Pasta Salad? It's what's for dinner!

My mom has talent out the wazoo - but especially when it comes to making dinner!! About a week ago, she and I were out errand running and we decided that we wanted pasta salad for dinner - hot pasta salad. However....it had to be homemade - with Ranch dressing (no lard comment, please :) ) - and vegetables, LOTS of vegetables! And, maybe some chicken too. We came home and she got busy with the task at hand, and let me tell you...what she came up with was F-I-N-E! Now, I can't give away all of her secrets, but she mixed together chicken, onion, celery, bell pepper, pasta, some more vegetables, and some homemade Ranch dressing and it was to die for delicious! I'm licking my lips just thinking about it, and it's 11 o'clock at night! 

Anyway, at our house, we have what we like to call a dinner rotation. My mom, sister, and I share the cooking so that we can all have some hands-on time in the kitchen. I have Tuesdays and Fridays. However, we just switched the rotation up a bit and I came home from work this afternoon and FORGOT that I had to cook tonight! A bit perplexed and slightly annoyed at my forgetfulness, I went to Momma and tried to wrack her brain as to what I could fix in a very short time. I mean, hello?? I didn't take meat out of the freezer this morning or anything! I needed quick, simple, and filling yumminess. Amen. 
With a slight grin on her face she said "well.....there's some leftover chicken that needs to be used in the fridge. You could make pasta salad again." BINGO! 

I came inside and started prepping for my meal! Right now, I'm reviewing an online cooking school called ROUXBE (www.rouxbe.com) that's very informative. I've learned  A LOT about a lot already, and I've only been watching the classes for a few days! They've put pan heating and food prepping in a whole new light for me. The difference in outcome between having your food ready to go when the pan reaches the "proper temperature" as opposed to not is amazing! I'm side-stepping. Moving on. I decided to change the dish up a bit. I put in different vegetables, chicken, pasta, garlic oil, and instead of Ranch dressing, I used Philadelphia Cooking Creme. It's fairly new in the market, but it's amazing! I never thought I would look at cream cheese this way!! I used a Tomato and Basil & Savory Garlic flavored creme in the dish and it just melted into yumminess. (Probably cellulite too, but I DID workout for 45 minutes today, so I get a pass!)   

We had delicious salads for lunch (which I will talk about at a later date!), so I skipped out on making one and opted for lightly sauteed fresh spinach and slices of cucumber and tomato for sides. Honestly, this meal was so easy to make it should be illegal. But I'm glad it isn't. Because I would probably still be working on supper. Okay, that's not true, but you get the point! 

Here's a picture of our delicious main course this evening. 

By the way, that sautee pan is the bomb-dot-com. It brings the saying "One dish meal" to a whole new level! Just sayin'. :) 

Happy eating,

~HB~