Poppy Seed Chicken & Grape Pasta Salad | Sin & Soul Blog Bare Kitchen Recipes

You guys are really lucky today! You get TWO blog posts. This weekend, I went on a bit of a cooking binge, and cooked a ton. On Saturday, I wanted a light and easy lunch so I decided to make one of my favorite cold pasta salads, Poppyseed Chicken & Grape Pasta Salad. I had saved some chicken from the Chicken Rollups earlier in the week, as I was planning to make myself a chicken salad sandwich with grapes, but this sounded so much better! My local grocery store makes a version of this and I am in love with it. This salad is also very versatile, you can add pineapple, apples, assorted peppers, and lemon if you would like. However, in the spirit of Bare Kitchen Recipe planning, I decided to keep it simple and minimal. I will however, include the amounts in the recipe and leave it as optional ingredients if you would like to customize it a bit more. If you do choose to add more ingredients, you'll also need to eyeball your mayo and add a bit more chicken.

8 ounces pasta, your choice cooked as directed

1/2 c. diced, cooked chicken

1 c. grapes, sliced in half length-wise

1/4 c. mayonnaise

2T. milk

1T. honey, warmed 10 seconds in microwave

1 T. poppy seeds

Optional Ingredients

Juice of 1 lemon in replacement of milk

zest of 1 lemon

1/4 c. pineapple

1 small apple

assorted peppers, sliced

Now, I love poppy seeds so you may want to alter the recipe a bit to your taste. You'll see in the photos that the poppy seeds are quite rampant. Just the way I like it!

In a large bowl, combine pasta, chicken, and grapes, stir to combine. In a medium bowl, combine warmed honey, milk, and mayonnaise. Whisk briskly, ensuring that the honey is well combined. I use Breitsamer Honig Golden Selection Blossom Honey and I love it!! It's one of the highest quality honeys I have ever tried. I usually try to stay local with items like this, but this is a German honey that I can't imagine any local honey will ever replace. I strongly recommend trying it, you can find it HERE.

Back to our recipe, once you've well combined the previous items add the poppy seeds and stir. If the mixture seems not to be loose enough, you want it to be more of a sauce or dressing; add milk until you reach desired consistency. You may not need the entire 2T. and in some cases, you may need more. Pour over the top of pasta mixture and stir. This can be served immediately or refrigerated overnight.

This can also be served with a wide variety of things. There was enough for us to have lunch with and in the evening I served it with steak and broccoli for dinner.

Pasta salads are probably one of my favorite things to make no matter what the season is and I am always on the look out for new varieties, so please share if you have one in particular that you enjoy. Also, if you have any special requests for a future blog post, please feel free to give me any recommendations you may have! Thanks again for tuning in, see you again soon!

Bare Kitchen Recipes | Sin & Soul Food Blog

So along with great pictures, I also believe that a good blog is also about trust. I promised you guys a Bacon Mac & Cheese post tonight, but unfortunately that's not in the cards. I went out job hunting today, and unfortunately that didn't give me much time for writing my post and uploading pictures. I promise! Tomorrow! But for those of you who have been anxiously awaiting, I wanted to at least do you the courtesy of letting you know what is going on.

On top of everything, I had a bit of a mishap today. A bit irritating really, because I JUST did this same thing about a month ago. I was walking through our local mall, in my sexy 4" heels after dropping off a resume, and I slipped and fell. In the process of falling, my knee took the brunt of the blow and it hurts insanely! I'm all for laughing at myself, and the first time this happened (in completely different shoes, so it's not the shoes.) I laughed my butt off. I even told everyone on Facebook and let them have a laugh at my expense. But this time? This time it hurt, and I have a knob on my knee and a very nicely developing bruise and hobble to show for it. Yes, you can laugh...but you should feel bad. I would laugh too, if it wasn't my knee.

Anyway, when I came home I forgot to pick up chicken for tonight's supper and I didn't have anything thawed and needed supper ready in 30 minutes. Which brought me to my next thing. I am a whiz at whipping dinners up with next to nothing in the cupboard or refrigerator with the exception of the bare essentials. T makes comments about how handy I am all the time, so why not take advantage of that creativity through my blog. Which brought me to "Bare Kitchen Recipes." Once a week, I will share a Bare Kitchen Recipe with you, something I cooked up with minimal ingredients in my kitchen. I know how hard it is to be creative when you feel like there is nothing in the house, so hopefully this will help you think differently AND be proud of yourself when you whip something up that the whole family loves and can't believe you pulled together with minimal ingredients. Also, let's face it...with the economy being so difficult, every little penny you can save, helps. I made a quick meal tonight and I will share the recipe, but unfortunately no photos. Forgive me? I hope so.

So I don't have a name for this...let's call it: Chili Cheese Rice

1 Cup Uncle Ben's Brown Rice, prepared as directed

1/2 can Cheese soup

1/2 can water

1 small can green chiles

1 can diced tomatoes

4 eggs

salt & pepper

chives, optional

shredded mozzarella cheese, optional

Cook rice as directed. Once entirely cooked add soup and water, stir until combined. Add green chiles and tomatoes, stir until well combined. Let mixture heat until bubbly, stir. Add all the eggs, leave them on top of the mixture until mixture is bubbling again. Break the yolks and stir eggs into mixture. Cook approximately 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add seasonings. Serve in bowls with mozzarella cheese, or plain.

Let me know what you think!