Chicken Alfredo

A few weeks ago, Andrew was mentioning to me how much he missed eating pasta, specifically at Olive Garden, and was craving the pasta.  So, I decided to take it upon myself and search of pasta that might work.  I hadn't done a whole lot of shopping regarding gluten-free foods, so shopping for gluten-free foods is still pretty new to me.  I ironically had a gift card to Trader Joe's that I was given and hadn't used yet.  I remembered that I REALLY like their strawberry flavored licorice bites and decided to go in and get a container of those.  While I was at it, I figured I'd look for gluten-free pasta.  Guess what?!  I found some!!  It was their organic brown rice penne pasta.  I went home and told Andrew about my find and when I went grocery shopping later in the week I picked up some alfredo sauce to use with it.

So, about this time last Sunday, I was working on making different meals for us for the entire week that was gluten-free.  One of those was Chicken Alfredo with gluten-free pasta I picked up at Trader Joe's for $1.99.  Instead of cooking it as a complete meal right then, I separated it out into some smaller containers for Andrew to take to work with him and reheat.

Ingredients:

• One bag of organic brown rice penne pasta (uncooked) from Trader Joe's
• One can of chicken
• Two small jars of alfredo sauce

Directions:

1. Cook the past as per the directions on the bag.  The pasta will most likely come in a green bag.
2. I mixed the 2 small jars of alfredo sauce in a bowl with the chicken to help break up the larger chicken chunks.  If you're looking to prepare the meal for eating right then, then you will want to heating the sauce and the chicken up on low heat until the pasta is done cooking; however, since I was dividing them up for smaller meals for Andrew later I didn't.
3. Once the pasta is done cooking to your liking, strain it in the strainer.
4. I tend to dump the pasta back into the pot that I cooked it in.  I mix in the chicken and the alfredo sauce (heated or unheated depending on the purpose of the meal) with the pasta.

It's really, honestly super easy to prepare and doesn't take much thinking to do.  If you do decide to use all of the pasta that you've prepared for a meal later (rather than divide it up into smaller portions), I would recommend putting it in a greased cooking/baking dish so you can pop it in the oven until it's heated all the way through.  Also, the reasoning behind using two jars instead of just one jar of alfredo sauce is because when using alfredo sauce of any kind the pasta tends to absorb the sauce while sitting in the refrigerator if there are leftovers.  When we reheat it for later meals, I never feel like there's enough sauce left in the container.

Trader Joe's does have a list of products that are gluten free if you are interested in checking them out.  If you have any questions regarding any of the products, the people who work at Trader Joe's are more than happy to help answer your questions and make recommendations.

Sorry there aren't any pictures this time around.  Maybe when I fix it again!

Enjoy!  And, happy eating!!

Jenni