information. (It also looks a lot better than here where I’ve tried to “supercopy” it in here! This lightened version is only about 247 calories per serving! You won’t miss a bit of the whipping cream, butter or cheese! Promise!
A great make ahead dinner full of vegetables, a little cheese and plenty of protein. Freezes well.
Ingredients
- 2 Cups Chicken breasts, cooked and diced
1 Cup Onion, chopped
1 Cup mushrooms, sliced
1 Cup zucchini, sliced
1/2 Cup celery, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
2 T Olive Oil
1 14 oz can diced tomatoes
1 T dried basil
1/2 Tsp salt
1/2 Tsp cracked black pepper
16 oz whole wheat penne pasta
3/4 Cup whipping cream
3/4 Cup Skim Milk
8 oz Monterey Jack cheese
2 T Parmesan Cheese
1 T pesto (or more to tasta)
Directions: Saute in olive oil the onion, mushrooms, zucchini, celery and garlic until crisp tender. Add tomatoes, basil, salt and pepper. Cook and drain pasta. Combine everything in a large bowl and set aside. Cook whipping cream, milk, jack cheese and pesto over low heat until cheese melts, stirring. Pour over pasta mixture. Spoon into 9 x 13 casserole or 2 8 x 8 pans. Sprinkle with parmesan cheese. Bake covered 35 minutes at 350 degrees.
Serving Size: Makes 10 1 cup servings
Number of Servings: 10
Recipe submitted by SparkPeople user MARLADEEN1.
By the way, we are up to 32 Push Ups! How are you doing??
One of my family’s favorite dish. They would ask me to make this again and again. And because they love chicken, I make sure I use an antibiotic-free chicken for all of my chicken recipes. I particularly use Free Bird chicken. The meat is tender and juicy and healthy because it does not contain antibiotics.
I know! Isn’t it great! I haven’t made it in a while- putting it on the menu this week!