Chicken Spaghetti

Okay, so I made this Tuesday; ate leftovers for lunch Wednesday. We officially made that $6ish chicken into eight different meals that don't all have to be eaten in one week! Whereas the Poppy Seed Chicken had most of the breast meat, this recipe had more of the thigh and wing meat so I upped the calorie count a bit - but still not bad. Huynh went back for seconds which made me proud.

Chicken Spaghetti

adapted from Recipe Girl

Ingredients

7-oz thin spaghetti

1 tablespoon light butter

1 cup sliced portabella mushrooms

1 onion, chopped

1 red bell pepper, chopped

1 green bell pepper, chopped

1 can Rotel, drained

2 cans cream of mushroom soup, 98% fat free

1 cup lowfat milk

8-oz sharp cheddar cheese

2 cups cooked chicken, shredded

salt and pepper

4-oz pepper jack cheese

Preparation

1. Melt butter in a large, deep skillet over medium heat. Add mushrooms, onion, and bell peppers. Cook until onions are translucent, about 4 to 5 minutes. Add Rotel. In a medium bowl, mix soup and milk until smooth. Add this mixture to the vegetables in the pan. Stir in cheddar cheese until cheese has melted and smooth.

2. Cook pasta according to package directions until al dente. Drain pasta and combine with sauce. Add chicken and salt & pepper to taste.

3. Pour mixture into a casserole dish. Sprinkle pepper jack cheese on top.

4. Bake in a 350degF oven for 35 minutes or until the casserole is hot and bubbly.

Again we poured into two 8x8 pans; cooked one, froze the other. We left the cheese topping off the one we froze and will add it on when we are ready to bake. Our serving size ended up being around 1 cup (1/4 of the 8x8 pan - so 8 total servings from the whole batch) which came out to be around 360 calories, 14 grams of fat! The rotel and pepper jack cheese added a slight kick; next time I will probably use hot rotel.

Is it just me or does the sauce look like queso? Yum.