Baked Penne with Chicken, Broccoli and Sun-Dried Tomatoes

I spent most of my day with my Mom working on an Easter Craft project.  I had found this great project in Woman's Day magazine for a Easter Egg tree for us to do, so we set off to Hobby Lobby for supplies and set to work.  We found out about 15 minutes in that our plastic eggs, which the magazine instructed us cover with a pretty patterned paper napkin coated with mod podge, was not going to look anything like the picture they showed.  I don't know if it is just that we had the wrong kind of mod podge or what our problem was but they looked a lot like crap and not like pretty Easter Eggs they were supposed to turn out as.  We decided to scrap that idea and instead we hot glued tiny paper flowers, that we cut out with a flower shaped paper punch, all over our eggs and then attached those to the tree.  It was a long and tedious process.  We sat at the dining room table for 5 hours cutting and gluing, chatting and laughing. When we were all finished, my back was sore and my fingertips were singed from multiple glue gun burns, but I think the end result was really playful, festive and colorful.  More importantly, I spent the day having fun with my Mom.  You can't ever beat that!

When I got home, I didn't feel much like cooking which is ok cause I had some really delicious leftovers in my fridge of a dish I made the other day, when I did feel like cooking.   I am not much of a leftover person.  I have been getting better, but I still have a tendency to forget about a dish once I've eaten it, but I am trying to make a conscious efftort not to be wasteful.  Thank goodness I do have my husband who will eat leftovers so that helps out quite a bit. That being said, I have been eating these leftovers.  I loved the dish the first night we had it and the leftovers are really good too! 

Baked Penne with Chicken, Broccoli and Sun-Dried Tomatoes - recipe adapted from Mel's Kitchen Cafe

Ingredients:
   Cruncy Topping:
     3/4 cup Panko Bread Crumbs
     2 Tbsp butter, melted
    Casserole:
     2-3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into bit size pieces
     1 bunch (about 1.5lb) broccoli, florets cut into 1 inch pieces, stalks removed
     12 oz penne pasta
     2 tbsp olive oil
     1/2 small onion, minced
     5 cloves garlic, minced
     1/4 cup flour
     1 tsp dried thyme
     2 cups chicken broth
     1 cup heavy cream
     1 tsp salt
     1/2 tsp pepper
     1 cup Italian blend shredded cheese
     8 oz jar sun dried tomatoes in oil, drained and chopped

Directions:
1.  Bring water to boil in large pot.  Add broccoli and cook for 1 minute, remove broccoli with a slotted spoon and allow to cool.  Meanwhile, bring water back up to a boil and add pasta.  Cook until al dente, it should still have a little bite to it.  Drain pasta and toss with 1 tbsp of olive oil and set aside.
2.   Using the same pot, dry it, add 1 tbsp olive oil and allow to heat on medium setting.  Add onion and cook until softened and begining to brown.  Add garlic and thyme, cook for about 30 seconds until fragrant.  Add flour, salt and pepper, cook for about a minute, stirring constantly, until golden color.  Slowly add chicken broth and heavy cream, whisking constantly to avoid lumps.  Allow to simmer.  Add chicken and cook for 6-7 minutes until cooked through.  Add sun-dried tomatoes and cheese, stir.  Add pasta and broccoli, stir until combined. 
3.  Pour pasta mixture into a greased 13x9 inch baking dish.  Sprinkle on bread crumb mixture.  Bake at 400F on the middle rack for 15 minutes, until topping is golden brown.  Serve.