Using Up Leftover Green Juice Pulp

My husband and I recently bought a juicer and the three of us have really been enjoying green juice. Especially Isla, she keeps begging for more until it's gone. I love having the juice instead of a smoothie because I don't feel like I'm choking it down. The downside is missing out on the fiber and having a bunch of leftover pulp. After doing a search on how to use it up, I saw several websites that suggested cooking with it. You can stir it into mac and cheese, make crackers out of it, and even incorporate it into breads and baked goods. I wanted to make a pasta dish because I had a chicken breast that needed to be cooked and a bag of mini shell pasta. This recipe is pretty simple depending on how many ingredients you have on hand, plus it can be made so many different ways. I loved the flavor from the sun-dried tomatoes and toasted pine nuts combined with salty parmesan cheese.

*Warning* This isn't a low calorie meal, but it's extremely filling. Isla had some, I had a bowl of it then went back for seconds and there was still enough left for lunch the next day. So I'd call this 3-4 servings, but definitely serve it up with a big side of steamed vegetables.

Green Juice Pulp Pasta
     4 small servings, or 3 regular

• 1 to 1-1/2 cups Green Juice Pulp (mine was mostly kale and celery with cucumber)
• 2 Tbsp toasted Pine Nuts
• 2 Tbsp finely chopped Sun-dried Tomatoes
• 1 cup (4 ounces) uncooked Mini Shell Pasta, bow tie would also be great
• 1 boneless skinless Chicken Breast, cubed
• 1/4 cup minced White Onion
• 1 Tbsp minced Garlic
• 1/3 cup Olive Oil
• Parmesan Cheese, to taste
• Crushed Red Pepper, optional
• black pepper, to taste

Start a large pot of water to boil on the stove. In a large skillet (I don't recommend non-stick for this recipe) add one tablespoon of olive oil over medium heat, once the pan is hot throw in the chicken breast and season with black pepper. Let it sit for a few minutes to brown, then stir and let it cook for about 3-5 minutes or until cooked through. In the meantime toast the pine nuts in a dry non-stick pan over low heat, swirling occasionally. They will smell fragrant when they're toasted, remove from heat and set aside. Once the chicken is cooked remove from the pan and set aside. Add another tablespoon of olive oil and add in your diced onions. Cook for a few minutes until translucent, be sure to scrape the bottom of the pan to get the brown bits from the chicken. Add in the garlic and saute a couple more minutes. Then dump in the green juice pulp, pine nuts, and sun-dried tomatoes. Hopefully by now you can toss in your pasta to boil, cook until it's al dente. Turn the heat off the vegetable mixture and add the chicken back in. Set aside for now.

Once the pasta has cooked, drain it and return it to the large pot over low heat. Dump in the chicken and veggie mixture. Add enough olive oil to coat the noodles and make everything a bit less dry, this is your sauce after all so be generous. Sprinkle in parmesan cheese to add a nice hint of salt since we didn't use any additional salt here. Then serve it up with an extra sprinkle of parmesan cheese and crushed red pepper if you like that hint of heat. I definitely recommend the crushed red pepper! Isla had hers without it, and she cleared her plate (tray). You can make this a one pot meal by cooking the pasta first and leaving it in a colander while you use the same large pot to cook everything mentioned above. I used a skillet to save time so I could cook everything at once. It's up to you. Enjoy!

(If this is made into 4 servings it's a little under 400 calories per bowl, I am unsure how to calculate the green juice pulp but without those calories it's 383)