After last night’s birthday dessert, we rerally needed something a bit less caloric for dinner, tonight – especially since we’re going to have another small piece, this evening!

I had taken some chicken out of the freezer this morning before heading to work, and decided a pasta salad would be a great idea for dinner.

Pasta salads are pretty much open, chop, and dump salads around here. It’s whatever is open in the ‘fridge, whatever veggies are lying about, and whatever looks good from the cupboard. Since there are always a half-dozen or mor pastas on the shelf, it’s just a matter of which one I grab, first.

Tonight, it was radiatore. And the fixin’s included grilled chicken, marinated artichokes, sun-dried tomatoes, blue cheese stuffed olives, white beans, roasted red peppers, and freshly-grated parmesan cheese. The dressing was the oils and marinades from the jars…

Really simple and really good. Another plus is there’s enough left for a few lunches.

Now… about that cake…