A Contest?? What?!

Yes, it is a contest but before you get excited, please know that the prize will be pride and appreciation!  Hey those are good things! 

The Set Up –

I made a new recipe last night. It was from Taste of Home magazine. I have talked about this group of magazines before. I used to have a subscription to Taste of Home Healthy Cooking but I don't think that magazine is around anymore.   

Here is the recipe –

Chicken Pesto with Pasta

Serves 8

1 pkg (16oz.) cellentani or spiral pasta

2 cups cubed rotisserie chicken

2 medium tomatoes, chopped

1 container (7 oz.) prepared pesto

¼ cup pine nuts, toasted

In a Dutch oven, cook pasta according to package direction; drain and return to the pan.  Stir in chicken, tomatoes and pesto; heat through and toss to combine. Sprinkle with pine nuts.

Per serving: 433 calories

18g. fat (5 g. sat. fat) 40 mg cholesterol, 239 mg. sodium, 45 carb, 3 g. fiber, 24 g protein.

So, if you have been reading this blog for any period of time, you know that I always adjust the recipe. Here are the adjustments that I made –

½ package of (about 7 oz.) whole grain spiral noodles

4 Market Day chicken steaks

1 medium tomato chopped (okay, that was a mistake – I thought it only called for one)

1 cup of fresh spinach

1 container of prepared pesto

I cooked the chicken steaks on the stove top in a frying pan sprayed with Pam. At the same time, I cooked the pasta; drained the pasta and put it back in the pot. I then added the cut up chicken, the chopped tomato, the pesto and the spinach to the pot and stirred while it heated. 

It was DELICIOUS! I mean really good. 

The first mistake I made was that I thought that the recipe served 6. At this point you might be wondering if I need new glasses. I don’t think I was paying enough attention. So, when I halved the pasta, I was thinking that we were down to a recipe for three. Of course it would have made sense to cut the pesto in half but I didn’t.  (No wonder it was so good.)

Where does the lame contest come in to play here?

Here it is – how do you make a pesto that is really delicious but not all the calories that are in most pesto recipes? 

I want to make this recipe again but I just can’t afford the calories in the pesto. (Yea, it will be so many less when I cut the pesto in half…) 

So load me up with your proven ideas for a lower calorie delicious pesto. 

It isn't really this exciting...

The winner will get his or her name and recipe in a post and will have my gratitude for finding a way to make this recipe one that won’t make me feel guilty. 

You can put your recipes in the comments or you can email me at footbloggerchick@gmail.com .

Thanks for reading!