Thursday 2/12: Company Chicken Casserole

I doubled this recipe, with the following changes/notes:

-whole wheat pasta. It's such a simple thing to do, doesn't change the taste much, but it really is much healthier-- more fiber, more heart-healthy. (For this one, I used penne.)

-I used boneless skinless breast halves. Each one, cooked and diced, was about 1 cup. I bought the frozen ones and stuck them in the microwave with some water, covered, nuked for about 15 minutes and let stand covered until poached through, as I did for the tortilla soup.

-I omitted the musrooms, since there's an allergy.

-I used twice the amount of basil called for since I was using fresh instead of dried (the recipe doesn't specify but I assume they meant dried.)

-Since some reviews complained of lack of flavor, I added some fresh-ground pepper (they may still want more) and about 4 cloves of minced garlic.

-I used low-fat Cheddar and low-fat small curd cottage cheese.

-I used a leeetle less chicken broth than called for, since to get the perfect amount I would have had to open a new 14 ounce can to get 2 ounces out... Yeah. Not doin' it.

-Being lazy, I did not melt the butter. I drained the pasta, put it back in its pan (not a bowl-- again, lazy) and threw the chicken and veggies in. Then I broke the butter in little pieces and mixed it around, letting it melt on the hot pasta. Then I added in the cheeses, mixed again, and then the cottage cheese, soup, and broth.

The double batch completely filled my 6 qt. crockpot with really no room to spare. It will go for about 8 hours on Low.

It was making me drool as I mixed it, it looked so rich and creamy... I hope there's a taste left for me to try!