Chicken Alfredo Lasagna Rolls

You know what I love? When a recipe born of sheer necessity comes together and turns out to be something absolutely amazing. That's what happened with this one, which started with me rediscovering two jars of Alfredo sauce on my lazy Susan that were dated the end of this month. I kept forgetting they were there since I usually just make my own, but they kept staring at me, demanding I do something with them.

And then I thought... Lasagna rolls! But not the ones I usually make with tomato sauce. I should do chicken and spinach and Alfredo sauce, and they're going to be fabulous. Turns out I was right, and I also actually documented what I was doing as I did it. Wins all the way around!

This is one of the few applications in which I don't find whole wheat pasta awful, so I went with that instead of trying to find Dreamfield's lasagna noodles, a feat worthy of headline news around here if you can accomplish it.

Spinach, chicken (I used canned because I'm lazy, but feel free to cook and shred your own if you'd rather), basil, oregano, garlic powder, and two kinds of shredded cheese. Because...cheese. The more cheese the merrier!

Even though it was baby spinach, I still chopped it before sauteeing it so it would be easier to work with. There's no method here, just smaller pieces. I will point out, though, that if you're using a wicked sharp knife (my ceramic knife is my favourite) you should pay closer attention than I did or you too will end up making the rest of your dinner whilst wearing several band-aids.

I used maybe a teaspoon of extra-virgin olive oil in the pan, just enough so the spinach didn't stick as it started to wilt. It took probably 3-4 minutes to get it to the right consistency. Of course, you can skip this part and just buy the frozen chopped spinach if you'd rather...just thaw it and squeeze out the water. But I like fresh when I can get it.

I put the chicken in a bowl and separated the larger chunks with a fork until it was all shredded, then mixed the seasonings into it. I was going to stir in some of the Alfredo sauce, and then I decided to go another direction with it.

I didn't take a picture of the noodles boiling, because I figured you'd get it. Boil them in salted water for however long the package says to do it (mine said 10 minutes), then drain, rinse with cool water, and drain again. I wanted 12 noodles but I cooked the whole box because I have horrible luck with lasagna noodles. The remaining ones went into the freezer to be used later for something else (probably chopped).

Anyway, I laid out six noodles at a time on my plastic cutting sheet, and spooned an amount of Alfredo sauce down each one that looked good. The next several steps have no measuring, I just did it by sight and ended up using all the ingredients.

A little chicken mixture on top of the sauce on each one...

And then I remembered I was going to take a picture of the spinach before I put cheese on them...which I missed with BOTH batches of six noodles. Whatever... you can see it under there, right? I used the Italian blend cheese for this part, leaving the mozzarella for the top.

Yup! Second batch of six, also with the picture taken after I already added the cheese. Someday I hope to get the picture-taking in sync with the recipe-making, but that day was not today.

I sprayed my 9x13 glass baking dish with nonstick cooking spray, then spread some Alfredo sauce in the bottom. I have no idea how much... maybe 1/3 cup? Something like that. Enough to mostly cover the bottom so the rolls wouldn't stick.

As I completed each roll, it went into the pan seam side down, and 12 was almost exactly perfect for the pan.

I spread what remained of the Italian blend cheese (probably 1/2 cup or so) over top of the rolls, then spooned the rest of the Alfredo sauce over it. I ended up using not quite one whole jar of sauce making the rolls, so there's a little more than a whole jar in this step. It's not science... whatever you've got left is how much you use.

Into the oven it went, not to cook but to make sure everything was hot and the cheese melted. I did 30 minutes, then sprinkled about 1/2 cup of mozzarella cheese on top and baked for another 5 minutes.

If you want it to brown a little, bake it a little longer. I was on a time constraint and really hungry, so I decided since the cheese had melted it had baked long enough.

My intention was to serve this with a salad, but apparently when I was buying a bag of spinach it distracted me from buying a bag salad, so instead I opened a can of green beans to serve on the side. Some crusty garlic bread would have been fabulous, but I was already pushing the carbohydrate envelope by serving pasta so I didn't make any.

Chicken and Spinach Alfredo Lasagna Rolls

Serves 6 (serving size: 2 rolls)

12 whole wheat lasagna noodles

10 ounces spinach, chopped

1 teaspoon extra-virgin olive oil

3 (5 ounce) cans chicken, drained

1 teaspoon dried oregano

1 teaspoon dried basil

1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

2 (15 ounce) jars Alfredo sauce (I used roasted garlic)

8 ounces Italian blend cheese, shredded

2 ounces Mozzarella cheese, shredded

Preheat oven to 350F; spray a 9x13-inch glass baking dish with nonstick cooking spray. Spread about 1/3 to 1/2 cup of Alfredo sauce in bottom of pan.

Boil noodles in salted water until tender (according to package directions... mine said 10 minutes). Drain, rinse with cool water, and drain again. Lay noodles out on a flat work surface (in batches if necessary).

Meanwhile, heat oil in a nonstick skillet and saute spinach until wilted, 3-4 minutes. Set aside until cool enough to touch.

In a bowl, combine chicken and seasonings, making sure to break up any large chunks of meat.

Spoon about a tablespoon of Alfredo sauce down the center of each noodle. Sprinkle chicken on top of sauce, then spinach, then Italian-blend cheese. I didn't measure how much was in each one, I just divided what I had between the 12 noodles.

Roll noodles (not tightly, but not too loosely either) around filling and place seam side down in prepared pan. Repeat until all 12 noodles are in the pan.

If there is any of the Italian-blend cheese left, sprinkle it evenly over the tops of the rolls. Then spoon all remaining Alfredo sauce over them, making sure to cover all the pasta surface.

Bake, uncovered, for 30 minutes at 350F. Sprinkle about 1/2 cup of Mozzarella cheese on top of rolls, then return to oven and bake an additional 5-10 minutes.

Serving Size: 346 g

Calories: 984

Calories from Fat: 365

Total Fat: 40.6 g

Saturated Fat: 22.8 g

Cholesterol: 138 mg

Sodium: 7303 mg

Total Carbohydrates: 92.2 g

Dietary Fiber: 5.1 g

Protein: 61.0 g

Yet another time I'm glad I didn't look up the nutrition information before we ate. Next time I'll make my own Alfredo sauce... It can't be as bad as this! The sodium is in the stratosphere, and that's just no good at all.