What's Cookin': Chicken & Spinach Alfredo Casserole

**August 2010 Update: I've started to exclusively use chicken (instead of ham) and have now changed the broccoli to spinach when one night I had no broccoli, used the substitute and was promptly told "You're making it with spinach from now on" around mouthful of food. ;) I've changed the recipe to reflect these changes. **

I've made this a few times, with chicken, and it always gets gobbled up. Tonight I decided to try it with ham because I had it in the freezer. It was gobbled just as quickly.

Chicken & Spinach Alfredo Casserole - about 8 servings

1 lb. pasta (shells, farfale, penne, rotelle, etc.) - .89
2 C cooked chicken, cubed - 2.73
1 (4 oz) package chopped frozen spinach, thawed and drained well - .25
1 jar Alfredo sauce (I use Ragu) - 1.73
1 C mozzarella, shredded - 1.44
1/4 C grated Parmesan - .14

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Cook your pasta according to the packaging. And PLEASE salt your water. A lot. I try to go for a around 1/4 C. It will make everything taste better. Trust me.

Drain the pasta and put it back into the pot. Dump in everything but the Parmesan and stir to combine. Add salt and pepper to taste. Pour into a greased casserole dish, then sprinkle with Parmesan. Bake for about 20 minutes or until the cheese is deliciously golden.

Total: 7.18

Variations: Like I said earlier, I usually use chicken which would probably be cheaper. (Whoops, this dish is more expensive than I thought.) You could cut out the mozzarella too, since it's so expensive. It won't hurt the taste too much. I would have put peas instead of broccoli but as I've said before, Ben doesn't do peas. So I had to find another veggie. You could make Alfredo sauce from scratch if you wanted and just use about 2 cups worth, but I'm not sure that would cut the cost much with the cream and everything.

And now introducing Ben Ratings! I told Ben that I needed him to start rating dishes for the blog. Heh. Dishes will be rated on a scale from 1 - 5. Just for perspective, meatloaf and mashed potatoes (his favorite dish) is a 5.

Ben Rating: 4