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Plan Z Phase: This is a Z3 (ZReboot) recipe

This makes cozy comfort food. You can put it together pretty fast and pop it in the oven so you can do other things while dinner finishes up. I like dishes like this because it gives me time to load the dishwasher with the cooking tools and the kitchen is cleaned except for the actual eating dishes before I even sit down for the meal. Perfect dish for a potluck too.

Z3.5 with pasta added

Servings: Serves 4 and can be doubled to fit in a 9 ” X 13 ” casserole

Ingredients:

• 1 package of chicken tenders, cubed
• 1 Tbl of olive oil
• ½ cup of chopped onion or shallots
• ½ cup of mascarpone cheese (if you don’t want to use this you can use cream cheese)
• 1/3 – ½ cup of prepared pesto (or make homemade). (Prepared pesto can be found in the Italian section in little jars or sometimes there is fresh pesto in produce). Amount is to your liking
• Sea salt and pepper to taste. I also add a light dusting of cayenne to brighten the flavor (optional)
• 2 Roma tomatoes, diced
• 1.5 cups of shredded mozzarella (or I used a mozzarella/provolone combo)
• ½ cup of grated parmesan
• Optional: A cup of cooked pasta (your choice of noodle. I used angel hair.) You only need enough to cover the bottom of the casserole. This keeps the carbs to a minimum. Or you can spiral slice a zucchini into noodles. If you use zucchini you can consider this your Z3 recipe. Z3.5 is only if you use pasta. Lastly, this can be made with no addition to the bottom of the casserole. All versions will taste great.

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees

Spray the bottom of your 9 ” X 9 ” oven-proof casserole dish. (Round works too)

Get the pasta cooking if you are going to use it. While it boils you can work on the rest of the meal.

In a medium saute pan add the olive oil, and the chicken. Cook chicken for about 10 minutes or until it’s almost cooked through. Add the onion and continue sauteing until the chicken is completely cooked. Add the mascarpone and melt it on medium-low. Stir it around in the chicken to make it saucy. Season with salt, pepper, and cayenne.

Assembly:

If you are using pasta, put the cooked and drained pasta in the bottom of the casserole. Layer on the saucy chicken. Then spread the pesto over the top of the chicken. Add ½ of the mozzarella and ½ of the tomato. Then layer on the rest of the mozzarella and the last of the tomato.

Bake at 375 degrees for 20 minutes. Then add the parmesan cheese on top and bake 10 minutes more or until it just starts to brown up a bit. Take the casserole out of the oven and let it sit to cool for about 10 minutes before you serve. Otherwise, you might burn your mouth and not enjoy it nearly as much.

Enjoy

Cheers,