Southwestern Chicken Pasta Salad

I made this Southwestern Chicken Pasta Salad tonight from Cooking Light. Yum. It had great flavor and was a nice summery cap to what I think is the actual beginning of summer weather (This last week we broke records 3 days in a row for highs in the low 50s...). It was gorgeous today- sunny and close to 80 degrees. But back to the pasta... I used regular cooked chicken instead of the lemon herb which I don't think mattered and I skipped the green onion as my husband is not a fan. One thing- cool the pasta before adding it to the other ingredients. The cheese kinda melted on the warm pasta. It was a good solid recipe. It would be nice to bring to a block party or BBQ too. The other thing I liked about this recipe was that it was fast and not too involved so I can make it on a weeknight easily. Now though I have to find something to make with the other 10 oz of the 11 oz can of chipolte chiles in adobo sauce. I am off to find a recipe that uses it!

I cancelled my subscription to Cooking Light maybe 2 years ago because I felt I wasn't reading it. This was a recipe I tore out in August 2005 and has been filed but not used until now. I have A LOT of recipes on file (more like stacked in a file box with no rhyme or reason) that have never been used. And when I say a lot, I mean A LOT- like probably 5000 maybe more. And this isn't even including my cookbooks which don't get enough love. Am I ever going to use 5000 recipes? Doubt it- maybe more like 500. I don't know though. If I do about 60 this year... 500 actually seems attainable. But have you noticed that a bunch of the recipes that I give thumbs up to are from Cooking Light? Maybe I should rethink that subscription...