Wednesday, March 23, 2011

italian pasta salad…

The weather is really warming up around here. The boys were in shorts and t-shirts today, and I’m aware of the dire necessity to start hunting for boys summer shoes, etc. Ahem.

I’m looking for cool, simple foods right now. And I’m all about carbs at the moment… =) Enter pasta salad!

I found this recipe for Italian dressing seasoning at All Recipes… I subbed in garlic powder for the garlic salt, eliminated the celery salt because I didn’t have any, and lowered the salt to just a dash. Lots of flavor… little sodium. And I used red wine vinegar instead of white… and olive instead of canola oil.

I cooked up a little less than half a pound of rotini, added in the dressing and a cup of cooked chicken that I’d thawed, and tossed in some chopped green pepper, (a little sharp cheddar for my portion), and some sliced pepperoni. I can make this in a few minutes after the kids go down for naps, and it’s nice and marinated by dinner…

I like those Suddenly Salad box kits, I must admit, but I don’t like all the salt and preservatives. And they’re much pricier and less tasty than homemade… Now that I have this Italian seasoning on hand in the pantry, I can make up my own just as quickly and more cheaply… Enjoy!

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