Welcome

Welcome to my recipe blog. I created this blog so I could share my high calorie recipes. My daughter, Rachel, has CF and I'm always looking for recipes loaded with calories. I hope you see a recipe you'll want to try. Happy browsing.

Thursday, January 24, 2013

Mini Penne with Spicy Chicken Alfredo

I got this recipe from my "Sandra Lee Semi-Homemade 20-minute meals" cookbook.   There are so many good looking recipes in this book.  Unfortunately, so ,many of them have way more nasty veggies ingredients that hubby won't eat.  So, I either don't make it or leave so much out that it's no longer Sandra's recipe!  ha.  I hope you'll try this.  It was a nice twist to regular Alfredo.


This sure was tasty.
Mini Penne with Spicy Chicken Alfredo
from Sandra Lee Semi-Homemade 20 minute meals

Ingredients - 

  • 8 ounces dried mini penne pasta (can you believe the commissary had the mini?!), Barilla
  • 1 jar (16 oz.) Alfredo sauce, Classico
  • 1 can (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes with basil, garlic, and oregano, Del Monte
  • 1 T. Italian seasoning,  McCormick
  • 1/2 tsp. red pepper flakes, McCormick
  • 2 packages (6 oz each) refrigerated cooked chicken breast strips, Oscar Mayer or Louis Rich
  • 1 can (2.25 oz) sliced black olives, drained, Early California
  • shredded Parmesan cheese, Kraft
Directions -
  1. In a large pot of boiling salted water, cook pasta according to package directions. Drain well; return to hot pot.  Cover; keep warm.
  2. Meanwhile, in a medium sauce pan, combine Alfredo sauce, tomatoes, Italian seasoning, and red pepper flakes over medium heat.  Stir in chicken and olives.  Bring to a simmer; cook for 10 minutes.
  3. Serve hot over cooked pasta. Top with Parmesan cheese. 
Serves - 4
Calories per serving - 566

A few things I wanted to note about how I made this recipe a better fit for me and my family:  
#1 - I used only half the can of tomatoes & chopped them up more in my little food processor (I can stand chunks of tomatoes....well I just can't stand tomatoes).
#2 - I used a little ground red pepper instead of the flakes.  Little Miss won't eat it if she's sees red pepper flakes.  Also, I didn't add so much to it wouldn't be too spicy for her. 
#3 - I couldn't find the chicken strips the recipe calls for, so I just did it the old fashioned way and cooked the chicken myself and cut it into strips.
#4 - I didn't add the black olives in the dish.  Hubby would have spent a good 10 minutes picking around them and Little Miss and I would be nearly finished eating.  ha