Chicken and Roasted Artichoke Lasagna

He is risen, Alleluia!!!!

:)  Oh happy day......

Okay, some Easter cuties to start with:

The Jamison boys, Elijah, Finn and Xavier.....

And then below you have Logan, MacKenzie and hey! There's Elijah again!

Here's a new twist on an old favorite, and I made this for our Easter buffet:  It was a THUMB'S UP, but we decided we could do it even better.... So I'm giving you the "better" recipe, slightly tweaked, using less pasta than I used (made the layers too dry) and more cream cheese than the recipe I adapted.

What you end up with is an amazingly delicious "hot dish" casserole/lasagna, worthy of taking and serving anywhere!

Ingredients:
3 chicken breasts, cooked and shredded or diced
2 large cans artichoke hearts or one large jar from Sam's/B.J.'s/Costco
3 cups Parmesan cheese
4 8 oz. packages cream cheese
3 cups mozzarella cheese
3 cups milk
2 teaspoons garlic powder or granulated garlic
3 Tablespoons parsley
12 ounces of lasagna noodles, cooked al dente

Cut artichoke hearts into bite-sized pieces, sprinkle with 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese and roast in 350° oven until cheese melts and turns golden, about 15 minutes.

Mix Cream cheese, milk, garlic and parsley together with mixer until well blended. Cover bottom of 13"x9" pan with thin layer of sauce.

I cut up the cream cheese and warmed it in the microwave first....

Then I added this stuff:

Mix chicken, roasted artichokes, 1 cup Parmesan cheese 2 cups mozzarella cheese together.

Spoon or pour enough of the cheesey milky sauce over the bottom of the pan.
Lay 3 lasagna noodles side by side in the sauce.

Spread one-third of chicken mix over lasagna noodles. Ladle some sauce over. Sprinkle with additional Parmesan. Repeat, ending with final layer of lasagna noodles. Pour remaining sauce over top.

Then more noodles:

Then more chicken/cheese/artichoke mix:

This is where I goofed, I should have just inundated this baby with the cheesy sauce but I thought NO!!! ADD MORE MOZZARELLA!!!!

Which ended up being too rubbery at serving time and the mozzarella kind of negated all the lovely cheese sauce I poured over the top because it MERGED....

So I won't add that thick mozzarella again. I promise.

(Can be refrigerated at this time until ready to bake, great do-ahead recipe!)

Bake at 350° for about an hour to an hour and fifteen minutes. Mine was thicker so it took longer, but also those extra 4 oz. of cooked lasagna noodles affected the cheesiness....

AND:

I had half a bag of spinach in the fridge, so I pulled off the stems, steamed them in a ladle of chicken broth from cooking the chicken breasts, and then "squeezed" the liquid out of the spinach, and tossed it in. I really loved the spinach in there, and everyone else voted YES to spinach, so add lightly cooked spinach to this recipe and you will not be sorry.

You will be SO happy.

Like delirious, maybe.

Yes. I mean it.

I took it out of the oven and gave it a ten minute rest time (gave us time to slice the beef and ham from the oven) and it was LOVELY.....

Looked great. Tasted better.

The things I did wrong:

I added a thick layer of mozzarella to the top. That made the top less cheesey, smushy, goodnessy so don't do that. We voted the thick mozzarella down and kicked it to the curb.

You don't have to roast the artichokes. I liked doing it, it made me feel like a kitchen queen, (WHERE'S MY CROWN????)

Some Easter pics that made me smile:

Jello Jiggler Eggs with the mold Grandma was getting rid of!!! OH WHAT A GREAT FIND THAT WAS!!!! HAPPY CHILDREN ABOUNDED ON EASTER SUNDAY!

Emma (a storyteller already), Dave (a character!) and Anna.... Adorable!

And here's Mary Ruth!!!

A house full of cuties!!!! The chocolate wasn't bad, either!!!  :)