Wednesday, May 11, 2011

recipe box Wednesday

We rather skipped spring and slid straight into summer yesterday, it was still 86 degrees at 10 pm last night, with storms whipping through the area.  Hard to imagine it was snowing last Monday.  Ahhhh, Minnesota weather.  At least we didn't get the egg and baseball size hail, I was worried we would and had moved all of my portable plants to a safe location.  Cursing myself for planting so early...

I have been looking for new warm weather recipes to try, this was last night's experiment and I think it may be slid into the summer rotation.

It's from the "Cooking with Trader Joe's Cookbook".  If you don't have a Trader Joes to shop at, I am sure you can find something close to the ingredients in other brands.

Kinda Greek Pasta Salad

1 lb. pasta (I used Barilla Plus Penne Pasta-the recipe called for Whole Wheat Pasta but Mike and Charlie are not big fans)
1 grilled chicken breast - diced (I diced up a fresh one and sauteed it with Greek herbs)
1 (8.5 oz) jar julienned sundried tomatoes in oil (don't drain, it will be part of the dressing)
1 (3.8 oz) can sliced black olives (I did use them from Trader Joes, but next time I would used sliced kalamatas instead to really keep with the Greek theme)
1 (6 oz) container crumbled Feta with Mediterranean herbs
4 Persian cucumbers (or one large regular cucumber) diced (2 cups)
1 Tbsp. balsamic vinegar (I used 2-thought it needed a little more oomph)

Cook the pasta, drain and cool.  Add the rest of the ingredients and toss and serve. 

Now that is has been in the fridge overnight, I will probably toss some more balsamic with it before I have it for lunch today.

Mike and Charlie ate big bowls full, but maybe they were just hungry since we ate so late.  Next time I would double the amount of chicken, and maybe toss in some fresh oregano now that my herb garden is growing.  It would add a nice little fresh touch.

Here is a shot of the sky, it was eerie out last night:


Do you have a favorite summer recipe that you would like to share?

1 comment:

  1. The recipe sounds delish and I love the photo of the sky! Wow.

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for stopping by!

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