Chow, Bella

Oddly, one of the biggest challenges in living alone is that I forget to eat.  I can't even believe that's true as eating is one of my favorite things to do but while I'm bumming around the apartment on weekends, I realize that I've gotten pretty good at ignoring my grumbling stomch.  Let's be honest, I don't want to spend the time cooking something elaborate (unless I'm cooking for someone else as well) and eating takeout gets expensive and fattening. 

Enter my need for quick, healthy, delish meals.  I'm really, really trying to limit my carb intake (I have an adorable bikini that I plan on wearing a lot this summer) but the whole wheat shells in the warm pasta salad below aren't SO bad.  I found this Tricolore Warm Pasta Salad recipe on vmac + cheese yesterday afternoon and it was soo good.  I tossed in some grilled chicken (I highly recommend this addition) and am seriously going to start making this all the time. 

Tricolore Pasta

Ingredients:

1 10-oz box of whole grain shell pasta

1/2 bunch of kale, rinsed and tossed crosswise into thin ribbons

1/2 pint sungold (yellow) cherry tomatoes, rinsed and halved

1 red bell pepper, medium diced

2-oz goat cheese

Juice of one lemon

2-3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

Kosher salt and finely ground black pepper

Bring a large pot of salted water to a rolling boil.  When the water is boiling, prep all of the veggies and put them in a large bowl.  Add the pasta and cook according to package directions (duh).  Once the pasta is ready, carefully ladle half a cup or so of the pasta water into another little bowl.  Quickly drain the pasta in a colander, but do not shake it - you want to retain some of the moisture in the shells.  Pour the hot pasta over the veggies.  Crumble in the goat cheese and pour in the lemon juice and olive oil.  Season with salt and pepper.  Stir to combine.  The heat of the pasta will melt the goat cheese and give you a loose sauce.  Enjoy!!