My wife makes a lovely Alfredo sauce from scratch that is truly a delight whenever it graces our dinner table. That being said, for some reason we keep buying lots of jars of the stuff and have found that they far outnumber the red sauce in our pantry, which is impressive considering we canned several bushels of tomatoes this fall. 

In light of this and our ever-dwindling timeframe, we decided to start working our way through this supply with a simple dish: Chicken Alfredo. 

When I was growing up, my mom often made lighter dishes such as shrimp scampi and penne Alfredo with vegetables to fill a large bowl and get us through a few meals with relatively little work. As an adult with no time and little creativity when asked the inevitable, “What should we make for dinner?” I was happy to call upon Mom’s standards to fill a few bowls for our discerning young urchins.

Who am I kidding? I wanted it too, but it was a happy coincidence that this dish, reminiscent of mac-n-cheese, went over well with the two tiny food critics in our house. 

My wife has been trying to get away from eating much pasta herself, given her new diet—which I’m still learning to accommodate—but it was encouraging to me that the pasta was the least nutritious part of the dish. We devour copious amounts of cauliflower in many of our dishes, and so we naturally put some of that in with our pasta to cook, but I would suggest to anyone looking to change it up that they try broccoli, carrots, peas or any other fresh or frozen veggie they think would be good smothered in Alfredo sauce and topped with chicken. Are there really any that don’t work?

The way out here we like our one-pot meals. If it stretches over a few meals and has a few shortcuts for those busy days, that just makes it a golden go-to for you, moms and dads, or anyone else burning the candle at both ends. As for me, I’ll likely be enjoying my leftovers cold for some upcoming lunches. Can you warm it up? Absolutely, but why bother if it’s just as good chilled? Maybe one day I’ll have the time to learn my wife’s Alfredo recipe, but for now, I’ll just appreciate it when she takes the time to make it.