Rotini Chicken Casserole

Rotini Chicken Casserole, LT03, 7 points

Ingredients

2-3/4 cups uncooked tricolor rotini or spiral pasta
3/4 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup chopped celery
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 tablespoon Crisco® Pure Olive Oil
3 cups cubed cooked chicken breast
1 can (10-3/4 ounces) reduced-fat reduced-sodium condensed cream of chicken soup, undiluted
1-1/2 cups fat-free milk
1 package (16 ounces) frozen Italian-blend vegetables
1 cup (4 ounces) shredded reduced-fat cheddar cheese
2 tablespoons minced fresh parsley
1-1/4 teaspoons dried thyme
1 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup crushed cornflakes

Directions

Cook pasta according to package directions. Meanwhile, in a nonstick skillet, saute onion, celery and garlic in oil until tender. Drain pasta; place in a bowl, Add the onion mixture, chicken, soup, milk, frozen vegetables, cheese, parsley, thyme and salt.

Pour into a shallow 3-qt. baking dish coated with cooking spray. Cover and bake at 350° for 25 minutes. Sprinkle with cornflakes; spritz with cooking spray. Bake, uncovered, 10-15 minutes longer or until heated through. Yield: 8 servings.

Nutritional Analysis: One serving (1-1/3 cups) equals 341 calories, 7 g fat (3 g saturated fat), 56 mg cholesterol, 698 mg sodium, 40 g carbohydrate, 3 g fiber, 28 g protein.
Diabetic Exchanges: 3 lean meat, 2 starch, 1 vegetable.

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Made on March 5th (kinda). I had planned on serving this on Wed, but dinner changed to pizza for the kids and Houlihan's for us (yay What What Wednesday!). I was being good and had already started preparing dinner when the plans changed. So, I just put it all together and stored it in a bowl until it was time to make it. This worked out really well. The only kink was in which dish to actually prepare it in. My guess is that a 3 qt dish would be about a 9x13 pan, but since mine have all gone MIA that wasn't really an option. My 11x14 or whatever the next size up is would have been fine to use for it, but it was being used to deliver dinner to another family. I tried to use a 7x10? but that was too small. This recipe makes a LOT. I then settled on two 8x8 pans. I filled one 8x8 and realized there was still enough in the 7x10 that I might as well not dirty another pan.

This recipe is pretty simple to prepare. The hardest part was finding Italian blend vegetables. I finally had to google it to figure out what vegetables were in it to find it that way. As it turns out, Italian is no longer the chic word. It's Mediterranean. So, look for Mediterranean blend vegetables instead of Italian blend.