Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

If you’re like me and didn’t wear green, you can at least say you ate some green with this easy pasta recipe! 

Here’s what you’ll need {this makes one round 8” baking dish – or two meals for the two of us}…

• 1/2 Box of Spaghetti
• 2 Zucchini
• Jar of Pesto
• 1 1/4 cup of Shredded Cheese
• Optional: Pre-cooked chicken {I like this pasta with chicken but it could be left out if you wanted to save time.  My go to chicken is Italian Chicken: bake frozen tenderloins in Italian dressing at 175 for 4-5 hours}

And here’s how you make it.

1. Peel zucchini and slice to thin vertical slices.
2. Bring noodles to a boil.  Add zucchini to cook with noodles the last 2-3 minutes.
3. Drain noodles and zucchini. Move to mixing bowl. {I know, I know… your next food photographer, right?}
4. Add shredded chicken, pesto sauce, and 1 cup of cheese to noodles and zucchini. Mix together.
5. Pour into a baking dish {cheese on the counter not required}, cover with foil, and bake at 400 for 25 minutes. 
6. Remove from oven, sprinkle with remaining cheese, and bake for an additional 5 minutes, broiling on high for the last minute.
7. Let stand for 5 minutes, and serve!  {trust me, it tastes much better than it photographs}

When I’m planning out meals for the upcoming week, I also try to look at the weather report.  I guess my thought is, if its too warm outside, I’m not going to want cook {or eat} something really heavy and hot like a baked pasta. Everyone does this right?  🙂

So last week when I checked the forecast and saw that we might be getting snow, I planned on making crockpot barbecue chicken. When the forecast was right and the snow started falling, I was happy to have all things on hand for this meal.  Bonus: it might have been the easiest thing I’ve ever made.

To make this all you need is a crockpot, barbecue sauce, and chicken {I use frozen tenderloins}.  See, I told you this was going to be easy.

First you’ll want to spray down your crockpot with cooking spray. This will make clean up faster {and that’s always a win in my book}. Once you’ve done that go ahead and turn your crock pot timer to 8 hours and set it on the low setting.  Next, use your favorite barbecue sauce and pour it in the bottom of the crockpot {note: it won’t cover the base; I used about 1/4 cup}. Once you’ve got your sauce base, lay your chicken on top and then add more sauce {be more generous with your sauce this time}. After 7.5 hours, while the chicken is still in the crockpot, shred the meat {it will shred easily}. Once finished shredding, let it cook for 30 more minutes so that it soaks up the remaining sauce.

We ate our chicken with roasted potatoes and a cucumber salad; warm and filling for our snow day!