My daughter was having one of her play dates again and two of her friends were coming over and staying for dinner. My daughter loves having her friends over for dinner- “it is so much fun”, she always says. I usually remind her that I have to make something healthy and usually from scratch so it is quite a lot of work me me- but honestly, I enjoy it too. Especially because I get to try out different kid-friendly dishes and see their reactions.

For this particular dinner I needed to make something in advance since I was not going to be home. Our sitter would be giving them their meal. I had two chicken breast on the bone which I decided to roast with the skin on. I shredded the meat once it was nice and juicy after taking the skin off. I bought bowtie pasta to make things a little interesting. I bought baby spinach since I needed the meal to be made in one pot and it also had to be well balanced.

I cooked the pasta and mixed the shredded chicken and baby spinach in the sauce pan. I added some homemade tomato sauce to give the pasta additional yummy flavor. I transferred the pasta into an oven proof dish and mixed in and topped with some shredded mozzarella cheese.

It was simple and quick. Once I got home I was curious to know their reactions. I was told they were all skeptical at first since everything was mixed in together but once they tried it- they liked it. My daughter who is more used to eating such meals thought it was delicious.

Next time you have a dinner play date for your kids- try the bowtie pasta with spinach and chicken.

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