Chicken Pesto Pasta Salad

My favorite part about this recipe is you can really customize it to your liking by adding more or less of the ingredients, mixing up the seasonings, or adding other ingredients.

This recipe can easily be halved or made in the larger quantity so you can have it for leftovers

Also, I keep experimenting with the chicken seasonings, but I'm including my favorite so far. Sometimes if I'm in a hurry I'll omit the chicken, although if you buy the tenderloins it really doesn't take too much extra time.

Lastly, this is a dish that is best cold... it actually is better the next day (although I still devour it right after I've made it!)

Ingredients:
1 box farfalle (bow-tie) pasta (you can use ziti or rotini, but I like farfalle the best!)
Your favorite pesto
Parmesan cheese
Sea-Salt, fresh ground pepper, and onion powder
1 bag craisins
1lb chicken tenderloins (give or take a little, I usually get about 1.25lbs)
1 container grape or cherry tomatoes (I prefer grape)

Directions:
Pre-heat oven to 350
Trim the chicken, place on a pan and season with salt, pepper, and onion powder
Bake approximately 20 minutes or until chicken is done
Cut chicken into bite-sized pieces

While chicken is baking, put a large pot of water on to boil
Boil whole box of farfalle until done
Drain pasta, throw a couple of ice cubes in the pot, and throw the pasta in the freezer or fridge for a couple of minutes to cool the pasta off.


While chicken is baking and pasta is boiling, cut tomatoes in half for grape tomatoes and in quarters for cherry tomatoes.

When pasta is cool, mix together all the ingredients in the following order:
Chicken
Craisins
Pesto
Parmesan cheese
Tomatoes

Enjoy!!