Cooking on a Budget - Recipe #1

Did anyone use a bunch of those barilla piccolini coupons recently? Here is a great recipe to use with the bow tie pasta.

This is one of my husbands favorites. As I post recipes you might see that I am not a big person for measuring. I often find that measurements given don't fit my family's tastes, so I improvise. Plus with the little ones at my feet I often have to throw in ingredients as fast as I can.

Pink Broccoli Bow Tie Pasta:

1.) One box of farfalle (bow tie pasta)
2.) 2? medium sized broccoli crowns
3.) 1 (8 oz?) package of Neufchatel cheese (could use cream cheese I guess)
4.) jar of pasta sauce'
5.) about 1 lb of chicken
6.) couple tbsp of sundried tomato vinaigrette (kraft makes one)
7.) parm or mozz cheese

First, I chop up the chicken and cook it in the vinaigrette. While that is going I boil the pasta. Mini bow tie pasta only take about 7 or 8 minutes. During the last couple minutes I throw in the broccoli until it is tender. Then I strain the pasta-veggie mix. In the same pan I add cooked chicken, sauce, neuf. cheese and then the pasta mix. Give it a stir until it is thoroughly heated and mixed. Top with Parmesan cheese or stir in some grated mozzarella cheese for a gooey, cheesy mix.

There are so many coupons for pasta and sauce that this is usually very cheap. We always have leftovers as well that can be eaten as lunch or frozen for a meal later. You could add a side salad for more veggies as well.