Pasta Carrabba-ish

My all-time favorite sit-down restaurant has to be Carrabba's. We first ate there in Florida when visiting my grandparents, and I have loved it ever since. I could literally eat Italian every day!

One of the dishes that I used to get on every occasion we ate there was Pasta Carrabba, which is basically fettuccine alfredo with chicken, mushrooms, carrots, and peas. The veggies are tossed in with the pasta and sauce, and the chicken is grilled and served on top. Mmmmm! What makes it even better is some freshly grated Parmesan cheese.

Since that was one of our favorite dishes to get when we went out to eat, we liked being able to eat it at home too. It's not a difficult dish to make, though it never quite turns out like the restaurant version. That was on the agenda for dinner tonight, and yours truly was in charge of the cooking! I wanted to go over how I made it, just as a way to get all of my readers a little bit hungry...

First I cut up some boneless, skinless chicken breasts and cooked it in a pan with some olive oil until well done. While that was going, I boiled some water to get the fettuccine pasta cooking, since that is the rate-determining step of the whole process (about 11-12 minutes). I also added some salt and pepper to the chicken and set it to the side for later. The alfredo sauce was made using a seasoning packet from Knorr, and we used two of them to have enough sauce to cover a box of fettuccine pasta. The sauce is really easy to make, and only requires some milk, margarine, heat, and constant stirring. To the sauce I added one can each of mushrooms, peas, and carrots, and heated them through. I drained the pasta, added the chicken to it, poured the sauce with veggies over it, and mixed it all together. Et voila!

It was delicious, if I do say so myself. All the colors together really made it an attractive dish. I served garlic toast with it, and though the Parmesan cheese wasn't fresh, it was still the perfect addition to the pasta. Like I said, it wasn't exactly the same as the authentic Carrabba's version, but it was a close match. If we had taken the time to grill the chicken, it would have been even closer to the restaurant's, but this way it's simple and takes less time. So, it's a great idea when you want something that is quick, cost-effective, and tasty without going out! Here's a picture to help get all your mouths watering; let me know if you try it and what your results are!