Kraft Fresh Take Chicken Parm and Pasta

A while ago when wondering through the supermarket, Boyfriend and I discovered Kraft Fresh Takes along the dairy aisle.  These cheese and breadcrumb mixes seemed simple enough for a low key dinner so we picked up a bunch to give them a try.

Fresh Take Varieties (picture from thehungrydudes.com)

We definitely were not disappointed.  For the simplest of meals, we just opened up the fresh take mixing bag, used a touch of water to moisten chicken (packaging says 2 lbs- I usually just buy those slight > 1 lb packages and used that), plopped chicken in the bag, rolled around to gather the cheesy breadcrumby goodness, and baked.  Usually I'd toss on some pasta or mashed potatoes for a side.  Pretty easy and we'd enjoyed the varieties we'd tried - so far I think we've had most of the ones pictured.

Well Friday, boyfriend's little sister was down for the day and we'd planned on the Fresh Take Italian Parmesan chicken for dinner and I decided to try and take it up a notch.  Here's what I managed:

Kraft Fresh Take Chicken Parm and Pasta

Ingredients

Kraft Fresh Take Italian Parmesan
1 lb or so of Chicken Breasts

Pasta - I made about 1/2 a box of rotini for 3 people

1 cup mozzarella

1 jar marinara sauce

Directions

Open up the Fresh Take Italian Parmesan mixing bag and mix the breadcrumbs and cheese together.  Briefly run the chicken breasts under water and then coat with the breadcrumbs and cheese in the mixing bag.  Place on a cookie sheet or casserole dish (I used a 9x13).  Add about a spoonful of marinara sauce to each breast and sprinkle some mozzarella on top of - I used about 1/2 a cup of mozzarella for this.  Bake as directed on the Fresh Take packaging - I don't have it in front of me but I believe says 25 minutes at 375 degrees.  Whatever the packaging says - I let it go for a bit longer since I tested one of the larger breasts and it was still pink inside.

Boil up your pasta and drain.  In a smaller casserole dish (I think mine's 8x8 or so), pour the cooked pasta in with whatever is left from the marinara sauce used for the chicken and mix together.  I had quite a bit of the Fresh Take left so I poured that on top of the pasta with the remainder of the mozzarella.  Then toss in the oven with the chicken.  I started boiling the water after the chicken was in the oven and both the chicken and pasta were pretty much ready at the same time - the pasta's already been cooked so it's pretty much only in the oven so the cheese will melt.

Notes

The above is why I usually find other peoples recipes to try rather than attempt to write my own.  I know I use a lot of approximate language when it comes to food but I'm really not sure the amounts of what I used.  I just kinda go with what seems right.

I also just went with what I had.  Most of this was a spur of the moment idea - particularly the baked pasta which I only decided to do after seeing I still had some of the Fresh Take and cheese left. I did get the complaint that it could use more cheese, I prolly would've used an entire 2 cup package of mozzarella between the chicken and the pasta if I had it but it wasn't an option at the time.  I also was contemplating adding in some ricotta cheese to the pasta as well but it'd unfortunately expired/gotten a tad moldy.  Whoops.

Both Boyfriend and his sister said dinner was really good - which since boyfriend is hardly the most vocal of people is a real win - additional cheese comment aside.