The passing of my sister’s wedding last week sort of reminded Dan and me that even though we both intend to attempt to get in shape before our January 2013 wedding, neither of us has done much to actually accomplish that goal. Well, other than buying a treadmill and drinking a lot of vodka tonics. (Because we’re trying not to buy beer. Very logical.) After almost three weeks of no grocery shopping (seriously, we ran out of EVERYTHING. Even triscuits. And pasta sauce. There was nothing to eat. At all.) we finally buckled down on Sunday, and since we were at the store, we figured that instead of our standard Sunday burritos, we would cook something, and make it healthy for once.

We really don’t cook much, other than chili a few times, and risotto a few other times, and I just didn’t feel like eating chili on such a hot day. I googled around for some chicken+pasta+veggies type recipes, and had found a few that looked good… until the light bulb went off and I remembered bookmarking Erin’s Roasted Veggie Chicken Pesto Pasta Salad over a year ago. Perfect! I was afraid Dan wouldn’t be interested in the same varieties of roasted vegetables that I was, but luckily we were on the same page.

We roasted grape tomatoes, bell peppers, asparagus, zucchini, and broccoli while we cooked pasta and seared some Mrs. Dash-coated chicken breasts. (We went with a pound rather than just one breast as recommended.) I was kind of shocked that we managed to time it all so perfectly. And it smelled SO GOOD while we were cooking.

We loaded it all into bowls (with four servings left over, which I’m SO looking forward to) and ate it while watching some Arrested Development. It did not disappoint, not even a little – I would say this is one of the best things we’ve ever made, but we don’t cook so much… still. This was so, so so tasty, and healthy, and flavorful, and I can’t wait to make it again.

(This is also counting for week 49 of the long-forgotten Handmade52 – it really has been months and months since I even remembered that I left this project hanging so close to the end. Project Life, my new love, counts for week 48, and I’m going to enjoy coming up with projects for the remaining week to finish this project for real.)