A stand-over-the-stove-for-your-third-portion kind of meal

Really.

Healthy? Nope.

But it is sort of low-carb friendly; so for me, right now - it is "healthy"! YAAY!

I first made this right after mother's day. I'd bought three packages of cream cheese with intentions of making a low(er) carb cheesecake but things just didn't pan out (har har) but literally - Stephen, nor the neighbors, had a springform pan and I couldn't bring myself to use the storebought graham crust (even though I did buy it - I'm not proud of at-some-point considering using it).

So I was left with lots of cream cheese and some chicken breast I'd bought at the same time as the cheese. I cannot specifically remember how I ended up on the Kraft Foods website, but there I was, checking out a recipe that I actually had plennnnty of ingredients with which to make the dish!

Here's a link to original recipe, although I made minor changes to mine: Creamy Lemon-Chicken Pasta.

And here is what I did to make it low-carb diet friendly, sort of.

2 cups of Dreamfield rotini pasta, uncooked
1 tbsp oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1-1/2 lb boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into strips (or smaller)
6 oz Philadelphia cream cheese, softened
1 packet of Swanson Flavor Boost concentrated broth (chchchcheck it out)
Some squirts of lemon
A few shakes of parsley (I've never found it to lend much flavor, anyways)
1 cup shredded parmesan cheese
3/4 of a bag of steamfresh peas

1. Toss the bag of frozen peas in the microwave to get them started while you do the important stuff.
2. Cook pasta in large saucepan as directed on package. For Dreamfields, it's 10 minutes.
3. Meanwhile, heat oil in large skillet on medium-high heat. Add onions and garlic; cook 1 min. Add half the chicken; cook 2 min. or until lightly browned, stirring frequently. Remove from skillet; cover to keep warm. Repeat with remaining chicken; return all chicken to skillet.  (**Editor's note: my skillet was big enough to cook two breasts that'd been cut into strips)
4. Drain pasta, reserving 1/2 cup of the cooking water. Mix reserved water with cream cheese and flavor boost chicken packet until well blended. Add to chicken and mix well. Cover; cook on low heat 5 min. or until chicken is done. Stir in pasta, lemon juice and parsley; cook; uncovered, 1 min. or until heated through, stirring frequently. Stir in cheese and peas.
5. Stand over stove and eat, no point in dirtying a bowl and getting up and down for seconds and thirds - waste of energy. Just stand there and try not to eat it all because you're going to want this goodness again reeeealllll soon.

I loved this so much I made it again last night. I mean, I had alll that cream cheese - what else was I going to do with it since my craving for cheesecake disappeared?

Rhetorical question. I just gave you the answer.