Quick Healthy Meal: Chicken Spaghetti with Oven Roasted Pattypan Squash Medley and Jazzed-Up Crescent Rolls

Ever have leftover chicken or turkey. Are you tired of always making either chicken salad or turkey salad out of it? Well, if you cannot relate, just read along anyway, cause today’s blog is about using up leftover poultry meat and making Chicken Spaghetti.

Chicken Spaghetti with Pattypan Squash

It’s usually around 3:30 in the afternoon when I realize I need to do something about supper. Like right now, it is 3:15 here and I haven’t a clue. So, instead of dealing with the problem, I’m gonna blog about it and then most likely have a pizza delivered. That’s just the way I roll these days.

But back to the recipe... At the last minute, my daughter had a friend come over on Saturday. It was too late for me to go to the store, so I had to come up with something hearty, nutritious and in a hurry. She and her friend had been hiking and I knew they would be hungry. I always have pasta of some sort in my pantry, and a jar or two of my favorite spaghetti sauce. However, I did not have anything to make a beef or sausage based meat sauce or meatballs (by the way, my meatball are fab!) out of; but I did have leftover chicken! I’ve seen Chicken Spaghetti on menus before, but I had never eaten any. It was worth a shot.

Here is my version of Chicken Spaghetti. I also rounded off the meal with Oven Roasted Pattypan Squash, mixed with other vegetables.

Chicken Spaghetti

Skillet meal: 30 minutes
Serves 4-6

Ingredients:

• 1 box thin spaghetti, cooked according to package directions
• 2 cans or jars of your favorite spaghetti sauce
• 2-3 large chicken breasts, cooked, shredded
• 1 cup chopped onions
• 1 cup chopped green bell pepper
• 1 cup chopped other colored bell pepper (they are sweeter)
• 2-3 cloves chopped garlic
• 1/8 cup chopped Mild Banana Pepper rings (in the pickle section)
• To taste: salt, black pepper, garlic powder, dried Italian seasoning blend, dried oregano, red chile flakes...basically anything that you like and makes you think of Italian flavors.

Instructions:

1. As your pot of water is heating up to cook your pasta, in a large skillet with a lid, add a drizzle of olive oil and begin to sweat the onions, garlic and peppers.
2. After the onions become clear, add your shredded chicken
3. Next add the seasonings
4. Pour on the spaghetti sauce and mix well.
5. Let simmer at least 15-20 minutes so that all of the flavors meld together
6. Serve over cooked pasta, top with parm or your favorite cheese

Sauteed onions, garlic and peppers.

Shredded chicken and Italian style seasonings.

Simmer with favorite spaghetti sauce.

My husband came home from the farmer’s market this week with pattypan squash. I had never eaten pattypan squash. It tastes just like the yellow crook-neck squash I grew up eating. You can bake it, stuff it, batter and fry it. In this case, I oven roasted it. I love oven roasting my veggies, it makes their true flavor come through and gives them a rich, sweet taste.

Oven Roasted Pattypan Squash Medley

Oven: 400 degrees
Time: 15 minutes

Ingredients:

• 3 cups yellow squash, cubed
• 2 cups zucchini, cubed
• 1 cup chopped onion
• 1 cup mini carrots

Instructions:

1. Place all prepared veggies on a cookie sheet that has been lined with foil or parchment paper
2. Drizzle with olive oil
3. Add salt, and black pepper
4. Toss until all veggies are coated
5. Roast in the oven set on 400 degrees for 15 minutes
6. You may stir around a couple of times to prevent uneven browning or sticking

Yellow Pattypan Squash

You can add any veggie you like to this recipe.

Actually, you can put a roll of jazzed up crescent rolls in the oven at the same time as the veggies. The rolls will be finished a couple of minutes ahead of the veggies, but you will get two thing accomplished at the same time.

Jazzed-Up Crescent Rolls

My family loves crescent rolls. The only downside to jazzing them up, is that I have to make twice as many of them. They are always a big hit! Buttery, flakey and now garlicky!

Ingredients:

• 1 or 2 tubes crescent rolls
• To taste: garlic salt or powder, parsley flakes, grated parm cheese

Instructions:

1. On a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper, arrange all the crescent rolls according to the package instructions.
2. Sprinkle with garlic, parsley and parm...as much as you wish
3. Bake according to package instructions

Crescent rolls ready for the oven.

Golden, buttery, garlicky, flaky goodness!

Canned biscuits with garlic, parm, parsley and a little olive oil drizzle.

They are sooooo good!

There were four of us at supper. I made 16 rolls....only two rolls remained. That’s how good they are. You can do the same thing with canned biscuit dough...pretty much the same outcome and response...they just disappear!

Instead of focusing on just one item this time, I decided to give you an idea for a whole meal. I started the meal with a basic green salad. The hikers and my husband seemed to enjoy every bite and washed it all down a gallon of sweet tea.

So next time you have company pop over unexpectedly, don’t panic. I bet you have enough stuff right there in your pantry and crisper to make a great meal!

As the mixing bowl turns,
Donna ; - )