concerning cheesy chicken spaghetti

So I sure didn't want to make this for the second night running but I also really wanted to give the chicken/cheese/pasta world a second chance. Especially since I mixed up the cheese last time.

Now that I had the whole routine of pre-cooking pasta and chicken down from the last time I was much better prepared and timed everything pretty well. It was, however, my very first time working with Velveeta and I was a little skeptical. I had purchased it on sale but even so it was four dollars to buy a small block, which seemed pricey to me. I suppose I thought it would taste like cheese slices, but actually it tasted more like those little sections of cheese whiz-like product that come with bread sticks in children's lunches. It was odd. And not cheese. I also needed to pick up more chicken for this time around. Unfortunately I mixed up the slow-cooker chickenetti version with the stove top cheesy chicken spaghetti version and forgot to pick up cream of chicken soup so had to make do with cream of mushroom. I did, however, break open a package of spaghetti noodles instead of using the vermicelli like yesterday.

Now for all of you Velveeta virgins out there I have a little hint. Velveeta is supposed to melt easily in the microwave, making it ideal for sauces. It does melt, but not for a while. And if you miss it, Velveeta boils as well, all over the inside of your microwave and down the sides of the bowl and just for a topper, it also forms a lovely sort of skin once it's boiled. Mmmm, processed cheese skin.

Anyway I made it up, and this version didn't require chopped celery, pepper or onion. It did ask for a can of mushrooms, which I found odd, but I was game. This lack of chopping made it faster to combine ingredients since all you had to do was open a bunch of cans and plop them all into a bowl, add your chunk of pretend dairy and heat. I was a bit wary of the lack of cooking required for the sauce. You were just supposed to add the soup and milk and canned mushrooms without cooking them, which I found weird. I actually ended up cooking them a bit before I added them just because I felt strange about it.

This version made a lot more than yesterday's version did. I could actually see this serving 10 people and we had tonnes of leftovers.

Okay, pluses and minues. On the good side there was absolutely a sauce this time. It coated the noodles and chicken very well. It was also really easy to assemble. I could see why this recipe would be good for a crowd. Essentially you could feed 10 people for under $10, including a salad. And it was filling, no doubt about it. On the negative side it tasted very strongly of cream of mushroom soup, and even though I had used a full package of velveeta you couldn't taste cheese at all. The colour from the cheese had also left at some point, I suppose it was diluted with the milk or something, so the sauce was not yellow but white. White chicken, white pasta, white sauce and pale little mushroom bits. It didn't look very healthy, which it probably wasn't as each 1/4 inch cube of cheese had a whopping 5 grams of fat and 20% of your DRI of Sodium. Horrible stuff, that fake cheese. David and I discussed it and agreed that yesterday's was much tastier, but today's had a better consistency.

I know this is crazy, but I think I might try it one more time. I need a good heavy cheese sauce that firmly coats the noodles without adding extra sodium and fat. I need to use the spaghetti noodles, not vermicelli, because they held up much better. It was fine with one cup of chicken instead of two but vegetables must be included. I'm not sure I can handle it three days in a row, but who knows.

Four recipes left to go. I've got to do these frankfurter kabobs so that'll be tomorrow. Boy I'm looking forward to the end of this experiment!