‘USE THOSE VEGGIES PASTA SALAD’
Yesterday… a busy day of little league and gardening with no chance to hit the grocery store means a evening raid of the pantry and refrigerator. And such a raid found a ton of veggies that needed to be used — stat.
The result: a SIMPLE, QUICK, and YUMMY pasta salad that was such a hit that the kids even asked for the leftovers to be put in their lunch boxes this morning!
And here’s the best part — as long as you have some pasta and a little Italian salad dressing, you can make this with anything you have hanging out in your house. Here’s what I used:
- penne
- light Italian salad dressing
- cannellini beans
- celery
- heirloom tomatoes
- mini sweet peppers
- carrots
- black olives
- shredded parmesan cheese
I boiled, drained and rinsed the pasta, chopped the veggies and olives, and tossed it all together with a little dressing (maybe a 1/4 cup.) Total time: 20 minutes.
The cannellini beans make this pasta salad more hearty — and transform it from a side dish to a main dish. While I was chopping and dicing, I wished I had a cucumber and some red onion. They would have added a new twist — but, oh well! You go with what you got! And the family loved it!
The added bonus — I didn’t have to make lunches this morning. Just filled the kids’ thermoses with leftovers!
FIVE FORKS! Woo-Hoo!
Now that’s happy eating!!
Looks awesome!! I wonder how it would be if some of the veg were roasted? Looks like an amazing cookout salad!!
What a great idea! I’m definitely going to try that!!