Two Meals in One

I love being able to create two meals but only doing a majority of the cooking once. Hence the Mexican Pizzas seen previously. You make one batch of taco meat and, Voila!, two meals! This week I made one batch of chicken and created two yummy dinners, using most of the same ingredients. It is extremely time efficient and money efficient.

I marinated three chicken breasts overnight in balsamic vinaigrette dressing with thick slices of onion and freshly minced garlic. On Monday night I diced up the onion and cubed up the chicken and threw it all in a pot to cook. I used this chicken mixture both Monday night for homemade spinach alfredo pizza and Tuesday night for alfredo macaroni bake.

Spinach Alfredo Pizza:

1 Box Pizza Crust Mix (I like Jiffy)
1 Jar Alfredo Sauce (I like Classico)
1/3 Chicken mixture described above
Mushrooms
Fresh Spinach
1-2 Cups Mozzarella cheese, shredded

Cook mushrooms and spinach with a little of the balsamic vinaigrette (or dressing or your choice, or oil and vinegar) until the spinach is just wilted. Prepare the pizza crust as directed on package. Spread about 1/4 of the jar of sauce on top of the pizza crust. Cover that with chicken mixture, spinach and mushrooms, and mozzarella cheese. Cook in oven according to the package directions for the crust.

 Spinach and mushrooms on the left. Chicken mixture cooking up on the right.

Covered in alfredo sauce and cooked chicken.

Topped with a layer of spinach and mushrooms.

Covered in mozzarella and cooked to a golden brown. I served it with Caesar Salad.

Alfredo Macaroni Bake

10 oz elbow macaroni (I used about 2/3 of a 1lb box)
The leftover chicken and spinach and mushrooms from last night's dinner.
The rest of the jar of alfredo sauce.
2 cups mozzarella cheese, shredded (or similar)
Parmesan cheese and Panko bread crumbs for topping.

Cook your pasta and mix together with chicken, vegetables, shredded cheese and sauce. Put in large casserole dish and cover the top with more shredded cheese, parmesan cheese and Panko bread crumbs. Cook at 400 degrees for 20 minutes or until top is golden brown.

 I served this with hot dog bun garlic bread.