Risotto with Chicken & Asparagus

Awhile back, I was looking for some great "put-together-and-freeze" meals---much like they make at Let's Dish.  My idea was to have a bunch of mommy friends over and we'd all put together meals for our families.  I ended up finding this blog that is written by a mom with the same ideas as myself.  I ended up printing a few recipes from her site but this is the first that I've tried.  I decided to post this to my blog, too, because I did this a little differently---I didn't freeze it ahead of time.  I just made it fresh.  Okay, here's the recipe that I used: 

(If you want the freezer version, please check out the other blog.)

3 cups cooked chicken breast, cubed
1 cup instant rice (uncooked)
3 T. chicken base (found by the broths in your local store)
2 tsp. minced garlic
1/4 black pepper
2 tsp. olive oil
1 cup fresh asparagus, chopped into 1/2 inch pieces
1 cup red bell pepper, chopped
1/2 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
1 cup bacon, cooked and crumbled
4 ounces cream cheese


Combine chicken, rice, chicken base, garlic, pepper and olive oil in large skillet.  Add two cups of water to the skillet, cook on low-to-medium heat for about 20 minutes, or until the rice is cooked.  Stir cream cheese, asparagus, red bell pepper and Parmesan into the rice mixture.  Cook for 5 minutes, or until the cream cheese is melted and the vegetables are crisp tender.  Sprinkle with bacon before serving.

Trying to stick with my resolution of using things I already had in my cupboard, I used frozen asparagus that I already had and the only things I had to buy were red pepper and chicken base (which I have never used before).  I feel like I used a million pans while making this dish, just because I had to cook the bacon beforehand (I was out of the fully-cooked kind that I normally like to use for things like this) and I cooked the chicken in the crock pot during the day to save time.  When everything was cooking, it smelled SO AMAZING.  I couldn't resist taking a little taste test before I put the veggies in the skillet and everything tasted so good.  HOWEVER, the end product was very salty to me.  I have never had a Let's Dish meal before, so I'm not sure if they lean on the salty side of the pallet but this specific dish was quite salty.  So, I suggest cutting the chicken base and the Parmesan by a third, therefore using only 2 T. of chicken base and 1/2 cup of Parmesan.  I hope this makes it less salty so the flavor of the dish stands out  more.  All in all, I'd like to make this again because it has everything in it that I love.  Enjoy!!