Chicken Penne Casserole

After the success of my Tortilla Lasagna from the Taste of Home recipe magazine my step-MIL gave to me when she was visiting, I decided to make Chicken-Penne-Casserole tonight.

As usual, I made a few substitutions, in part because I didn't have one of the ingredients and in part because I wanted to use a healthier alternative.

The recipe is called Chicken Penne, but I used some whole wheat rotini instead.   In place of the chicken thighs, I cut up some chicken cutlets I had.  Instead of using mozarella cheese (which I didn't have), I just used 75% reduced fat Cabot cheddar cheese.

My resident guinea pig  husband was the taste tester.  Two thumbs up.  Since he didn't fall down dead gave it the ok, I went ahead and tasted it and I have to agree that it is very tasty.  I find that most recipes go light on the spices so I was a bit more generous with them, including the crushed red pepper, which gave the casserole a nice zip!

My husband had to go back to work so I had to give him some before I got to take a picture.  OK, it was so tasty, I gave myself and my daughter some and forgot to take a picture....but it looked as great as it smelled and tasted!!  Definitely something I will make again.

Now, if I could only get that automatic dishwasher to help with the clean-up, I'd be so very happy!