Tasty Tuesday: Spinach and Artichoke Chicken Casserole

I'm back from my weekend away in Minnesota, which I'll be recapping for you soon, but in the meantime, I have a delicious casserole recipe that I promised last week I would share with you!

It comes courtesy of Iowa Girl Eats (if you don't follow this blog, you should--she has amazing recipes).

This one you can also make ahead of time, which I should have done, but I didn't.

{via}

It's Spinach and Artichoke Chicken Casserole, and let me tell you, it is amazeballs good!

What You Need:

• 8oz bow tie pasta (about 2/3 of a 12 oz box)
• 1 T butter
• salt and pepper
• 2 small shallots, chopped
• 2 cups chicken tenders (roughly slightly more than 1 lb), cut into small pieces
• 2 eggs
• 1 1/4 cup skim or 1% milk
• 1 tsp. Italian seasoning
• 1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
• 1 8oz package of grated Colby Jack cheese (trust me, you want this grated already--your hand will thank you)
• 1-14 oz can quartered artichoke hearts, drained, and chopped
• 1-10 oz package frozen spinach, thawed and wrung out
• 1 slice whole wheat bread
• 1/2 tsp paprika
• 1 T. butter, melted

What You Should Do:

1. Cook the pasta according to the directions on the package. Once it's done, drain and set aside.

2. Melt 1 T. butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add in the chopped shallots and the chicken. Season it with salt and pepper and then continue to cook until the chicken is no longer pink in the middle. Remove it from heat when done.

3. While the chicken is cooking (or after you're done if you can't do it all at the same time), get a large bowl and whisk together the eggs, milk, Italian seasoning, and  2 T. parmesan cheese. Then stir in the colby jack cheese, artichokes and thawed/drained spinach.

4. Combine the egg mixture, chicken, and pasta. Then pour into a non-stick (or sprayed) 9x13 pan. Cover the pan with foil. At this point you can leave it in the fridge overnight....

5. The next day (or the same day if you're doing it all at once), bake at 400 degrees for  20 minutes. While the casserole is baking, combine the remaining 2 T. parmesan cheese, the toasted bread slice, and paprika into a food processor (or Magic Bullet). Pulse it until you have bread crumbs. Then stir in the melted butter.

6. After 20 minutes, top the casserole with the bread crumb mix and bake, uncovered, for 10 more minutes.

7. Serve!!

This was a delicious meal. According to Iowa Girl Eats, each serving is only  330 calories. MG and I got 6 meals out of this (1 dinner for both of us, and 2 lunch leftovers for both), which makes it nice on the waistline AND the wallet!

Oh, and in case you don't know what shallots look like (because I didn't and had to look it up on my phone at the grocery store), they look like this:

You can find them where the onions are in the grocery store.

Try it and let me know what you think!