recipe // creamy chicken pasta salad

 Sometimes I feel like it takes so much work to come up with new dinner ideas, which makes the task that much more daunting. Luckily we live in the new age, which means we have Pinterest to help out- not sure if it's a good thing or bad. And while I do love browsing for new recipes for hours beyond hours (ok so I might not look at recipes the entire time) I find that most of the time I never have on hand what I need to fulfill the newly pinned meal of choice. And yes I could easily plan out my meals like a normal, organized person... But I don't. I then came across this recipe, I didn't have all the ingredients listed, but I had enough of the ingredients to adapt it to something I could feed my family. And we liked it so much, this is our second time eating it with in a week! Bonus Factor is it makes a lot so there is plenty of leftovers!!

Ingredients:
2 lbs of boneless, skin less chicken breast (thawed; you could use tenders or thighs; this is what I had on hand)
16 oz of cooked Penne Pasta
1 container of cherry tomatoes
About a cup of kale (stems removed and washed)
16 oz bottle of Creamy Caesar dressing

Directions:
 Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Place chicken on baking sheet and season with your favorite seasonings; I used Mrs. Dash's Onion & Herb. Place in oven and bake for about 35 minutes (I always follow what the packaging says, so if you do it differently go for it!) Once finished, let it cool for just a bit then place into my mixer and then shredded it up in there (another tip found on Pinterest). Then take all of the ingredients and place in a large bowl and mix together so the dressing is evenly mixed in. Then ENJOY!

When I made this last week I actually used a creamy poppy seed dressing, it was FABULOUS!!! This will definitely be on my list of meals to make on a regular basis! Like I said, it makes quite a bit which is perfect for big families or taking as a dish to a pot-luck. I love that my Husband can take the leftovers to work and we still have plenty for dinner the following night. Yep, we love to eat up all our leftovers before a new meal is made.