I am loving cheap, easy, fast and cold recipes right now. I mean, what’s not to love about that?
It’s been mega hot outside lately (I guess that’s what happens in August) and having grown up in a small town in the middle of the Mohave Desert, I’ve had my fill of hot weather. For a lifetime.
Seriously.
If I have crossed the threshold of the perspiring point, I’m not going to be happy about it.
Sweating = Instantly Pissed.
Thus, cold food is my BFF.
My fiancée is currently doing an internship at a hospital as part of his training to become a surgical technologist. The hospital he was assigned is about 2 1/2 hours away from where we live so we have to live apart for the next six weeks or so…
He’s moved into a hotel and comes home on weekends and until I secure full time employment I come visit him during the week (not every week but sometimes).
Anyways, the point in all this is that I’m trying to do some smart veggie shopping and bulk cooking for him so he can eat semi-healthy even on the clock!
Which brings me to the topic at hand! Pasta Salad! It’s cheap, I can make a huge portion and it only gets better and better as the days go by and the yummy Italian dressing marinates the pasta and veggies.
He’s in a pretty small town so it’s not exactly a vegan Mecca. There’s no health food store, mostly fast food joints and diners…
I literally picked these ingredients up at the generic grocery store across the street and still managed to produce a pretty dang good pasta salad. That’s the true beauty of P-Salad, you can’t mess it up!!
Ingredients –
Pasta (I like the spiral shape veggie pasta)
1 Bell Pepper
1 Medium Can Sliced Olives
1 Small Red Onion
1 Bottle Italian Dressing (I prefer Annie’s brand or Newman’s Own brand)
Instructions:
Cook, strain and drain pasta according to instructions. Pour pasta into a large mixing bowl to cool.
Slice bell pepper into long strips.
Slice red onion into long thin strips.
Combine pasta, bell pepper strips, onion strips, and olives in the large mixing bowl.
Pour enough of the Italian dressing over the ingredients so they are evenly coated. (I made a big batch so I ended up using the whole bottle).
Refrigerate overnight.
Eat! Enjoy!
PS.. Obviously you can fancy this up by adding more veggies. At home I like to add capers, artichoke hearts, broccoli, blanched asparagus etc! Be creative! Or don’t! Like I said… Pasta salad is ALWAYS good.
The Very New Vegan 
Looks great!
It needs cherry tomatoes! 🙂
Good idea!