Chicken Spinach Alfredo Pasta

My junior year in college (2002, Mansfield University of PA), the school cafeteria opened a "pasta bar".  They had a row of hot plates, big bins of cooked pasta on ice (usually more than one type), some cooked, diced chicken, pork, or beef, the three basic sauces (marinara, alfredo, and pesto) and a large variety of vegetables.  The "bar" was staffed by one or two employees who would assemble your chosen ingredients into a steaming, delicious pile of awesomeness.  I walked away from that year of college with a profound appreciation for stir-fry.  One of my favorite ensembles from these glory days was

Chicken Spinach Alfredo Pasta

Now, this doesn't exactly fit into my self-imposed ideal of a 3-course meal for under $10, but the way I see it, when you make stir-fry, you're mixing your "main course" and your "side dish" into one (yes, I must say it again) steaming, delicious pile of awesomeness.  First, prepare some

Crazy Cheap Chicken Meat

This chicken, here, I bought for $1.58/lb about four months ago.  I bought two "family size" packs.  I kept one in the original package, possibly thinking of the dinner guests that I have sooooo often.  I split the other into four small generic freezer bags (because that's how much I use at a time), and tossed them in my freezer.  Basic Math tells me that the amount of chicken I used in this recipe cost me about $2.40.  To thaw my frozen chicken, I put it in a pot of water on the stove, still in the plastic bag, over low-to-medium heat, until it was thawed enough to remove from the bag, then sliced it into stir-fry sized chunks and put it in my incredibly large skillet that I use for all of my stir-fry recipes.  I added a little water to keep the chicken moist, and allowed it to cook while I continued to assemble the meal.  (If you find your water evaporates while the chicken is still frozen, add more water.)

While the chicken was thawing in the first place, I cooked some ziti.  I like ziti because it's a noodle that's easy for the kids to eat, but unusual enough that you still feel you're preparing a restaurant-quality meal.  I also like to use penne for the same reason.  Penne is ridged, and "holds" sauce better than ziti, which is smooth.  They both look like little tubes and cost between $1 and $1.50 a box.  I'm going to guess I put roughly $0.75 worth of ziti in this dish, since I didn't use the whole box.  A good suggestion is that a handful of raw pasta is a serving, since it expands while cooking.  The side of the box always has measurements, but I try to avoid using measuring cups, since that's one more thing I have to wash when all is said and done.

Once the pasta is cooked, strain it, strain your now-cooked chicken, and just leave them in the strainer while you prepare the sauce.  I poured my sauce in my jumbo skillet, since I can heat it there and fit all the chicken and pasta in the same skillet, but I needed to rinse it first since it had some chicken fat lining the sides.  Unless you like the added fat.  Consumer's choice, there.   

I added some "extras" to this $3.29 can of cheesy Ragu roasted garlic parmesean alfredo sauce, namely: two shakes of cayenne pepper, and roughly a tablespoon of generic "italian seasoning" (I just dumped some into the palm of my hand - again, don't like doing the dishes).  I also added half of a finely diced onion and roughly 3/4 cup of bird's eye frozen spinach, which I microwaved on a plate for a minute or so until it was cooked (only 1/2 cup after cooking, spinach shrinks when it cooks) and scraped into the pan.  Don't skimp on the spinach and buy the cheap stuff.  I know from experience: the difference is usually only 50 cents to a dollar, and there is a BIG difference in quality, even in frozen.  My final addition to the sauce (and my proudest "thrifty" find in this recipe): A palmful of generic bacon bits (which you can buy from the seasonings section of Dollar General for $1 a bottle).  It may seem like an odd addition to a pasta dish, but I think putting pine nuts in/on pasta is just plain freaky, yet people continue to do this for reasons that are completely beyond my comprehension.   And anyway, nobody said YOU have to put bacon-flavor in your chicken and spinach awesomeness (but you totally should)  I am going to assume that, combined, these "extra" ingredients were about $1.50.

So, we have $2.40 (chicken) + $0.75 (pasta) + $3.29 (Ragu Alfredo) + $1.50 extras.  The "Main and Side Course Because I Can That's Why" totals $7.94.  For dessert, we have the crowd-pleaser (at least in my house) of applesauce.  I only used about 1/4 of this can ($1.38) for our dessert (with cinnamon added for taste), so our entire meal cost less than $10.  And the best part was that there was roughly 2 cups left over, which I put in the fridge for leftover night. That, and my kids ate spinach.