Okay, I’ve been on this healthier, lower carb, gotta loose some baby weight diet for the past few days.

I’ve never liked it, never been good at it and pretty much know I will never stick to it for long but sometimes it just has to be done.

This time around though, I’ve tried to be creative with my “chicken”. Think outside the box a little. So last night, instead of a typical grilled chicken salad – I decided to step it up with Taziki’s Friday Pasta Salad. (with whole grain pasta, of course)

It was fabulous – it did not feel like diet food at all, which is good because I would just as soon eat nothing than eat blah food.

The recipe below is for the full recipe of the dressing which can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks and is great to throw on any salad. The remaining ingredients can be adjusted to how many you are serving. Of course you could always half the dressing too.

Taziki’s Friday Pasta

Dressing

• 3 tablespoons fresh thyme, chopped
  
• 1 tablespoon green onion or shallot, minced
  
• ½ cup balsamic vinegar
  
• Juice from one lemon
  
• 1 teaspoon sugar
  
• 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
  
• 1 ½ cups olive oil
  
• Salt and pepper to taste

Salad

• 3 chicken breasts, seasoned with Greek seasoning and pan fried, chopped
• 1 lb of whole wheat penne pasta
• 2 small tomatoes, chopped
• 1 bag mixed greens
• 1 bag of baby spinach
• Handful of chopped basil

For the dressing, put first 6 ingredients through mustard in bowl, mix. Then slowly whisk in olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Refrigerate, covered for at least 30 minutes.

Combine chopped chicken and cooked pasta and coat with dressing (amount determined by how much you made)

Mix greens and place a serving size on each plate. Top with pasta/chicken mixture. Then sprinkle tomatoes, feta and basil.

You may want to add a little dressing to your greens as well. Just a personal preference and how healthy you want to be. 😉

-abp