Hungry Lady: Favorite Recipe Ever

This is a new series (what's with everyone creating new blog "series"? And here I am jumping on the bandwagon...) about food/eating/recipes. It's really more a way to categorize what I'm talking about (see tags below) kind of like the Crafty Bitch posts. :-)

Right. So. It's happened a hundred times (maybe not a hundred times, but errrr, yeah maybe a hundred times?) you're hungry, you're pinning. Must I go on? Then, you take it up a notch from passive pinning to active Pinterest-searching, seeking out those beautiful, aspirational food images. (P.S. Am I the only one whose food never looks quite as beautiful as it does on Pinterest?) The next thing you know, you've pinned 20-30 recipes (of things you quite possibly won't ever make) and people are thinking, "Oh man, that's a hungry lady."

So, I feel the need to share with you my favorite recipe I've ever stumbled upon. I used to get these quarterly Kraft Food & Family magazines. They are chock-full of some amazing recipes. I have Pinterest now, so I've let me subscription go, but I still reference them all the time when Pinny just isn't doing it for me.

I've made this recipe at least 10 times and it still does the trick. It's relatively easy, relatively healthy (key word: relatively. As in, relative to a Big Mac Extra Value Meal, it's healthy) and damn good.

Three Cheese Chicken Penne Pasta
1-1/2 cups multi-grain penne pasta, uncooked
1 pkg. (9 oz.) fresh spinach leaves
1 lb. boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite-size pieces
1 tsp. dried basil leaves
1 can (14-1/2 oz.) diced tomatoes, drained
1 jar (14 oz.) spaghetti sauce
2 oz. (1/4 of 8-oz. pkg.) Cream Cheese (1/3 less fat), cubed
1 cup KRAFT 2% Milk Shredded Mozzarella Cheese, divided
2 Tbsp. KRAFT Grated Parmesan Cheese
(Editor's Note: I actually skip the Parmesan cheese and throw in fresh, sliced mushrooms. Yum!)

HEAT oven to 375ºF. COOK pasta in large saucepan as directed on package, omitting salt and adding spinach to the boiling water for the last minute.

MEANWHILE, cook and stir chicken and basil in large nonstick skillet sprayed with cooking spray on medium-high heat 3 min. Stir in tomatoes and spaghetti sauce; bring to boil. Simmer on low heat 3 min. or until chicken is done. Stir in cream cheese. (I use a whisk for this stage)

DRAIN pasta mixture; return to pan. Stir in chicken mixture and 1/2 cup mozzarella; pour into 2-qt. casserole sprayed with cooking spray. BAKE 20 min. or until heated through; top with remaining cheeses. Bake 3 min. or until mozzarella is melted.

I just totally stole this from the Kraft's website, so let me give credit where it's due!

Has anyone else ever tried this gem? If not, I've pinned the recipe here.

If you try it, let me know how it turns out!