Leftovers Recipe: Quick & Easy Chicken Pasta Salad

I love making use of leftovers to create a delicious lunch! This one is a real winner - easy to prepare; portable if you need something to take along; versatile so that you can use whatever you happen to have on hand.

If you want more ideas for using leftovers, visit my website, Frugal Living Now.



What I used:

- 1 cup leftover cooked pasta (I used Trader Joe's colorful Vegetable Radiatore, but any will work)

- 1/2 leftover cooked chicken breast, diced (mine was leftover from Chicken Parmesan, but you can use baked, fried, lemon-pepper chicken, etc. - whatever you have)

- 1/2 stalk celery, diced

- 1 small carrot, shredded

- 1/2 leftover tomato, diced

- 2 Tsp. creamy dressing (any type will work; I used Caesar)


Put everything in a mixing bowl and stir it up - that's it!

Makes 2 generous servings

Digital Scavenger Hunt- Summer 2010 - My Results!

I am participating in a digital scavenger hunt sponsored by Pink Dandy. What fun! Here is what I came up with for:

NATURE

I took this picture earlier this month while picking blueberries with my mother at a farm far out in the country in Tennessee. I thought it was an interesting aspect of nature.


BROKEN

This is what remained of my old Camry after my daughter was hit by a logging truck. Luckily, she was not seriously hurt! Seeing that car on the side of the road surrounded by emergency vehicles was probably the scariest moment of my life!


COLORFUL

Produce in the grocery store. What is more colorful than that?



TALL

This is a photo I took of the Space Needle in Seattle several years ago when we were there. I think it looks lovely with the blue sky and clouds behind it.


LOVE

This is my dad playing with my daughter when she was about 2 years old. He died last year and she is now 20, but they loved each other fiercely - I think it shows in this photo.


HEAT

This is our bearded dragon, Simon, looking out the window at the Utah landscape when we were driving across the country. My daughter thought he looked like he liked what he saw and wanted to be out there!


ORGANIC

This is a photo of some peppers that we bought at the farmer's market earlier this summer. I thought they looked pretty laying on the green plate, so I took a picture. My family thinks I'm weird, but I am always taking pictures of things like this - you never know when you might need them for your blog or your website (or for a digital scavenger hunt!)


CRIME

Yes, this one is lame, I know. I just couldn't come up with anything more original! I thought of photographing litter or graffiti, but I waited until too late in the game and didn't see any when I had my camera with me. So this is my dirty oven. It is a crime, but I do not clean ovens, and that is just how it is. We all have our dirty little secrets, don't we? Now you know mine!


Check out these blogs for their scavenger hunt entries, too!

Blog Links that are participating in the Hunt:

http://caseymcardle.blogspot.com
http://mynameismichael-wrangler.blogspot.com
http://opheliaclairemaxwell.blogspot.com
http://soulenergyjewelry.blogspot.com
http://jodibee.blogspot.com
http://liftingmeup.com
http://pinkdandychatter.blogspot.com

My Delicious, Healthy, Non-Dairy Milkshake!

I just made the best milkshake; it was refreshing and delicious! But that's not all! It also:

- is all natural

- has only 140 calories

- contains no dairy products

- has no sugar (except what is in the banana)

- has only 3 ingredients and is super easy to make


Here's how you can make it:

- Peel a ripe banana and break it into 1-inch chunks

- Freeze the banana for an hour or more

- Pour 1 cup of almond milk into a blender (you could use soy milk also, but I like the flavor of the almond milk)

- Add the frozen banana and 1/4 tsp. of vanilla

- You can add a dash of cinnamon if you want

Blend it up until there are no chunks of banana left. Pour it into a glass and drink it!

Yummy-licious! Enjoy!

(I think you could make it chocolate, too, by adding some unsweetened cocoa powder. I may try that next time!)

Giveaway on Fashion Momma!

I wanted to let you all know that one of my button bracelets is being given away on a great blog called Fashion Momma this week. Please stop by and take a look at this fun blog - Kim has so much energy and humor, I am sure you will fall in love with her like I did! AND you can enter to win the bracelet! If nothing else, you can see what I am doing with all those buttons I am constantly begging for - lol!




Thanks! Have a great rest-of-the-week!

Babies at the Beach

I love this quote: I borrowed it from Stephanie at Totally Together Journal.

Babies don’t need a vacation but I still see them at the beach. I’ll go over to them and say, “What are you doing here, you’ve never worked a day in your life!” –Stephen Wright

I get her updates every day in email and they always brighten my day. She is such a fun person! We are going to the beach in two weeks - I have not been in YEARS, so it should be fun! I think I will take lots of pictures to post.

Have a great weekend!