Chicken, Pesto & Veggie Pasta

So I have no clue what to "name" this. I had been wanting a pasta with a pesto sauce so I just threw some veggies and chicken together. Toward the end I figured a pure pesto sauce might be a bit too rich of a taste (for my one year old) so I ended up making a pesto cream sauce. The meal took about 40 minutes total to prep and cook. I expected it to take a bit longer - I was pleasantly surprised. This recipe makes a lot. I realized it was going to make quite a bit once I got started, but just went with it because we love having leftovers. Thankfully so because my daughter absolutely loved it and ate her whole bowl. I love when that happens - it's rare.

Chicken, Pesto & Veggie Pasta

2 tbs. EVOO

2 chicken breasts, diced

1/2 yellow onion, diced

1 bunch asparagus, chopped

1 14 oz. can artichokes, chopped

4 oz. sun dried tomatoes, julienne sliced

3 oz. black olives, sliced

Sauce

3 tbs. butter

2 tbs. flour

2 cups heavy whipping cream

1 cup Parmesan cheese

6 oz. jar pesto

1 package Trader Joe's Vegetable Radiatore

Saute the chicken and onion in the EVOO. Add preferred seasoning to taste (I used garlic powder, onion powder, salt and pepper - kept it simple, would have preferred fresh garlic, but was hurrying). Once chicken is cooked, add in asparagus, artichoke, sun dried tomatoes, and olives. Let simmer.

In a saucepan, melt butter and then add flour. Once blended, add the heavy whipping cream. Stir until warm. Add Parmesan cheese. Once the Parmesan cheese is melted whisk in pesto.

Add pasta to boiling water.

You could toss everything together, I chose not to. This makes way more sauce than is necessary for the amount of chicken, veggies & pasta. Even after storing the leftovers in the fridge, I still had plenty of sauce left to freeze.

We loved it - hopefully you will too!