Chicken and Vegetable Bolognese Bake

I love Italian food but am trying very hard to stick to a low carb diet. So sometimes these two goals seem at odds with each other. One thing that I make frequently is a Simple Bolognese Sauce. In itself, this is low carb, full of vegetables and basically pretty healthy. So instead of using it to make a lasagne I decide to try something new and used my friends as guinea pigs.

Zucchini makes a pretty good substitute for pasta and I love mushrooms so I started by slicing up some of each. In order to make sure that they didn’t disintegrate into the sauce while baking I sprinkled everything with salt to draw out the excess moisture.

While I was waiting for these veggies to sweat it out I marinaded some chicken breasts in   pesto. I was out of the homemade stuff so I used this from costco. It is good stuff, I had it in the freezer and pulled it out recently when my homemade batch finally ran out. As you can see, it is Grace approved.

While all of this was resting I served my guests wine, meat and cheese to wet their appetites. I figured if I placated them enough they would like my experiment.

Once all of these ingredient were ready to go I mixed them together in a casserole dish with the sauce, added in some fresh mozzarella and covered the whole thing with a shredded Italian cheese blend. A quick bake and dinner was served!

You’ll notice a little soupiness along the edges. This sauce was delicious and easily sopped up with some garlic bread. But if you want a drier casserole then simply cook the sauce down a little more before adding it to the pan. Usually when you cook with pasta it soaks up a lot of the moisture so you want a runny sauce. But with chicken and vegetables you are actually going to be releasing more moisture into your pan instead of soaking. I served this casserole with an Italian salad and garlic bread. Feel free to forego the garlic bread for a truly low carb experience.

Ingredients:

1. 2-3 cups bolognese sauce
2. 2 zucchinis
3. 1 package of sliced mushrooms
4. 1 package of fresh mozzarella
5. 1 packaged of shredded Italian cheese

Recipe:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. Slice zucchinis into half moons.
3. Spread out mushrooms and zucchinis on paper towels and sprinkle with salt.
4. Marinade cubed chicken breasts in pesto sauce.
5. Let everything sit for at least 20 minutes.
6. Mix sauce, vegetables, chicken and pieces of fresh mozzarella together in a baking dish.
7. Cover with Italian cheese blend.
8. Bake for 30 minutes or until bubbling.
9. Broil on high for 1-3 minutes to get golden cheese, if needed.