Pasta with grilled chicken and vegetables in a goat cheese sauce

Pasta. Chicken. Grilled vegetables. Sounds pretty ordinary. I had to come up with a way to have an ordinary dinner become a little different so we weren't eating the same things all the time. A quick look in the refrigerator and I found three small rounds of goat cheese (herb and garlic, four pepper, and plain) They were originally bought for crackers but since we hadn't used them, I decided maybe it could be part of dinner.

After checking various recipe sites looking for a way to use the goat cheese in this dinner, I found a sauce that sounded pretty good and it was easy too. I love it when a plan comes together. I now had my dinner planned.

Ingredients:

Chicken breasts, split lengthwise
vegetables (yellow squash, zucchini, red and yellow bell peppers, mushrooms if you don't forget them like I did)

Marinate the chicken and vegetables separately in olive oil, lemon juice and garlic.
Grill and slice them into small pieces.

Boil pasta. We used bowties because they are bite sized just like the vegetables and chicken. Cook until al dente and drain.

For the sauce:
1 cup chicken broth brought up to a boil. Crumble in 2-3 oz of goat cheese. I used a four pepper goat cheese for extra flavor. Stir until melted and smooth.

To save on dishes, mix everything in the pasta pot. Add sauce to the noodles, then stir in the vegetables and chicken. Once you dish it out, add fresh basil. This was the first use of the basil from my herb garden this spring.

This is a great one dish meal. You could make garlic bread to go with it like I did. Only remember it if you do. I had checked it early and it was almost done but it was going to take a bit for the rest of the dinner to go together. I cut the oven off and just left the bread in to finish cooking. We were clearing our plates when I remembered the bread.

Now I have garlic croutons for salads.