Tangy and Zesty Chicken Pasta Salad

Last week I was hankering for something zesty and tangy. Weird huh? I am not pregnant :-). I just wanted to put that bit of information out there. Anyways, so since I had this craving I decided to make a simple pasta salad recipe my sister shared with me. This literally is one of the easiest yet tastiest recipes and what makes it even better is it doesn’t take much time to prepare at all. If you are like me, you don’t have a ton of time everyday so quick dishes like this will be right up your ally. 

Be prepared for your tastebuds to be tantalized. 

Alls you need is: 

Tri-color Rotini pasta

Zesty Italian Dressing 

Cooked chicken breast chopped to your liking

Feta cheese crumbles 

Mini sweet peppers chopped finely 

Directions:

Bring water to a boil and toss in rotini and cook until al dente.

Cook chicken breast until done. 

While chicken is cooking, you can chop up your washed sweet peppers, removing the membranes, and set aside. 

Once chicken is finished cooking, allow to cool, and then chop into small pieces. Once noodles are done, drain and toss in a bowl. You can let the noodles cool if you want. I like to let my noodles cool a bit so I usually start cooking my noodles before I start the chicken. 

Once noodles are cooled a bit, toss in chicken, peppers, and add your zesty Italian dressing. 

Top with crumbled feta cheese. 

Enjoy!

Oh and here is the letter C my sweet baby worked on :-)

Buttered brioche buns and smoked Gouda

 The title of this blog post makes my mouth water all over again. Anyways, I hope you had a lovely weekend. I spent most of the weekend resting and trying to fight off a cold. I am determined kick this colds butt and feel 100 percent better. So, I spent most of the weekend resting, drinking orange juice, and taking meds. I did make time to cook quesadilla’s Friday but I was too tired to cook anything Saturday. Thankfully the husband stepped in and cooked a scrumptious meal for us to feast on. During my last mini grocery haul I picked up some really fresh brioche buns from Aldi. I had some ground beef in the freezer that I separated into one-pound balls and then flattened into rectangles and placed in freezer bags. I like to flatten and freeze the meat like this because we tend to like the way Wendy’s serves their burgers. Their burgers are rectangle in shape and not too thick. So when we feel like having a burger we just pull out one of the Ziploc bags, which has the right amount of meat we need to make burgers. Simple.

Had to add this pic...look at those cute little fingers...little crumb snatcher

The burgers were so delicious and juicy! We like our burgers medium to medium well. Tip for keeping your burgers juicy is to not press it with the spatula while it cooks. Pressing the burger as it cooks will press all of the juice out of it. The hubby got this really good char on them and he topped some burgers with smoked Gouda and a special garlic mayo sauce and one burger he topped with sharp cheddar. The sharp cheddar burger was for me! I love sharp cheddar. He fried up some crinkled fries. Most of the time we cut up potatoes and fry them up but he didn’t feel like cutting up potatoes & I didn’t care. I was hungry and ready to eat. J

Burgers are really a quick and simple meal that you can make as fancy as you want. You can add sautéed mushrooms or you can do a Greek style burger by adding feta, roma tomatoes, romaine lettuce, red onions, & Tazikis sauce. Burgers are so versatile and can be tailored to fit whatever your tastes buds are craving that day. Hope you feel inspired to think outside of the box and spice up your burger a bit.

Menu Details

Brioche buns are $1.99 at Aldi

Roma Tomatoes are $1.49 for a bag (lb)

Smoked Gouda is $1.99 at Aldi

Don't forget the strawberry shortcakes lovelies

Yesterday the hubby gave me a break from cooking. Just typing that last sentence made me feel so excited all over again! I love it when he cooks because his food truly tastes divine! I am not just saying that because he is my husband. His food receives rave reviews from people all of the time because it is truly that delicious. He is the one who taught me how to cook and helps me perfect recipes. So hopefully you understand why I was so excited when he said he would cook. The menu was EVERYTHING! He cooked salmon with a blend of herbs and spices, Mediterranean style basmati rice with lemon and fresh herbs, Haricot Verts, and for dessert he made strawberry shortcakes! YUM!

 

Doesn’t it look delicious! The strawberry glaze and toppings were made from scratch by simply cooking chopped up strawberries and sugar on top of the stove. I love strawberry shortcakes because they aren’t too sweet but they are a light and airy dessert that doesn’t make me feel too guilty about eating two servings. I also think they are the perfect dessert for Valentines Day.

These treats are quick, easy, and pretty. Plus, I paid under $6 for 6 servings! The ingredients cost under six bucks! Aldi has a sell on their strawberries this week; they are on sale for $1.49 per carton. I purchased two cartons. The sponge cakes were $1.44 for a pack of six and the whip cream was $1.38 at Walmart. Talk about being simple and savvy!