Chicken Club Pasta Salad

Chicken Club Pasta Salad

Cook's notes: A delicious combination of pasta, chicken, bacon, cheddar, avocado and homemade ranch dressing. What's not to like with these yummy ingredients :)  The calories can be reduced in the dressing by using low fat or lite products. Pair the salad with Homemade Bakery Style Blueberry Muffins. The muffin recipe will be posted Feb. 2, 2016 on Ever Ready.

Recipe adapted from spendwithpennies  and serves 4.

Salad Ingredients: 

• 1-3/4 cup dried pasta (I used tri-color penne but elbow or shell pasta work well too)
• 5 slices of bacon
• 2 cups cooked chicken, diced
• 1/2 avocado, diced
• 1 cup grape tomatoes, diced
• 1/2 cup cheddar cheese (low fat), diced 
• 3/4 cup carrots, finely diced
• 3/4 cup onions, diced

Salad Directions:

• Cook pasta al dente and set aside.
• Cook bacon until crisp, drain on a paper towel, dice into small pieces 
• Mix all salad ingredients with dressing and refrigerate several hours.
• Serve salad on a large piece of Romaine lettuce.

Dressing Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup each buttermilk (low fat), mayonnaise or Miracle Whip (lite), sour cream (lite)
• 1 tsp.each chives, parsley flakes, dill
• 1/4 tsp. each dry mustard, garlic powder
• salt and pepper to taste

Dressing Directions:

Whisk to blend and mix with salad ingredients.

I Too

by Langston Hughes

I, too, sing America.

I am the darker brother.
They send me to eat in the kitchen
When company comes,
But I laugh,
And eat well,
And grow strong.

Tomorrow,
I’ll be at the table
When company comes.
Nobody’ll dare
Say to me,
“Eat in the kitchen,”
Then.

Besides,
They’ll see how beautiful I am
And be ashamed—

I, too, am America.


Langston Hughes, “I, Too” from Collected Poems. Copyright © 1994 by The Estate of Langston Hughes. Reprinted with the permission of Harold Ober Associates Incorporated.