Easy Pasta Salad for Dinner!
Pasta salad is super easy and fast to make. You can get super creative with it too. You can make it accordingly to your preferences on how healthy too. Vegetarian, gluten-free, dairy-free, you pick.
Here is the how:
STEP 1
Pick your pasta! 
Bow tie, fusilli, elbow, shells….. made of wheat, brown rice, or other GF grain
We used vegetable fusilli
Cook the pasta like you normally would, at the last minute add any vegetables you wish to have cooked. Then strain.
STEP 2
Load up on veggies!
Use as many cups of veggies as pasta. This keeps your pasta salad healthy and slashes the calories compared to typical versions.
Arugula, mushrooms, peppers, tomatoes, zucchini, baby spinach, artichoke hearts, broccoli, onion…
We used broccoli, cherry tomatoes, artichoke hearts, carrot and cauliflower florets.
STEP 3
Add lean Protein
Adding protein helps make it more satisfying.
Hard boiled eggs, chicken, ham, beans or chunky tuna
We used garbanzo beans.
STEP 4
Boost Flavor!
You can add a little higher calorie or salty ingredients like cheese, picked vegetables and such. Chop them small to get a bit in each bite.
dried fruit, full flavor cheeses, olives, sun dried tomatoes, prosciutto….
We used feta cheese and kalamata olives.
STEP 5 (optional)
Dress it!
Use a low calorie dressing with an olive oil base. We have a few home made dressing recipes here on Happy and Healthy Recipes.
Mix it all up and you are done! You can eat this warm or cold. Great for making it and then taking to work for lunch.