Chicken and Spinach Yogurt Pesto Pasta and a Giveaway!

Update: I plugged the numbers into Random.org and a winner has been chosen! The winner is comment #24! Rachel said, “I love eating it with granola for lunch.” So check your email Rachel! If the prize isn’t claimed within 5 days a new winner will be selected. Thank you for all of your entries!

I’m sure that my recent lack of posts has made it pretty obvious that I’ve been in a cooking/blogging funk lately. I’m not sure if it’s the excitement of the baby or this cold weather that’s getting me down, but I just haven’t had a whole lot of creativity or motivation in the kitchen. It feels like I’ve just been rotating the same 5 meals lately. Needless to say, I was so excited when my friend Jessica, from My Baking Heart, invited me to join a Virtual Cooking Party! Perfect opportunity to get some excitement back into my kitchen!!

For this party we all put our own spin on the same recipe, featuring Stonyfield Greek Yogurt. I am a HUGE fan of cooking with Greek yogurt, I often use it as substitute for sour cream in recipes and as a topping. I’ve even used it to replace the mayonnaise in a cole slaw recipe! It’s a great way to make some of my favorite recipes a little bit healthier without making a sacrifice in taste.

The recipe chosen for this Virtual Cooking Party was Spinach Yogurt Pesto Pasta. I love pesto because it is always so fresh tasting and it’s packed with layers of flavor. This recipe is no exception. I even told Jessica that I would happily just eat spoonfuls of this pesto for dinner. 🙂 But, since I live with a meat and potatoes man, I used pasta AND chicken. The chicken seemed to grab onto just the right amount of the subtle lemon flavor. And as it turns out, the swirls of the rotini pasta made perfect pockets for holding on to the delicious pesto. I thought the Greek yogurt was the perfect way to add creaminess to the pesto. The slight tang of the yogurt perfectly balanced the fresh basil and powerful garlic. To help make dinner a little more economical, I substituted walnuts for pine nuts. All in all, dinner was a huge success! Big thanks to Jessica for bringing a fresh new recipe to my kitchen! Be sure to stop by her blog to see how the other party-goers put their own spin on this recipe!

For this party I was happy to get my hands on some free Stonyfield Greek Yogurt, and I’d love for you to be able to get your hands on some as well! Because what’s a party without a fun prize/giveaway?! Stonyfield has generously agreed to offer one lucky reader a case of Stonyfield yogurt and a Stonyfield Cookbook!

The giveaway is now closed and a winner has been announced!
How to enter:

Leave a comment telling me your favorite way to use Greek yogurt!
Sorry, only US residents please

Deadline & Winning Information:

The deadline for entry will be 11:59 pm Saturday, February 1
Winner will be chosen using a random number generator and will be announced at the top of this post on Sunday, February 2
The winner will receive an email from me (so be sure to enter your correct email address!) and will have 5 days to respond. If no response is received, a new winner will be chosen.

Disclosure:

I was offered free Stonyfield Greek Yogurt as a part of this Virtual Cooking Party. However, the opinions and review are my own!

 

 

 

Creamy Mustard Potato Salad


In most parts of the country I imagine summer cookouts are starting to slow down and football parties are starting to pick. The good news is this recipe will work for both.

I come from a very large family, so when we all get together we usually have foods that are easy to produce in mass quantities . Cold cut trays, sloppy joes, coleslaw, and potato salads were regulars at our parties. They might not be considered upscale, but they bring back loads of memories of fun times with my wild family. And I don’t know very many people that don’t enjoy an occasional creamy potato salad.

This recipe has a perfect balance of creaminess from the mayo (and Greek yogurt, I had to add) and tang from the mustard. It was great the day I made it and even better the next day after all of the flavors had time to work together. I was conservative with the chopped pickles because I didn’t want the pickle flavor to be too strong, but next time I’ll use the full amount and the recipe below reflects that.


Creamy Mustard Potato Salad
(Adapted from The Cooking Photographer)

Ingredients
6 medium-large potatoes, I used Yukon golds
2 hard boiled eggs, chopped
1/4 cup finely chopped onion
1 Kosher Deli-style dill pickle, chopped fine (about 1/4 cup)
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp dry dill leaf
1/4 tsp celery seed, rubbed between palms
1/4 tsp paprika
1/4 tsp dry mustard
Freshly cracked pepper, to taste
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/4 cup Greek yogurt
2 Tbsp prepared yellow mustard
2 to 3 Tbsp dill pickle juice from the jar

Directions
Peel, dice, and boil potatoes in unsalted water until tender, but not so soft they fall apart. When done, place in a cold water bath, until cool, then strain well. Mix all dry spices and liquid ingredients together in a small bowl.

Add potatoes, onion, egg, and pickles to a large bowl, and gently stir in the seasoning mixture until well mixed. Chill at least an hour before serving.

For a nice presentation, sprinkle with paprika and garnish with fresh parsley before serving.