A REALLY Easy Meal

Pasta alfredo is one of the EASIEST meals to fix! It doesn't take long, and the clean-up is simple too.

Now, I do take a lot of shortcuts with this, using purchased things instead of home-made, but we'll just keep that our little secret. I could go the home-made route...but who has time?

Start with a box of pasta of your choice. I tend to use penne pasta for this dish, but sometimes live on the wild side and use rotini. A bag of frozen broccoli is a must, but I suppose that you could substitute mixed vegetables if you really wanted to. Although I don't like spicy stuff (that's where my italian heritage steps back), I have found the Chicken Breast Meat for Fajitas from Schwan's to be really good. There's just a wee little bit of a kick to them, but not too much. Occasionally I've taken boneless skinless chicken breasts and grilled them on the George (Foreman), then cut them up.

I begin by boiling the pasta. (I always add a little bit of oil when I boil pasta, just to keep it from sticking to the bottom of the pot.)

About halfway through the recommended time, I slowly add the frozen broccoli.

While that's returning to a boil, I take out the amount of chicken I want to use. That can be however chickeny you want your dish to be. Sometimes I add a lot. Sometimes I add a LOT. It's all a matter of personal preference. I put it on a paper plate, then put it in the microwave to thaw it and warm it up. Once it comes out of the microwave, I cut the larger pieces up, so that they aren't too large.

I also preheat the oven, then put the garlic bread on a foil lined cookie sheet. It only takes about 6 or 7 minutes to bake, so I put it in when I'm getting ready to mix everything together.

When the pasta/broccoli is finished, I drain it in a colander, then return it to the pot. I put the pot in the kitchen sink because it's just easier to maneuver and mix that way.

This is where I add the warmed, cut-up chicken, and mix a little.

Now comes the really hard part.

Open up both jars of alfredo sauce, pour them into the pasta/broccoli/chicken mixture.

Mix the sauce in. I used a rubber spatula because I had just used it to get all the sauce out of the jar. Why dirty another utensil? (Yes I have a dishwasher, but it's just as easy to use the spatula as it is to open the drawer and get out a large spoon.)

If you're really energetic, and have the various ingredients in the fridge, you can put together a salad too.

And there you go...a very SIMPLE meal, start to finish in about 20 minutes. Fortunately, Ted really likes this, so it's a win-win for us!