Friday, April 9, 2010

Semi homemade Chicken Alfredo

On the way home from my son's orthodontist appointment, I was trying to think of a soft food for him to eat. He had some wires tightened on his braces (can't wait for those puppies to come off...soon, very soon), and his teeth hurt. One of his favorites is chicken alfredo. I bought a Stouffer's frozen chicken Alfredo one time (okay, a few times) and wanted to see if my family liked it. I, of course have a "wheat pasta nazi" for a husband, so I needed to make HOME MADE chicken alfredo using whole wheat pasta...
ANYWAY...
This is what I did:
I had 1/2 pkg of whole wheat spirals and 1/2 pkg of penne' pasta so I combined and cooked until tender. Drain in a colander and rinse with cool water, let drain.
6 chicken tenders cooked in olive oil and 2 cloves of garlic (you don't want the garlic to burn or get brown, so put it in last), with a little garlic salt (cook in a skillet).
Once the chicken tenders were done, I removed them from the pan, including the garlic, I made a cheese sauce, using milk, corn starch and a little butter. I added a jar of Alfredo sauce and then about 1 cup of Italian grated cheeses and stirred into the sauce. Let it cook and bubble a little, stirring constantly.
Cut up the chicken into bite size pieces, add pasta to the skillet with the sauce in it and add chicken. Toss to cover with sauce. You could probably serve right now, but I placed the pasta and sauce in a casserole dish and baked in the oven (350) for 15 mins.

My family loved this. I hope you will see what's in your pantry or freezer and just because you don't have exactly what is called for in a recipe, don't let that stop you from TRYING... and to take a phrase from one of my favorite tv shows..."MAKE IT WORK".