I had this brainstorm at like midnight one night. Because that’s when you have your best recipe ideas…at midnight when the fridge starts calling your name. For the record, I didn’t get up and make this in the middle of the night, but I did grab my phone and add it to my notes for “recipe ideas.” Here’s how my thought process went: ‘What if two of my favorite foods, pasta & nachos, got married and had a baby? What would that be like???!!’ The answer is: AMAZING! I hopped on Pinterest to see if this already exists. Nope! Not that I could find. This is a one-of-a-kind original, people, and it’s everything I imagined. ~Erin
- 12 ounces rotini pasta
- 2 (10 oz. each) cans Mild Ro-tel tomatoes & green chilis, drained
- 1 (10 oz.) can Campbell’s Healthy Request cheddar soup, undiluted
- 1 c. Tostitos Salsa Con Queso (found I the chip isle)
- ¼ c. whole milk
- 1 ½ tsp. seasoned salt (I used Lawry’s)
- 1 c. 2% shredded Mexican cheese
- 2 – 4 T. chopped pickled jalapenos
- Boneless, skinless chicken breasts (one per person)
- 1 tsp. of low sodium taco seasoning per chicken breast
- Nonstick cooking spray
Instructions:
- Cook pasta, in salted water, according to instructions, until al dente.
- Meanwhile, coat each side of the chicken breasts with ½ tsp. of taco seasoning (1 tsp. per breast) and grill (or cook in a nonstick skillet with cooking spray) until cooked through; set aside.
- Drain pasta and immediately add Ro-tel, canned cheddar soup, Tostitos Salsa Con Queso, milk, seasoned salt, and shredded Mexican cheese; stir over low heat until melted and well combined.
- Stir in jalapenos to taste. (I used 4 T. and it was pretty spicy – if you are sensitive to heat, leave them out completely.)
- Plate your desired serving size of nacho mac & cheese; slice one chicken breast per person and serve on top of the mac & cheese!
WW Freestyle Info.: This mac & cheese recipe makes 12 servings of 5 ounces (about ¾ cup) each. One serving is 6 points. Two servings (about 1 ½ cups) comes to 11 points.
Ingredients
Ingredients
- ~ 12 ounces rotini pasta
- ~ 2 (10 oz. each) cans Mild Ro-tel tomatoes & green chilis, drained
- ~ 1 (10 oz.) can Campbell’s Healthy Request cheddar soup, undiluted
- ~ 1 c. Tostitos Salsa Con Queso (found I the chip isle)
- ~ ¼ c. whole milk
- ~ 1 ½ tsp. seasoned salt (I used Lawry’s)
- ~ 1 c. 2% shredded Mexican cheese
- ~ 2 - 4 T. chopped pickled jalapenos
- ~ Boneless, skinless chicken breasts (one per person)
- ~ 1 tsp. of low sodium taco seasoning per chicken breast
- Nonstick cooking spray
Instructions
- Cook pasta, in salted water, according to instructions, until al dente.
- Meanwhile, coat each side of the chicken breasts with ½ tsp. of taco seasoning (1 tsp. per breast) and grill (or cook in a nonstick skillet with cooking spray) until cooked through; set aside.
- Drain pasta and immediately add Ro-tel, canned cheddar soup, Tostitos Salsa Con Queso, milk, seasoned salt, and shredded Mexican cheese; stir over low heat until melted and well combined.
- Stir in jalapenos to taste. (I used 4 T. and it was pretty spicy – if you are sensitive to heat, leave them out completely.)
- Plate your desired serving size of nacho mac & cheese; slice one chicken breast per person and serve on top of the mac & cheese!
Notes
Weight Watchers info.:
This mac & cheese recipe makes 12 servings of 5 ounces (about ¾ cup) each. Each serving is 6 SmartPoints.
2 servings (about 1 ½ cups) comes to 11 SmartPoints. (Crazy Weight Watchers recipe builder math 🙂
One chicken breast, including the 1 tsp. taco seasoning, is zero SmartPoints on Freestyle.
to lower points would these ingredients work using 1% milk or even fat free, whole wheat pasta,low fat mexican cheese. if i just have regular salsa would that be ok..TIA
Sarah, You can definitely use 1% milk to lower the points. It just might not taste quite as rich. I don’t think changing the pasta would lower the points but you can enter it in the WW recipe builder to see. The recipe already calls for low fat Mexican cheese. Hope that helps. Enjoy!
thanks, I did change the rotini to whole wheat in the WW recipe builder and it brought the points to 3. look forward to making
Thanks for letting us know, Sarah! Hope you enjoy it! ~Erin
delicious work of art!