‘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!!