Creamy Chicken, Bacon and Zuccini Pasta - HEALTHY!

Last night I was trying to work out what to do for dinner. I didn't really want to cook, but I had a BBQ chicken and some bacon I had to use up. I had some fettucini I and a zuccini on hand and decided to whip up a pasta dish. I began to get out some tomato puree but as I was cooking the bacon I thought, "I really don't feel like a tomato pasta tonight" but I didn't want to use pure cream because I am trying to cut down on that and I also couldn't be bother opening a can of evaporated milk(lazy I know!).So what to do? I opened the fridge door and there before me was my answer, cream cheese spread!  I also happened to have the Weight Watchers one because it was on special, but you can use the original Kraft Philly kind as well. So in it went with some water and a little chicken stock powder and voila!  A super tasty, quick meal that is definately low in fat and healthy and of course making use of  your food storage and pantry ingredients.

Ingredients

1 packet fresh/dried fettucini ( I used San Remo)

6 pieces of short cut bacon cut into strips

1 tsp garlic minced or clove of fresh

1 zuccini peeled into ribbons

2-4 tblsp cream cheese

1 cup chopped BBQ chicken

4 tbspn water or water from cooked pasta

1/2 tspn chicken powder stock

1-2 tspn dried/fresh basil

salt and pepper

Method

1. Cook fettucuini according to instructions on pack and set aside when al dente.

2. Heat pan and add at least a tablespoon of olive oil and add bacon and cook through until brown.

3. Add zuccini ribbons(you can achieve this by using a mandolin slicer or a potato peeler) and cook through for a couple of minutes.

4. Add garlic and keep an eye on it, if pan is too hot it will burn and go bitter.

5. Add chicken and stir through to flavour the meat.

6.Add cooked pasta and then the cream cheese.

7. Mix stock into water and add to pan and mix through. Add basil and season with a little salt and lots of black cracked pepper.

8. Serve with some grated cheese of choice.

This dish is so versatile because you don't have to limit yourself to these ingredients. You can make it vegetarian or just have bacon with mushroom or some red onion. You could add some dried chilli or ground chilli at step 7 if you like a bit of heat.  It is rather inexpenisve meal and you can use any type of pasta as well. Using the BBQ chicken saves a bit of time too, but you could poach some chicken and use that liquid as well to moisten the dish.