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Monica Swanson

the grommom

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Tortellini Salad with Grilled Chicken and Veggies.

by Monica 3 Comments

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Have I ever mentioned that we don’t have a dining room table in our house?  Well, there’s your little bit of Swanson-trivia for the day.  No dining room.  No dining tables inside the house.
(We do have a large kitchen counter with seven stools, but that’s it for indoor seating.)

Fortunately, we have a plenty of places to eat under covered lanais on both the front and the back of the house, which we use year-round.

We most often have dinner on our front lanai, where we can look out at the sunset over the ocean.  (And the skate bowl.)

But this time of year, when the sun sets bright and hot directly onto the front side of our house, we find ourselves on our back lanai for a lot of meals.

Summer salad for dinner

And I’ve been enjoying the change of scenery.  And the cool shade.

(Then we take dessert out to the front lanai as the sun turns orange over the horizon.  And the kids skate into the night.  See, it all works out just fine. )

But of course I’m not here to talk about where we eat our meals or where the sun sets.
(sorry, that just kind of happened.)

I’m here to talk SALAD!

Specifically, another summer salad that ends up on our table quite often.
(Whichever side of the house we may be sitting at.)

Summer Tortellini grilled chicken, veggie saladI want to share this salad because it’s one of my favorite ways to get extra mileage out of  leftovers, and in case you don’t already make it, I figure you probably should start.

Here’s how this salad happens:
One night, I make a big pasta dinner with some kind of tortellini, or any small  pasta.  (Bowtie, or fun- shaped pasta work great, but I prefer tortellini filled with spinach and cheese.)  I plan ahead and make extra pasta to save for this salad the next day.
Tortelini summer salad

If I have leftover grilled chicken in the fridge, I’m double happy, but this salad can be served with or without meat. (I’ve also been known to toss in some rotisserie chicken if I happen to have one on hand.)

The rest of the salad is literally a mix of any vegetable, cooked or raw, that I might have on hand.  A typical mix will be a crunchy salad of kale, arugula, or other greens, with carrots, tomatoes, and often a cup or two of leftover cooked green beans, asparagus, or mixed veggies from the pasta served previously (like you see here.)  Sometimes I cube up some sharp cheddar cheese, or sprinkle in some parmesan, and then I toss it with a vinaigrette.

The family loves it.  I have packed up a huge container of this salad to bring to the beach for surf contests, and passed out paper plates and forks at lunch time.  It is super refreshing, filling, and once again, the flavor just gets better as it sits for a few hours or a day.

tortellini salad
Print out the recipe, then play with it to make it your own.
(As usual, I usually double this recipe for our family + guests/leftovers.  The amounts listed are all approximate as this is a toss-as-you-like salad.)

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Summer Tortellini Salad with Grilled Chicken and Veggies.

Course Salad
Prep Time 5 minutes
Total Time 5 minutes
Author www.monicaswanson.com

Ingredients

  • 2 cups cooked tortellini pasta or other small, filled pasta
  • 1 cup cooked chicken breast cut up
  • 2-3 cups greens of choice kale, spinach, arugula, leafy greens.
  • 1/4 cup cubed cheddar cheese and/or shaved parmesan.
  • 1/2 cup chopped fresh tomatoes
  • 1-2 cups veggies of choice cooked green beans or asparagus, chopped carrots, corn, etc.
  • 1/2 cup Italian Vinaigrette
  • salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

  1. Combine cold, cooked pasta with greens.
  2. Add veggies, chicken, and cheese.
  3. Toss with vinaigrette,
  4. Serve on a shady lanai or porch with crusty bread and ice tea!
  5. ENJOY!

Stay cool and enjoy the last days of summer!  XOXO
(Don’t forget the peach ice tea.)

Summer dinner saladWith Aloha,

Monica

PS  Speaking of….A little tour of our house from a while back, here.

PPS Don’t forget to PIN and share to pass this along to your friends! 🙂

Aloha, Monica
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Categories: Lunches and Dinners, Miscellaneous, Recipes

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Comments

  1. Paige E says

    August 6, 2015 at 12:09 pm

    YUM! This looks delicious. Now to find a gluten free filled pasta so I can eat it too!

    Reply
    • Monica says

      August 6, 2015 at 4:28 pm

      Paige–I was totally thinking about that as I wrote the post. I’ve had lots of GF pasta, but I couldn’t remember ever seeing a GF filled pasta like a tortellini! Let me know if you find one! 🙂 If not, any fun pasta would do… Much Aloha!

      Reply
      • Joanne Peterson says

        August 6, 2015 at 7:18 pm

        Depuma’s makes cheese filled tortellini and sells it online, and Amazon carries gluten free tortellini. Both resources are expensive, but extremely good. Gluten free on a shoestring blog also has a recipe for making homemade gluten free tortellini if you are adventurous.

        Reply

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Recent Posts

  • Making Memories with Your Family this Christmas {Ep. 33 with Jessica Smartt}
  • Cultivating Gratitude as a Family {Episode 32 with my Husband, Dave}
  • Fall Coffee Date: Recent World Travels Edition (with great links, recipes, photos, and fun)
  • A Surf Contest Trip to Ericeira, Portugal
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Instagram post 2191305030198793642_6153198 Good to be home. 🌅🏝🌈⁣
However, not pictured here: the honest, full picture of returning home from vacation, which includes— 2 cars breaking down 😮, Dave with some really hectic weeks of hospital work (please quit the meth, people 😫)... overwhelming piles of laundry, stacks of mail, and trying to get back into homeschool/my work when we all kind of just want to be on vacation for the rest of the year. 😂🤷🏼‍♀️⁣
Of course I love to share the pretty, happy parts of our life here (and they are real and so appreciated,) but I never want to pretend our life is always easy or pain free...it’s not.  God is good, but we live in a fallen world which includes broken cars and broken bodies and sometimes bummer days. 🙃⁣
⁣(However, ending them with a north shore sunset might help just a little...😉🙌🏼🥰✨)
Instagram post 2189681266306562567_6153198 Well, that was the bumpiest flight ever — we all thought we were gonna get sick. 🤢😳🤭But after an awesome, adventure-packed trip I’m really glad to be getting back home. 🙌🏼🌴 ♥️. We missed Dave so much. ✨ And Thor. 🐶 And the waves. 🌊 And the sun. ☀️ 🥰 — and what it’s December!? 😲🤷🏼‍♀️
Instagram post 2188790055081160067_6153198 “Support wildlife, raise boys.” My mom found this shirt at a little shop and it kinda says it perfectly. 🥰🙌🏼👍🏼.♥️🌲🐾🐿🦌🦔
Instagram post 2188220589813409640_6153198 Wherever we go these 4 end up huddled together somewhere laughing or in deep discussion (usually ending in laughter...😂)
⁣
People often ask me what I think the key is to my boys being best friends.  Though I don’t have a formula or one answer that is guaranteed to work for everyone, I am convinced that the fact that my boys have spent a lot of time together growing up has been a huge key.  Between living in the country where neighbors/play dates weren’t always an option, and homeschooling, these 4 have been “stuck together” a lot. 😂🤷🏼‍♀️ ⁣
⁣
I encourage families with young kids not to feel obligated to have friends over all the time or to sign your kids up for too many activities..⁣
⁣
Let them get bored.  Let them hang out with a sibling even when they don’t feel like it. 🤗  Even if they fight a bit, they’re learning life skills and in time they’re likely to develop a deep bond that one day might look something like laughing over espresso and ice cream during Thanksgiving break 🥰 
PS: on this topic, I’m linking in my bio to a post I wrote titled “How Brothers become Best Friends.” (Pretty sure it applies to sisters, too 😉💕) PPS:  Be assured, these 4 have had their share of battles, too.  No perfect family here. (or anywhere 😉)
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