Pesto Chicken Pasta Salad

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and Walmart Family Mobile. All opinions are mine alone. #MyDataMyWay #CollectiveBias

A pesto chicken pasta salad that uses the odds and ends vegetables you have in your fridge to save money and have your ingredients go further.

There are a few things that really bother me in this world. 1) People chewing with their mouth open…gross! 2) When I can’t find something. Seriously obnoxious. 3) Wasting food.  It may just be that I grew up in a big family, so it was the quick and the hungry at our house. But wasting food really irritates me.

Wasting food is equivalent to me to wasting money. I hate it, and I try to avoid it. I often find that I buy ingredients for something, and then end up with a few odds and ends of this and that. I literally cringe any time I throw food away. So I figured it was time to create a few recipes that use up those odds and ends in a totally delicious and appealing way.

This recipe uses things like the end of the cauliflower and broccoli, those last few baby carrots, etc. in a great way that tastes awesome.

I use pesto too for this recipe, which I love because sometimes I buy a big old bag of spinach with plans to drinks lots of green smoothies and end up not getting around to it, and then the spinach is about to turn, and there is no way I can drink 15 green smoothies in a day, so I make pesto and freeze it. Then I need delicious ways to use it.

But…this is EAZY peazy mealz, which means most of you probably won’t want to make your own pesto, and that is okay, you can buy it in a jar, and it will taste great, and you will still save money!

I love recipes that help me save money. We have incurred a lot of extra expenses lately, and are cutting back where we can so we can save up more money for a down payment. Making sure we don’t waste food is one area, and another is our phones.

You might remember at Christmas we got our kids a phone, and at tax time we got another one. They are part of the Walmart Family Mobile plan. Well, I didn’t stop there, I recently went to Walmart and got the Samsung Galaxy Avant.

Even though I have talked about it before, I have to say again how much I love Walmart Family Mobile’s 4G LTE service. It is just $29.88/month(for the first line) and offers Unlimited Talk, Text and Data, which includes up to 500MB of 4G LTE data. This means my kids can have a phone to reach me when they are at practice, a friend’s etc. I can use it in the car to keep little ones happy with games. My kids can take pictures and videos, etc. And I do not have to worry about obscene data charges on my bill. I get a text reminder every month, and pay for the service after I use it. With no contract!

So why should you care about this? What does phone service have to do with food? It really doesn’t, but I find my phone is pretty tied to everything I do. And that includes food. I store my grocery list on my phone. I browse social media for ideas from my phone. I even used the Galaxy Avant I just bought to stream a video on pesto making techniques for this post.

Whether it is looking up recipes while shopping to make sure I have the right ingredients, browsing Pinterest, Food Gawker, and other sites for culinary inspiration, or downloading apps to help me keep my shopping lists straight, my phone is tied to my cooking. And the awesome data plan on this service has genuinely helped me in the kitchen without breaking the bank. I know that I can browse, watch, and pin to my heart’s content without the price going up!

You will love the service and this recipe:

Chicken Pesto Pasta Salad

A pesto chicken pasta salad that uses the odds and ends vegetables you have in your fridge to save money and have your ingredients go further.

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Course: Main Dish, Side Dish

Cuisine: Italian

Keyword: chicken, pasta salad, pesto

Prep Time: 3 minutes

Cook Time: 15 minutes

Total Time: 18 minutes

Servings: 4 people

Calories: 709kcal

Author: Rachael

Ingredients

• 12 ounce box Bow Tie Pasta Noodles cooked according to package directions
• 1 lb chicken breast chunked
• 1/2 cup carrots cut into bite sized pieces
• 1/2 cup broccoli florets
• 1/2 cup cauliflower
• 1 cup Spinach Pesto divided
• 2 Tbs water
• 1 tsp lemon juice optional
• 2 Tbs grated parmesan cheese

Instructions

• Cook noodles according to package directions, drain, and set aside.
• Cut chicken into pieces, and over medium heat in a medium sized sauce pan, saute chicken in 1/4 cup of the pesto sauce and lemon juice
• When cooked through, remove from pan and set aside
• Add vegetables to the pan with 1/4 cup pesto, and water, and saute for 3-5 minutes until slightly softened, but still has crunch
• Remove from pan, if serving hot, toss everything together in remaining pesto, top with parmesan cheese and serve. If serving cold, let everything cool separately, then toss together just before serving.

Notes

*Refresh leftovers with additional pesto, lemon juice, or olive oil, as noodles will dry out a bit.

Nutrition

Calories: 709kcal | Carbohydrates: 71g | Protein: 39g | Fat: 27g | Saturated Fat: 5g | Cholesterol: 79mg | Sodium: 773mg | Potassium: 733mg | Fiber: 4g | Sugar: 5g | Vitamin A: 81% | Vitamin C: 23% | Calcium: 16.4% | Iron: 11.5%

Our recipe card software calculates these nutrition facts based on averages for the above ingredients, different brands, and quality of produce/meats may have different nutritional information, always calculate your own based on the specific products you use in order to achieve accurate macros for this recipe.

Tried this recipe?Mention @ezpzmealz or tag #ezpzmealz!

 So if you are looking for a great way to save money this Spring, with a phone that will allow you to stream video, PIN, and more, be sure to head to Walmart and check out the Galaxy Avant, and the Walmart Family Mobile Service. Or find other great phones and info by visiting their website.

**Disclaimer: All prices for phones and plans included in this post are accurate as of the date of posting; however, these prices are subject to change. Please refer to https://cbi.as/6ibr or your local Walmart for current pricing.