2025 Summer 3 – Monday
June 30, 2025 – by Carol in 2025, Summer 3, Poultry, Weekly Dinner
🍽️ The Menu
- Main Dish
- Grilled Chicken Pasta Salad Plate with Goat Cheese
- Side Dish
- None — the pasta and vegetables are fully integrated into the salad
- Embedded
- Homemade Lemon-Herb Vinaigrette
📸 Final Plate
🔍 About the Meal
This was originally planned as chicken salad sandwiches on fresh-baked Easy Homemade French Bread, with a side of creamy macaroni salad. I had everything lined up and was even looking forward to the bread — and then Steve declared (again) that he doesn’t like chicken salad. Despite eating it last week. 🙃
So we pivoted. I thawed grilled chicken breast from the freezer, grabbed goat cheese from last week’s fridge finds, and turned everything into a composed pasta salad plate. The base was romaine and butter lettuce, with pasta and zucchini tossed in lemon vinaigrette, a fresh diced veg layer of cherry tomatoes, red onion, and bell pepper, all topped with grilled chicken and goat cheese. And because it’s Steve, he drowned it in ranch on top of the vinaigrette — and still left half the vegetables behind.
This is now the official Summer 3 poultry meal going forward. Honestly? It’s better than the original.
📷 Photo Journal
📝 Monday Notes
- Mise en place took way longer than expected — easily 30+ minutes
- Pasta cooled in about 15 minutes with rinse-and-drain
- Zucchini was diced small so Steve wouldn’t complain about “long things”
- Bell peppers were in good shape and made the cut
- Goat cheese weighed to 28g per serving — ideal
- Steve got sliced black olives and his usual drizzle of ranch
- Note to self: reduce raw veg slightly for him next time
🎬 Behind the Scenes
This was a rescue meal. I had planned something entirely different, but I adapted fast with what I had on hand — grilled chicken from the freezer, leftover goat cheese, and fresh produce. It turned into a beautiful salad bowl that photographed perfectly. I’ll definitely be making this again (even if Steve complains about the vegetables).
📷 #OurEverydayFoodJourney
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