Simple Dinners for Summer – Cheesy BBQ Chicken & Zesty Pasta Salad

{This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser.  All Opinions are my own.  #RollIntoSavings #CollectiveBias}

You’ll want to Print and Pin these recipes to incorporate into your Simple Dinners for Summer!

If there’s one word to describe how I’m trying to survive summer, it’s this: Simple.  I’m simply not up for much these days. The second word?  Budget.  Yeah, purchasing a new car, weeks of summer camp, and outfitting a nursery can put a strain on finances, so we’re cutting back in other places where we can, especially around the 1st and 15th of the month!

Two areas of focus for simplicity and budgeting are the meal plan and grocery bill.  I’m pulling back on the extravagant meals: cooking easy meals with less expensive ingredients.  You’ll notice the trend for simple dinners for summer in our upcoming July Meal Plan, but to get a head start, I came up with a great summer dinner with some tasty ingredients, then shopped at Walmart for KRAFT products on rollback.  Honestly, the prices were stunning.

Below you’ll find the recipes for Mayo-Marinated BBQ Cheesy Chicken and a Whole Grain Zesty Pasta Salad, a dinner that could easily feed 4-6 people, and you know what?  ALL of the ingredients cost less than $14 TOTAL!  The only ingredients I didn’t price out were cooking spray, salt, and pepper, but I ended up with plenty of leftover cheese, barbecue sauce, dressing and mayo, so I figure my pricing was more than generous.

And let’s not forget how SIMPLE it was to cook!   For the chicken –

Step 1: Marinate
Step 2: Grill.
Step 3: Add Sauce
Step 4: Add Cheese
Step 5: Eat

A gal (and grill dude – sorry ladies, he’s not available for purchase) could get used to that kind of cooking!  Plus, it was so juicy, tender and flavorful we all gobbled it up.  Not even a complaint from the kids – WOW!

If that doesn’t convince you that this dinner is a winner, I’m not sure what will!  Head on over to Walmart to get your KRAFT ingredients on rollback then heat up the grill this weekend.  Bon Appetit!

Mayo-Marinated BBQ Cheesy Chicken
Ingredients:
1 lb. chicken breasts (or 1 breast per person)
1 cup of KRAFT Mayonnaise (or enough to coat chicken during marinade process)
salt and pepper, to taste
KRAFT Barbecue Sauce
KRAFT Natural Cheese Slices (we chose Aged Swiss)

Directions: Place chicken breasts in a large ziploc bag, and add in mayo and salt and pepper.  Squish around (that’s the technical term), until coated and refrigerate for a few hours.

Heat up your grill to medium heat, and coat with oil or cooking spray.  Place chicken breasts on direct heat and cook 4-5 minutes with grill lid closed.  Flip, baste with BBQ sauce, and cook for another 4-5 minutes.  Flip again and sauce.  Once chicken is done (slight give at the touch), add a slice of cheese to each piece of chicken and close the grill lid.  Once melted, remove to plate and dish it out!  Feel free to serve with additional barbecue sauce.  (That’s my kids’ favorite part!)

Zesty Primavera Pasta Salad
Ingredients:
13.25 ounces whole wheat pasta shape
KRAFT Zesty Italian Dressing
Sliced Cucumber
Halved Cherry Tomatoes
Fresh herbs, if you’ve got ’em!

Directions: Cook pasta according to al dente according to package directions.  Drain and rinse under cool water.  In a large bowl toss pasta with 1/2 cup of dressing, or however much you like (some like it saucier than others!).  Gently mix in cucumbers and tomatoes, then garnish with chopped herbs.  Serve immediately, or refrigerate for a few hours to allow the flavors to blend!