A great recipe for leftover chicken

Last night we had one of my favorite dishes using leftovers. I made pasta with mushrooms and chicken (which was leftover and frozen from a meal of roasted chicken a few weeks ago). So how does this meal go over with the family? My husband, 11 year old, and I all enjoy this meal. My 7 year old dove right in, served herself (I noticed she even took two more helpings as the meal progressed), but ate it in a not unusual 7-year-old-way. She ate all the pasta first while pushing the mushrooms to the side of her plate. Then she ate all the chicken. She never ate the mushrooms. So what about my picky 13 year old? I had set aside some of the pasta before mixing it in with the chicken/mushroom mixture. I put this separate bowl of plain pasta with butter on the table along side the chicken mushroom pasta. Of course, my 13 year old served herself the plain pasta. She also ate the broccolini, snap peas, and bread which were also on the table. Although I still wish that she would exactly what the rest of us were eating, I don't give up hope for her expanded palate some day in the future. Some may argue that I was catering to her by keeping some pasta plain and separate. In this case, I didn't feel as though I was doing any extra work to make her a separate meal; the pasta was part of our meal anyway. I think she felt as if she were eating a "family meal."

Here's the recipe:

CHICKEN MUSHROOM PASTA

16 oz. package fettucine*
1 lb. fresh mushrooms, sliced
4 garlic gloves, minced
¼ c. butter
2 c. cooked chicken, shredded or cut in small pieces**
½ c. milk
½ c. grated Romano or Parmesan cheese

· Cook pasta according to package directions.
· Meanwhile, in a skillet sauté mushrooms and garlic in butter until softened.
· Add chicken and milk.
· Cook for about 5 minutes.
· Drain pasta and add to skillet.
· Add cheese and toss.


6 servings.


*can substitute linguine
**leftover roast chicken or rotisserie chicken work well


Also saw this on the Well blog this morning and wanted to share:

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/02/19/even-top-chefs-have-picky-kids/