One night when trying to come up with an idea for dinner I was stumped. It had been a long day and I was not up for cooking anything. I figured I would just make some pasta and sauce and call it a night. But I knew that as much as I like that, I would still be hungry and not fully sated. So I looked at what I could do with it and saw the answer in the freezer.  As for where the name came from, that is all Ethan.  One of his nicknames for our dog Phoebe is Kooka.  For some reason, when I made this, the name Pasta Chick’n Kooka just sort of fit.

This is really a jazzed up version of pasta with red sauce. This is a great dish for kids; they all love pasta and chick’n fingers, so why not put them together in one dish?  And when covered in tomato sauce, kids will eat broccoli.

This is also a great weeknight, one pot meal for those times when you aren’t in the mood to cook.

Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cooking Time: 15 minutes
Servings: 4

Ingredients:
½ cup sundried tomatoes (NOT PACKED IN OIL), sliced into strips
½ pound tubular pasta (ziti or rigatoni)
½ pound frozen broccoli florets
4 frozen breaded chick’n patties
2 cups tomato sauce

Directions:
1. Put tomatoes in a bowl and cover with hot water. Set aside for 10 minutes. Drain and set aside.
2. Bring a large pot of water to a boil and cook pasta according to package directions.
3. While pasta is cooking, cook the chick’n patties according to package directions. When done, cut each patty into 8 pieces.
4. During last 2 minutes of pasta cooking, add the frozen broccoli into the boiling water. The water will stop boiling for a minute, but that is fine. When it returns to a boil, test the pasta for doneness.  If it is not done yet, cook another minute or two until done.  If it is done, drain the pasta and broccoli and return them to the pot.
5. Add the sundried tomatoes, chick’n patties and tomato sauce to the pot and stir to combine all the ingredients.
6. Serve.