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52 New Recipes | Grilled Chicken Pesto Pasta Salad

That’s kind of a mouthful. 😉

This is another recipe from my ATK Quick Family Cookbook.   It’s a pasta salad dressed with homemade pesto, with tomatoes, arugula, and grilled chicken.

The general vote on this one from my family and me is that it was sort of medium.

Like, we ate it and it was fine, but none of us were like, “Ooh! This is really good! We should have this all the time.”

So, I probably won’t make this one again.

Oh, and I thought the amount of pasta was kind of whoa.   I used elbow macaroni and weighed out a pound, and when it cooked up, it was a LOT.

I didn’t use all of it, and I feel like if I had, the flavor would have been even more meh because the dressing would be further spread out.

Anyway! You win some, you lose some.

Even when I hit recipes that are sort of duds, I’m still happy I’m doing this project because I have found a lot of recipes that are keepers.

How about you?

Did you try a new recipe this week?   I hope it was better than “meh”. 😉

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Maria

Thursday 3rd of August 2017

I agree that it probably is partly due to the different types of pasta. Elbow is more compact and fusilli/rotini has more surface area for the dressing to stick to. I would probably increase the dressing a bit with the pasta change. Also a little extra salt almost always gives it that extra edge. That's almost always my easiest fix. Also, a little extra liquid (the oil, pasta water, vinegar, whatever you are using in that particular recipe) helps more often than not.

Kathleen

Thursday 3rd of August 2017

I love the meh dinners.

I made pasta sauce with onion, fennel, and tomatoes tonight. It's not really a new recipe as I made it last year when we got fennel in our vegetable share, but with a five-year-old the passing of a whole year means for her it was a new recipe. Luckily she loved it. My six-year-old only eats pasta with butter and cheese.

sabrina

Thursday 3rd of August 2017

try it with sun dried tomatoes in oil and use the oil and bow tie pasta or tortellini- should be fabulous (better the next day)- we make it all the time in the summer

Louanne

Thursday 3rd of August 2017

I made everything chicken using everything bagel seasoning. I liked it enough to make it again, but the husband didn't care for it, and my 12 year old chose to eat cereal. Link to where I found the recipe https://www.gimmesomeoven.com/everything-chicken/

Jenni

Thursday 3rd of August 2017

I'm sorry Kristen, not Kristin.

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