Sunday Dinner--7 Up Chicken and Pasta Salad

several years ago we were having dinner at my mom's, nothing too fancy, just grilled chicken ceasar salads.  before she grilled the chicken, she marinated it in sprite and soy sauce.  i thought it was the weirdest thing, but the chicken turned out so good!  i forgot all about that "secret" marinade, until a few weeks ago while browsing pinterest, and i came across someone's pin for Grilled 7-Up Chicken.  i checked out the recipe http://www.sixsistersstuff.com/2011/09/moms-secret-chicken-marinade.html and thought it was so funny how this blogger talks about her mom making chicken this way for years.  i marinated my chicken in 12 oz of sprite and 1/2 cup soy sauce for about 7 hours.  i didn't use the horseradish that the recipe calls for simply because we didn't have any, and i cut out the oil because who needs added oil?  and because the picture on the blog with the recipe for the marinade included a pasta salad, i started craving the pasta salad my mom makes for every family bbq.  seriously, this pasta is so good!  so while the chicken was marinating, i whipped up a batch and let it chill until we were ready to eat.  i'm pretty sure the pasta salad recipe came out of a magazine, so i'm not sure where the credit for the recipe goes, but here it is!

Creamy Italian Pasta Salad

1 cup mayonnaise

2 Tbsp red wine vinegar

1 clove garlic

1 tsp basil

1 tsp salt

1/4 tsp pepper

1 1/2 cup twist macaroni, cooked

1 chopped bell pepper

1 cup cherry tomatoes, quartered

1/2 cup sliced ripe olive

Combine first 6 ingredients.  Mix in remaining ingredients.  Cover and chill.

super easy, and i can't mention enough, so good!  like my mom always does, i used the entire 1 lb bag of pasta rather than the 1 1/2 cups to make it less creamy and not so strong on the taste of the mayo.  this dinner is definitely something i'd make again.  mr. d said that the chicken had a good flavor to it, although he was a little disappointed when i told him in marinated in sprite because he was worried about how much sugar it had in it.  of course he worries about things like that.  he also had his dinner with a side of steamfresh italian veggies, so that he could have some veggies with dinner without having to eat the "disgusting olives" in the pasta salad.