Italian Pasta Salad

1/2 green pepper, seeded and chopped

2 chopped tomatoes ( I remove the seeds)

1 small english cucumber, remove seeds and chop

1 carrot, peeled and chopped

500g tri-color fusilli pasta, cooked and cooled

Sauce:

2/3 cup white sugar

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1/3 cup ketchup

1/4 vinegar

1 tsp salt

1/4 tsp pepper

1 tsp paprika

Cook and cool your pasta and put in salad bowl. Add all your chopped veggies and mix together. Put all your sauce ingredients in a separate bowl and whisk together well. Pour over salad and mix up. Put in fridge to cool. Mix before serving as the dressing tends to settle on the bottle.

I like to toss cheese in mine when I serve it. I have one who doesn't like cheese in her salad so I try to get her some up first. I also don't really measure out the salt, pepper and paprika so you want to taste it and see if you want a little more or not. Enjoy!!

Chicken Lemon Penne

1 lb penne pasta

3 tablespoons olive oil

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, diced into 1" cubes

1 tsp Herbes de Provence

pinch of salt, plus 1/2 tsp

pinch of pepper, plus 1/4 tsp

1 cup chicken broth

2 cup heavy cream

zest of one lemon

pinch of cayenne pepper

1/4 cup fresh, flat-leaf parsley

1 T freshly squeezed lemon juice

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil over high heat. Add the pasta and cook until tender, about 10 minutes. Drain.

Meanwhile, heat the oil in a skillet over med-high heat. Season the chicken with the Herbes de Provence and a pinch of salt and pepper. Cook until golden brown, about 5 minutes. Take the chicken out of the skillet and set aside. Pour off any excess oil from the pan. Add the chicken broth to the pan and cook over med-high heat, using a wooden spoon to scrape the brown bits off the bottom of the pan. Add the cream, lemon zest, and cayenne. Reduce the heat to medium low and simmer for about 10 minutes. (At this point, I dissolved about 1tbs of cornstarch in a little cold water, or you could us chicken broth, and stirred it into the sauce.)

Add the pasta, chicken, 1/2 tsp salt, and 1/4 tsp pepper, chopped parsley, and lemon juice. Toss to coat the pasta and chicken with the sauce and serve.