Creamy Goat Cheese Penne

I’d like to give myself a shameless pat on the back.  Not only have I been regularly making two meals every Sunday (one for myself, one for the fiancé) to eat throughout the week – but last week I made an additional meal to eat throughout the week for lunch (go me!)!

I found this yummy and filling goat cheese penne recipe courtesy of Pinterest.com – the phenomenon that has brought ‘vision boards’ to a whole new level.  At first glance I almost thought “no way is that healthy”, because it looked a little too decadent, but upon closer investigation, I found this super easy recipe is healthy AND delicious.  Love it when that happens.

Ingredients:

Penne (or your favorite pasta)

Chicken

Fresh arugula

Cherry tomatoes

Pine nuts

Goat cheese

While boiling the water for the penne, I oil up my skillet and start roasting my pine nuts (yum, LOVE pine nuts!) and on my grill pan, I start grilling my chicken.

Once the penne is cooked el dente, and the pine nuts are a warm toasty brown, I toss in my warm strained pasta with arugula, sliced tomatoes and pine nuts so that the arugula slightly wilts from the heat.

Add bite-sized chicken pieces to further wilt the arugula and toss well to combine all of the nutty, fresh flavors 

Lastly, break up the creamy gooiness of your fresh white goat cheese and stir into the mixture until everything is coated in white – making you think you have a rich guilty alfredo sauce, but it’s just yummy goat cheese!

Salt and pepper to taste – enjoy!