Chicken Pasta Salad

This is a simple way to answer the question "What's for dinner?" when your meeting ran over, you would rather play with your kids than stand at the stove, or like tonight, when. it's. too. hot. This salad is different every time I make it because I use what's on hand in the fridge, and the variations are endless. It's more of assembly than recipe, but here is what I usually put into a big serving bowl:

Cooked chicken, shredded or cut into bite-sized pieces (a rotisserie chicken from the grocery store works well too, and these days our market sells them for $5.99)

Any kind of pasta, cooked and drained--run it under cold water to cool the noodles off--my kids like the tri-color rotini but I use whatever is on hand

Now comes the fun part--look through your fridge for the half-cucumber, green beans from last night's dinner, shredded carrots, cherry tomatoes (or regular tomatoes), frozen peas, whatever you fancy, cut it into bite-size pieces and toss it in. My kids also like corn, bell peppers--make it colorful.

Most night I just dress this with salt and pepper and ranch dressing--either my own homemade or the Hidden Valley Ranch from the packet that you mix yourself with mayo and milk--it's much better than the bottled one. But depending on the ingredients and whether we have ranch dressing, I use a balsamic vinaigrette or Trader Joe's Chinese Chicken Salad Dressing.

Toss it all together--if I'm really on top of things I just do it in the morning--and serve it over salad greens (tonight I used some organic baby spinach). I usually try to make enough to have it for my husband's (or my) lunch the next day--or the kids' lunch the day after. I have found they like the leftovers better if it's not what they had for dinner the previous night.

Because I try to shop in season the composition varies a bit throughout the spring and summer--I even made it this past winter when it was 90 degrees in January here in Pasadena--if you like crunch you can add tortilla strips or those crunchy Chinese noodles, use a raspberry dressing and add raisins if you like the sweetness mixed in your salad. Unfortuately, I didn't think to post this until we had devoured the whole bowl or I would have taken a picture--still trying to get used to this whole blogging thing--next time. Finally, this is a great, filling meal for a tight budget because the majority of ingredients are what are already in your fridge, freezer, or pantry taking up real estate before they go bad. Use them up! I have even been known to mix different pasta shapes depending on the half-full boxes on my shelf. Enjoy!

Servings: 2 adults and 2 hungry kids with leftovers, and I cut some veggies and pasta extra small for the baby.
Cost: if you have to buy the chicken, less than $1.00 per serving; otherwise, free, owing to the fact you already have paid for the pasta on your shelf and used the veggies for some other purpose.

3 meals + 2 snacks x 5 people = 175 servings per week

This is how much food I prepare in a week for my family. Sometimes it varies; my older 2 kids get hot lunch at preschool once a week, my 8-month old nurses at random intervals, I will let my husband know in no uncertain terms that "we are ordering in tonight!", but for the most part I plan, shop for and prepare 3 meals and 2 snacks for 5 people 7 days a week. I am starting this blog more to keep myself organized and find a happy medium between too many repeated dinners and forgetting about something that my family really enjoyed and I never made again. I tend to plan meals in waves, then a week or 2 will go by where I have flown by the seat of my pants and been completely stressed out by the seemingly innocent question "Mom, what are we having for dinner?" asked by my 5 year old during breakfast. Or when I pick him up from school. Or the night before as we are eating dinner.

So I am jumping into the world of blogging in the hopes I will be inspired to keep cooking well for my growing family, maybe dig into the enormous cache of food magazine tear-out sheets of recipes and find some new favorites, and share some of my family's never-miss meals as I feed and nourish myself, my husband, and three little ones under 6.

And I had exactly 8 minutes of nap overlap between the little miss going to sleep and tiny one waking up so I was able to set this up and finally find a url that wasn't taken (Table for 5 and Feeding 5 are out there somewhere apparently), instead of obsessing about emptying the dishwasher or checking my work email to see if opposing counsel really did dismiss my clients like he was supposed to before the next court appearance. We'll see if I ever have time to post again.