Chicken Vegetable Pasta

    "Now godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and clothing, with these we shall be content."
                       1st Timothy 6:6-8 New King James



      The following amounts will serve 8-10. I split my finished sauce in half and froze half for another meal. You could also cut the amounts in half to make a smaller batch. The whole process took me about an hour and a half. However, it was my 1st time to make it and after the fact, I saw how it could have been done in just about 45 min.

                                           Ingredients

      1/2 an onion                  5 Roma tomatoes           Salt
      2 zucchini's                   2 Tbsp minced garlic      Pepper
      1/2 an 8oz tub of  fresh sliced mushrooms           Italian seasoning
      1 lb chicken (ground, cubed, or shredded)          4 Tbsp sour cream
      4 Tbsp butter                 4 Tbsp Flour                 2 cups milk

         The 1st step is to prep your vegetables. Begin by preheating your oven to 400 degrees. Get out a  baking sheet and a loaf pan. Slice the onion into strips or chunks, based on your preference. (I used small strips so the kids wouldn't get a 'big bite' of onion.) Spread across baking sheet. Peel the zucchini, and slice into approx 1/4in thick circles. Add to baking sheet, then top with the mushrooms. Drizzle 3 Tbsp of the olive oil over vegetables, sprinkle with salt, pepper, and Italian seasoning to your preference, then toss or stir to coat. (Don't toss unless you are using a deep sided pan. This seems self explanatory, but I can see someone tossing their food across the kitchen, and getting mad at me!)  Next slice your tomatoes into chunks. The original recipe said to quarter them, but I cut each quarter into 3 smaller chunks.  Put tomatoes into loaf pan and add 2Tbsp minced garlic and 2 Tbsp olive oil. Sprinkle with pepper and Italian seasoning, and stir to mix. Place in oven and cook 15 minutes uncovered, stir and cook an additional 15 minutes uncovered. The finished product is pictured below, and could easily be eaten by itself. (I sampled it, and it was so good I almost quit making the rest so I could just each the veggies)

 Step 2 is where I lost some time. I had figured it would only take about 15 minutes to cook the meat, sauce and noodles. Wrong! Although the actual cooking time isn't that long you gotta wait for the pan to heat and the water to boil and blah blah blah. So as soon as you get the veggies in the oven get your noodle water on to boil, and your chicken on to cook. (I used ground chicken because that's what I had on hand, however grilled cubed chicken breast would have made this even better)
   Step 3 is your white sauce. Pretty simple to make. Melt 4 Tbsp butter in sauce pan (I chose a pan that would be large enough to hold all the sauce ingredients at the end) Stir in 4 Tbsp flour, 1/4 tsp salt and 1/4 tsp pepper. I added it all at once and used a fork to mix it with. Next add in 2 cups milk. (The original recipe said add it all at once, but I recommend slowly adding it in while whisking, because I had to spend extra time getting the lumps out. I've made white sauce before and thought you were supposed to add the milk a little at a time. I should have gone with my gut on that one.)  Stir frequently to avoid sticking to the bottom while the sauce is thickening. After the sauce is thick add in 4 Tbsp sour cream and whisk together.
   At this point your noodles should already be on to boil, and your chicken should be just about done.

 Step 4 is add it all together. Start by adding in your tomato mixture and whisking it together. It will be a little clumpy, but the whisk helps mix it better than a spoon. Next stir in your chicken. In the case of ground chicken, I used the whisk again, to make sure it was evenly mixed.

 

 Lastly, add in your veggie mixture. Stir gently, just enough to mix it all together but not tear apart the zucchini.

 Fill each bowl with noodles and top with your sauce. Yummy!