Garden Inspired Chicken Pasta Salad

After a fun but exhausting weekend out with my friends, I had a dire urge to refuel my body with some veggies and antioxidants.  Also not wanting to go to the grocery store, I just raided my fridge to make dinner with what I had.  What happened was a veggie focused pasta salad.  I added chicken to mine, but it doesn't need it. The veggies are the focus here. My laziness turned out to be a pretty quick and enjoyable summer dinner.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups of Penne Pasta (I prefer the whole wheat or multigrain)
• 1 can of diced tomatoes
• 1/2 a can of Cannelli beans, drained and rinsed (If you are choosing to make this vegetarian style, you may want the whole can)
• 1 chicken breast, cubed
• 2 carrots, sliced
• 4 Mini Bell peppers, diced, chopped however you like them.
• 2 stalks of Kale, stems removed and leaves chopped
• 1/2 cup of Broccoli florets
• 1 cucumber, diced
• 3-4 basil leaves chopped
• 1/4 cup cliantro chopped (add more or less depending on how much you like it)
• 1 tb Olive Oil
• 1-2 tbs of balsamic vinegar
• 1/4 cup of Feta cheese crumbled
• Salt and pepper to taste

Steps:

1. Boil the water for your noodles.  Rocket science right? While waiting for the water to boil, get started on chopping your veggies and herbs.  Most of the veggies are probably familiar, but if you have never worked with Kale before, you will want to rinse it very well and remove the stems before chopping the leaves. Since kale is a little bitter and has rougher texture, I like to chop it into smaller pieces when I eat it raw.

2. Get your noodles started.  You will also want to start cooking your chicken at this point. You may want to cube the chicken before you cook it. Cutting raw chicken freaks me out so I usually cook the breast whole for a bit than cut it up.   I also make sure to salt and pepper the chicken before cooking it as I've watched hundreds of episodes of Restaurant Impossible where Chef Robert Irvine is constantly yelling at people who don't do that.

3. Once your noodles are done, drain the pasta and return to the pot or another bowl where you can combine all the ingredients.  Mix the herbs, raw veggies, diced tomato, Canelli beans, cooked chicken, olive oil, balsamic vinaigrette, and feta together.

Like most pasta salads, if it has some time to set together, the better the flavors will melt together. I also thought this went very well with the glass of Pinot Grigio I was already enjoying : )