Pasta Salad

I feel bad about not posting a picture, AND not having posted in forever, I'm sorry guys (Megan). But tonight I improvised something that I think tasted really good!

Ingredients:
1/3 Can of Peas
1/2 Can of Artichoke Hearts (optional)
About 1 Cup of Sweet Grape Tomatoes
1/2 Can of Baby Corn
1 Clove of Garlic, diced
About 3 Stalks of Green Onion, sliced
1 Chicken Breast (prepared as my Grandma's Lemon Chicken)
1/2 lb Pasta (something small and shapey, like wheels or rotini)
About 4 tbsp of Red Wine Vinegar, to taste
About 3 tbsp of Extra Virgin Olive Oil, to taste
Salt, to taste

Basically, put it all in together. I put the vegetables and fruit in first with the garlic and the vinegar and oil and sort of let it marinade while the chicken and pasta was cooking. The chicken was prepared the same way I made the lemon chicken drumsticks earlier, with the same time and everything, even though there was only one chicken breast.

On that note, you can often find just single chicken breasts in a particular part of the meat section that is oriented toward single-person dinners, but if you don't see that, don't be afraid to go up to the person behind the meat counter and be like, "I'd like a half of a chicken breast please!" That's another thing, the chicken breasts you get at the store are HALVED, so get halved chicken breasts!

Anyway, after you take the chicken out of the oven, let it sit for several minutes to have the juices seep into it, so it won't be dry when you cut it. Slice up the chicken into bite-sized pieces, and put it in with the pasta, and toss it all up! I say the artichoke hearts are optional if you like them but they ended up being my least favorite thing about the pasta salad. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love artichokes, but my favorite part about them is the stems, not the hearts, especially precanned ones that still leave the hard outer layer on them that I would leave off.

Lex's note is that he would have left out the grape tomatoes, or maybe put in milder ones because they were so sweet and overpowering, but I really enjoyed them in the salad and it really makes for a really good summer meal. For added summery-ness, prepare ahead of time and leave it in the refrigerator to get it nice and chilled!