Bistro Chicken Pasta Salad + A Trader Joe’s Giveaway

Make this Bistro Chicken Pasta Salad on a busy weeknight or a weekend and eat it throughout the week for lunches or dinner.

Good Morning!

Today I am bringing you two great things.

First things first, a recipe for a Bistro Chicken Pasta Salad that is so yummy, and the second is a fun, tasty giveaway of some treats and teas from Trader Joe’s (go to the bottom of this post for more details on the giveaway).

Bistro Chicken Pasta Salad

About two weeks ago I went to a free cooking class at the local Marianos by my house. The subject was “Cooking for One.” While I do not cook for one (more like 3) I can always use some tips and new inspiration in my cooking. I am so glad I went!

I walked away with 5 great recipes (including this Bistro Chicken Pasta Salad) and an abundance of new tips and tricks. All of the recipes were easy and healthy and won’t break the bank. Stay tuned because I will be sharing other tips and recipes soon!

TIP #1: Prep, prep, prep for your upcoming meals each week.

The first thing I learned (which isn’t new to me I just haven’t actually done consistently) is prepping for your weekly meals.  This would involve more menu planning on my part.  The past couple of weeks I have started trying to plan my meals out and also prepare my ingredients for those meals ahead of time. One thing that has been helpful is preparing chicken for the week. This past weekend I cooked four chicken breasts and cubed and shredded them to be used throughout the week for a variety of meals (some weeks I buy a small whole chicken and throw it in the slow cooker for 7 hours and use that for my meals for the week–see recipe here).

When baking the chicken I just rub a little olive oil on each chicken breast, salt, pepper, throw it in the oven in a baking dish on 375 degrees for 45 minutes, flipping half way. Once done I shredded some and cubed the rest, put it in the fridge and have it ready for the week. I can use this chicken in three or four meals during the week and it saves me having to cook it each night. 

This Bistro Chicken Pasta Salad was one of those meals! You can make it on a busy weeknight or a weekend and eat it throughout the week for lunches or dinner and of course, as with most salads or pasta, customize it to your tastes.

You will be very happy that you gave this Bistro Chicken Pasta Salad recipe a try!

 Source: Marianos 

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Now onto the Trader Joe’s giveaway!

Congrats to Janet Nafeha who won the Trader Joes giveaway!! Email me your mailing address and I will have it sent off to you. Acedarspoon@yahoo.com. Thanks everyone for participating!

If you have Trader Joe’s you can appreciate the incredible amount of treats they have (along with a ton of healthy stuff too!). Now that it is the holidays the treats are out in full force! I am giving away these Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Salted Caramels (these things are addictive!), Chocolate Drizzle Star Cookies, Candy Cane Green Tea and Vanilla and Cinnamon Black Tea. We all need some treats to brighten our day and trust me these Trader Joe treats will do just that!

{Giveaway Details}

GIVEAWAY REQUIREMENTS:

Answer the following: What is your favorite holiday treat? Is it a cookie, a candy, something else? Please put your answer in the comments section below. 

For extra entries:

1. Follow A Cedar Spoon on Pinterest <——click on the Pinterest link to go to the page. Leave a separate comment below saying you did so.

2.  Like A Cedar Spoon on facebook. Leave a separate comment below saying you did so.

3. Follow A Cedar Spoon on twitter.  Leave a separate comment below saying you did so.

Rules:

Contest will start December 5th and will end December 14th at 11:59 PM PST. Winner will be drawn at random and contacted via email. Winner will have 3 days to respond before another winner is chosen at random. Winner needs to reside in the continental US.

– Giveaway is open to US residence, 18+ years.

GOOD LUCK!

Julia

 

Giveaway entered at Blog Giveaway Directory, linked up at Weekend Potluck at The Country Cook and Chef in Training.