Ahhh yes salads. I enjoy a good salad. All it takes is a few ingredients and you can have a fantastic meal. Plus salad can be so versatile, like this green salad that has pasta!

Traditional pasta salad is misleading for the green salad lovers of the world because pasta salad is all carbs. Don’t get me wrong, I love my carbs but sometimes a girl needs some healthy food!

So put the greens in the pasta salad! Or put the pasta in the green salad, whatever. Either way you get vegetables, meat and carb all in one! My husband even thought it was good.

Except my toddler didn’t think so. He claimed it was “spicy.” I have no idea what he meant by that so he ate croutons, chicken and Turkey bacon for supper. Kids are weird sometimes.

Anyways we will be having it again because both Mama and Daddy enjoyed it and we do the meal planning. Who knows, maybe E will like it next time.

Another reason I like this meal is that it’s so simple to put together. It can be done ahead of time, so your kids’ pre-dinner meltdowns can happen without you trying to cook.

You’re welcome.

Also, it makes a great take-along meal for potlucks, BBQ or family gatherings. So now you can make friends with salad!

Easy, tasty and fast, what more could you want in a meal? Salad season is right around the corner so give this one a try!

Chicken Ceasar Pasta Salad

Serves 6

Original recipe from Just A Taste.

Ingredients

Dressing

• 1 tsp Dijon mustard
• 2 TBSP lemon juice
• 2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
• 1/2 cup mayonnaise
• 1/4 cup plain Greek yogurt
• 1/3 cup grated Parmesan

Salad

• 8 oz uncooked pasta penne or rigatoni
• 2 heads of romaine lettuce
• Half of a cucumber
• Precooked, shredded chicken rotisserie or chicken breast
• Bacon (optional)
• Croutons (optional)
• Parmesan for serving

Directions

1. Cook pasta according to package directions. Drain and set aside.
2. Mix together your dressing ingredients and set aside.
3. Cut up lettuce and cucumber (and/or anything else you want in your salad).
4. Mix pasta, vegetables and chicken with dressing. Add additional toppings as desired.
5. Enjoy!

Notes:

• You can eat this warm or cold. We prefer it cold, so if not making ahead of time, I run the pasta under cold water for a few minutes to cool it down.
• This is still good as a leftover but be sure to add croutons to individual servings rather than the entire salad to keep them from getting soggy!

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