Chicken and Veggie Bake

I love to reinvent recipes and make them healthy. It really is a challenge sometimes, and who doesn't love a good challenge? I am an Italian girl through and through, so anything with tomato sauce is on my list of favorite dishes. This is kind of a twist on chicken parm and a Giada recipe that I had a few months ago that had roasted veggies with sauce and cheese.

Chicken and Veggie Bake

• 1 cup boneless/skinless chicken, cooked and diced
• 1 cup butternut squash, peeled and cubed
• 1/2 cup red onion, large dice
• 1 large carrot, peeled and chopped
  
• 1 small zucchini, chopped
• 1/2 a fennel bulb, chopped in wedges
• 1/2 cup green bell pepper, cut in pieces
• 2 cups of your favorite pasta sauce
• 1/2 cup Cabot 50% reduced fat shredded cheese (or whatever cheese you like)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees

Peel and chop all of your veggies.

Spread onto a baking sheet and drizzle with 2 teaspoons olive oil. Toss it all together to ensure that everything is coated and won't stick to your pan. Sprinkle with a little kosher salt and pepper. Bake in the oven about 40 minutes, or until the veggies are most of the way cooked but not mushy. They will bake a second time in the oven and you don't want to over cook them!

While the veggies are roasting you can make your own sauce! The one that I made was a fast and simple sauce with nothing to it.

I cooked up about 1/2 cup of diced red onion for 3-4 minutes in a pan and then added 2 (15oz) cans of tomato sauce, 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning, 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes, 1/2 teaspoon minced garlic, 1 cup of cooked chopped chicken, and a handful of fresh chopped basil to the pot. Stir everything together and let it simmer of medium-low heat until the vegetables are done roasting.

I decided to make individual servings, so I baked mine in 2 16oz soup crocks. I sprayed the inside of the crocks with cooking spray to ensure that nothing would stick.

Pour about 1/4 cup of sauce in the bottom of each container and then fill it about halfway with veggies. Scoop another 1/4 cup of sauce and then fill it almost to the top with more veggies. Top it off with a little more sauce and then sprinkle each crock with 1/4 cup of cheese.

Bake them in the oven for another 15 minutes or until the cheese is melted and bubbly hot!

This was fantastic and super filling. It really reminded me of a full fat Italian meal when in reality this dish had tons of colorful and healthy vegetables in it and was a mere 260 calories.