Chicken and Pasta Salad

Here's another tasty pasta salad for hot days when you really don't want to heat the kitchen. This one is light and easily adaptable to your family's preferences. I vary the pasta in it and often make it with leftover plain spaghetti noodles or even broken lasagna noodles. I also vary the dressing, sometimes using honey mustard and omitting the honey from the recipe or using italian, omitting the poppy seeds, and adding celery seeds.

Chicken and Pasta Salad

1 package pasta, uncooked
1 to 1 1/2 c buttermilk dressing
1/4 c honey
1/4 to 1/2 tsp poppy seeds
2 c chicken, cooked and chopped (I use leftover chicken or turkey and canned even works and creates no extra heat)
1 c grapes, quartered
1/3 c red onions, chopped
1/2 to 1 cup raw snow peas
chopped nuts or seeds (sunflower seeds are excellent)

Cook pasta as directed on package and drain. Stir together salad dressing, honey, and poppy seeds in a small bowl and set aside. In a large bowl, combine pasta, chicken, grapes, onion, and snow peas. Sometimes I add in roasted red pepper at this point, also. Add the dressing from the small bowl and blend well. Salt and Pepper if desired. I also add garlic powder to mine. Cover and chill several hours. Sprinkle with nuts or seeds before serving. This is great with crusty rolls and butter.