quite possibly the yummiest thing i've ever made with leftover grilled chicken

Personally, I love leftovers. Most of the time, there is just a serving or so of the previous night's dinner. Sometimes I make something like enchiladas or lasagna and that will be lunch for a couple of days. But most of the time I have to try to come up with a new way to serve the leftovers because, unfortunately, no one else in the house shares my enthusiasm for them. Taco meat becomes taco salad, a tray of veggies becomes stir-fry, and so on. We grilled chicken the other night and I made too much, as usual. Instead of just slicing it for salad or quesadillas like I sometimes do, I thought I'd try a pasta salad.

Here's what I had to work with**:

2 grilled chicken breasts

1/2 box penne pasta

fresh roma tomatoes from my neighbor's garden (Thanks Wini!)

a tub of pesto

lemon

Here's what I did:

Cooked the pasta, saved about 1/4 cup of the pasta water and then drained it.

Sliced the chicken breasts.

Seeded and diced the tomatoes.

Combined the reserved pasta water with 1/2 cup of pesto. Then added the zest of the lemon, the juice from 1/2 the lemon, about a tablespoon of olive oil, and a little salt and pepper.

Tossed the pasta with the pesto mixture and then folded in the chicken and tomatoes.

YUM! It was great for dinner that night. Even better for lunch the next day. And still even better for lunch today! Normally, I would be annoyed that no one else even wanted to try it, but in this case I'm glad...more for me!

**Know what else would have been good? If I had added some roasted red peppers. Or maybe some mozzarella cheese. Or take out the chicken and add tuna instead.