Lemon chicken artichoke pasta

This is another one of my favorite recipes because it quite literally combines a lot of my favorite things into one amazingly easy dish - lemon, chicken, zucchini, artichokes and pasta. This recipe makes A LOT because we'll have it for lunches and/or our leftover dinner night.

1 box of spaghetti noodles
1 lemon
4-5 chicken breasts
5 cups chicken/turkey/vegetable/whatever type of broth you prefer
1 large zucchini (or 2 medium), julienned (*prep tip for this below if you don't have a Julienne peeler)
6 cloves of garlic
1 (14.5 oz) can of marinated artichoke hearts (yummmm!)
1/4 cup live oil + some for cooking chicken
2.5 tsp Lemon Pepper seasoning + more for chicken
Salt + Garlic Powder for chicken
Parmesan cheese, if desired

DIRECTIONS
1. Season chicken breasts with salt, lemon pepper and garlic powder. Cook on stovetop in a little olive oil until cooked through. Set aside.

2. While chicken cooks, break pasta in half and add to stock pot or dutch oven with 5 cups broth and juice from 1 lemon. Cook pasta until tender; it will absorb most of the cooking liquid.

3. Drain artichokes in colander. Add artichokes, 1/4 cup olive oil, 2.5 tsp lemon pepper rub and 6 garlic cloves to food processor and pulse until artichokes are coarsely chopped, scraping down sides of bowl as necessary to make sure everything gets chopped.

4. Prepare zucchini. Cut off ends of zucchini. Using Julienne Peeler, cut zucchini into long strips (avoiding seeds) to measure 2 cups, cut strips in half crosswise to make shorter strips. *If you don't have a julienne peeler use a regular vegetable peeler to peel the sides down to the seeds then cut these lengthwise into skinny strips similar to the size of your pasta; cut crosswise to make them shorter.

5. Once pasta is cooked, add artichoke mixture, zucchini and diced chicken. Toss to coat; let stand 5 minutes. Serve, top with Parmesan cheese, if desired.

Serve with a side salad - I just did a simple spinach and balsamic dressing this time, 

**I've done this with spinach incorporated into the pasta too, just add spinach in the last 3 minutes or so of the pasta cooking so the spinach wilts down. Easy way to incorporate veggies without them looking like veggies!

3 meals in one - Chicken Caesar Spinach Pasta!

Ever had those days where you just can't decide what you want for dinner because so many things sound good? This recipe was the result of one of those nights - and I wasn't even pregnant at the time! I was wanting lemon pepper chicken, caesar salad and pasta - so....I combined it all into one meal! 

Chicken Caesar Pasta with Spinach.

- Cook chicken however you'd like, I sautéd it in olive oil and seasoned it with lemon pepper. Chop up and set aside.
- Cook pasta al dente. Drain and set aside with a tiny bit of oil so it doesn't stick together.
- Sauté 3 cups spinach in light olive oil
- Combine all ingredients and add Caesar dressing* and cook until warmed through. Yum!

* will add Caesar dressing recipe soon - once I can find it in all of my piles of recipes!