Dinner - Chicken and Bows

This recipe comes from another Taste of Home cookbook that I got from the library, titled "Dinner on a Dime". It is full of inexpensive and fairly quick meals. I thought the name of this was too cute (why I am not sure...) and the ingredients all sounded delicious, so we decided to give it a try.

The recipe was pretty good in composition, however it was sadly quite bland, even though it seemed to contain tons flavorful ingredients! We ended up doctoring up the finished product with (another great Penzey's spice) Fox Point Seasoning. If you wanted to make this recipe, I'd recommend spicing it up with your favorite chicken seasoning or Italian seasoning.

There were some good parts to this recipe. It took us about 40 minutes to make, from start to finish, so it was fairly quick. The ingredients also were pretty good, since we seemed to have most of them on hand. We used up the bow tie pasta from our pantry, as well as a partial leftover bag of frozen peas, so it helped us to get rid of some food we needed to use up. The recipe also makes a good amount, so there is plenty left over for a couple more lunches and dinners.

Chicken and Bows

Ingredients:
-1 package (16 ounces) bow tie pasta
-2 pounds boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into strips (we only used 2 chicken breasts, so we can have chicken left for our other recipes this week.)
-1 cup chopped sweet red pepper
-1/4 cup butter, cubed
-2 cans (10-3/4 ounces each) condensed cream of chicken soup, undiluted
-2 cups frozen peas
-1- 1/2 cups milk
-1 teaspoon garlic powder
-1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon salt
-1/4 teaspoon pepper
-2/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Cook pasta according to package.
Cook chicken and red pepper in butter over med heat for 5-6 minutes, or until chicken is cooked.
Drain pasta and set aside.

Use pasta cooking pot (post-draining) and combine: chicken/red pepper mixture, soup, peas, milk, garlic powder, salt, and pepper.
Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer uncovered for 1-2 minutes or until heated.
Stir in Parmesan, then add pasta to the chicken mixture. Stir to coat.

Recipe says it makes enough for 12 servings. I'd probably say it is closer to 8 generous servings. The recipe recommends freezing half to eat later, so feel free to do that!