3/1/10 - Chicken, Spinach and Mushroom melt

I was really lucky growing up my mom always made all of our dinners every night and we sat down to a big meal at 5pm on the dot. When I was young and over friend's houses for dinner I would always be a little confused by the kids getting chicken fingers or a sandwich for "dinner". I had no idea that not everyone had a big multi-course meal each night!

Somehow in my little head I would be jealous of the friends who ended up with what I consider American food. Why can't we have green beans with the onion ring stuff? This recipe is my sort of twist on the classic Campbell's cream of mushroom soup with chicken casserole.


We had a party over the weekend and no surprise I made way to much food! I just couldn't help adding just "one more thing" about ten times. At the end I cut a few items off the list which was good because I ended up with tons of left overs. Since I had one and half bowls full of spinach dip (usually goes over really well but I forgot to get this into the oven on time) I wanted to make something with that. I sprung on the nice homemade ricotta at Fairway this week so I wasn't going to let all that creamy goodness go to waste!

Chicken, Spinach and Mushroom Bake
4 large chicken breasts
2 c spinach dip
2 c mushrooms
2 c zucchini
1 c baby tomatoes (or diced tomatoes) - sliced in half
3 gloves garlic - smashed
2 tbsp Italian herbs (basil, oregano, garlic etc) 
1 tsp oil
salt & pepper

1) Toss mushrooms, zucchini and tomatoes with oil and garlic
2) Put veggie blend into a glass casserole dish sprayed with Pam
3) Coat the chicken breast with the italian herbs, salt & pepper
4) Place chicken breasts on top of veggie bed
5) Smoother entire casserole with spinach dip and place in 350 F oven (if desired top with additional cheese)
6) Cook for approx 35 min or until chicken is cooked through-out

the recipe for my spinach dip can be found here though I have since made one small improvement (I roast the garlic before so its a bit of a nice flavor than raw garlic) - that recipe will make about twice as much as you will need for this recipe though so either half it or get out a box of crackers and hit the couch!