Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Tasty Tuesday: Three Cheese Chicken Penne Pasta Bake

Sorry, I meant to put this up last night but my little man was super tired and I needed to get him in bed. Which was a huge ordeal, by the way ... I may post on it later and beg for advice.

Anyhow, I hope you enjoy this recipe ... I've made it twice and it is super yummy.

Three Cheese Chicken Penne Pasta Bake
(from Kraft Foods)

Makes 4 servings

1 1/2 cups multigrain penne pasta, uncooked
1 pkg. (9 oz.) fresh spinach leaves
1 lb. boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite-size pieces
1 tsp. dried basil leaves
1 jar (14 1/2 oz.) spaghetti sauce
1 can (14 1/2 oz.) diced tomatoes, drained
2 oz. (1/4 of 8 oz. pkg.) Philadelphia Neufchatel Cheese, cubed
1 cup Kraft 2% Milk Shredded Mozzarella Cheese, divided
2 Tbsp. Kraft Grated Parmesan Cheese

Heat oven to 375 degrees F. Cook pasta, adding spinach to boiling water for last 1 min.

Cook and stir chicken and basil in large nonstick skillet on medium-high heat 3 min. Add sauce and tomatoes; bring to boil. Simmer 3 min. or until chicken is done. Stir in Neufchatel cheese.

Drain pasta mixture; return to pan. Stir in chicken mixture and 1/2 cup mozzarella. Spoon into 2 qt. baking dish.

Bake 20 min. Sprinkle with remaining cheeses. Bake 3 min.

Enjoy!

2 comments:

Aubrey said...

How heavy is in on the Spinach taste becuase I'm not into Spinach. but the rest sounds tasty...

Nicole said...

You could certainly go light on the spinach ... just buy a smaller package of it and use that. We got a bigger package of spinach (just by one ounce, but still) and that was a little too much.