Recipe Review: Makeover Greek Spaghetti

Some of my favorite memories of my best friend and I revolve around Greek food.  We discovered our love of Greek food together way back in the day at a little place called The Castle.   Anytime I visit her, we make it a point to eat there, (and when she visits me, we try our best to find a suitable Greek restaurant).  Now anytime I have Greek food, or see anything even remotely “Greek”, she is the first person I think of!   Some people might say we are a little obsessed.

So it was, of course, my love of all things Greek that led my eyes immediately to this recipe on a page full of other random recipes.  You can probably imagine that I had high hopes as I was whipping this one up!

This was one of the few instances that I didn’t mind putting a little effort and work into dinner, despite having been at work for 8 hours and then the grocery store for another hour.  I mean, it’s GREEK- it had to be good!   I won’t lie, this recipe was a lot more work than most things I cook.  I prefer to spend as little time in the kitchen as possible.

Once all the ingredients were in the bowl, I had to stir… and stir…and stir.  It seemed like no matter how much I stirred, it just wasn’t thoroughly mixed.  Even when I finally thought I was done, and poured it into the baking dish, I realized there were still areas of just spaghetti and no “stuff”.    Finally, after cooking the chicken, and the spaghetti, and defrosting and draining the spinach, and mixing and mixing and mixing, it was ready to go in the oven.

While I waited the 30 minutes for it to bake, I had a wonderful summer salad.

In my salad:  lettuce, strawberries, blueberries, croutons, and Marzetti’s Light Citrus Poppyseed dressing.   This is one of my favorite salads of all time!  Plus, I think Marzetti’s salad dressings are the best.

After my salad, the spaghetti was finally ready.   It looked so appetizing:

And after all of that waiting, anticipating, manual labor……. this recipe was a big disappointment.  It was just bland and seemed to be missing something in the flavor department.    It wasn’t bad and it was definitely edible, which is a good thing since it’s going to be dinner tomorrow as well.  I had just hoped for something so much more!  Maybe with a little tweaking, this could be a fantastic recipe.

Makeover Greek Spaghetti

10 Servings @ 442 calories, 13 g fat, 3 g fiber

Ingredients:

• 1 package (16 ounces) spaghetti, broken into 2-inch pieces
• 4 cups cubed cooked chicken breast
• 2 packages (10 ounces each) frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry
• 1 can (10-3/4 ounces) reduced-fat reduced-sodium condensed cream of chicken soup, undiluted
• 3/4 cup reduced-fat mayonnaise
• 3/4 cup reduced-fat sour cream
• 3 celery ribs, chopped
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 1/2 cup chopped green pepper
• 1 jar (2 ounces) diced pimentos, drained
• 1/2 teaspoon salt-free lemon-pepper seasoning
• 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1-1/3 cups fat-free milk
• 1 teaspoon chicken bouillon granules
• 1 cup (4 ounces) shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese
• 1/2 cup soft bread crumbs
• 1/4 cup shredded Parmesan cheese

Instructions:

1. Cook spaghetti according to package directions; drain. Return spaghetti to saucepan. Stir in the chicken, spinach, soup, mayonnaise, sour cream, celery, onion, green pepper, pimentos and lemon-pepper.
2. In a small saucepan, whisk flour and milk until smooth. Bring to a boil over medium heat; cook and stir for 2 minutes or until thickened. Stir in bouillon. Pour over spaghetti mixture and mix well.
3. Transfer to a 13-in. x 9-in. baking dish coated with cooking spray (dish will be full). Top with mozzarella cheese, bread crumbs and Parmesan cheese. Bake, uncovered, at 350° for 25-30 minutes or until heated through. Yield: 10 servings.

Source:  Taste of Home