Italian Chicken Pasta

I've had some (cooked) chicken marinating in Annie's Tuscany Italian dressing for a few days. We were originally supposed to have it for dinner on Thursday night. Amanda surprised us just a couple of hours before dinner with the news that we had a sports banquet to go to that night. Yippee. Chicken went back in the fridge to stew a bit longer. Turns out it was a kids-only thing though (which we found out after we got dressed up and arrived at the restaurant)... but it seemed awfully late to get started cooking dinner just for us, so we decided to go out and binge on junk food appetizers and get toasted on margaritas. Fun, fun.

Then we were going to have the chicken meal last night, but Kim had a mega craving for pizza, so the chicken got shelved again. (I can't resist my hot wife when she has a craving. Especially when she's sick. :( Especially when she *always* gives in to my cravings.) We ordered pizza. So then I was faced with the weekend, knowing we had plans tonight, and getting concerned that the chicken would go to waste. I decided to do a spur of the moment lunch. It was healthy, delicious, cheap, and easy. What more can you ask for??

Bring approx. 2 cups dry pasta to a boil (I used penne, because I have it on hand. If I was buying, I probably would have gotten bow tie.) with a couple tablespoons olive oil. Cook until al dente, about 10 minutes for whole grain pasta. Drain, return to pan, and immediately sprinkle in a heavy dose of garlic powder. Taste test to know when you have enough. Then stir in a heavy shake of parmesan cheese - ~1/4 c. Blend well, with several turns of fresh ground black pepper added. Pour pasta into a large bowl and place in fridge to cool down. Finely chop or shred about 2 cups of cooked chicken. Very finely chunk about 3/4 - 1 cup cheddar cheese (I used colby jack.). Remove pasta from fridge and gently stir in chicken. Then blend one whole bottle of Annie's Tuscany Italian dressing into mixture. Next, add in 1 - 2 cups fresh or frozen green peas or edamame. And finally, gently stir in your cheese chunks. Let settle, covered, in fridge for a couple of hours to enhance flavor. Or, if you're like me and have no sense of delayed gratification, inhale a bowl full right away. Yum! This is a good pasta salad choice for anti-mayo folks. ;)