In This Week's Lunchbox: Pasta Salad

Coming soon - Roasted Carrot Soup (it's delicious. I made it this morning for tonight) and maybe another cookie recipe.

Those of you who follow or check in on this new blog frequently will notice that there was no lunchbox posting last week. That's because I didn't get around to making anything, but had a pre-made herb salad mix (with goat cheese, plum tomatoes and slices of salami added in), tuna (just straight out of the pouch with nothing added -- that was a busy day), and a subway veggie sub.

This week, I'm back on track with one of my favorite pasta salads (of course one that doesn't use mayo -- I despise mayo). It may not be that pretty, but it is simple and good.

Ingredients:

• 1 box/package tri-colored rotini pasta
• Carrots, Broccoli and Cauliflower - I used one of those pre-made bags as there was an organic bag of these 3 veggies already chopped and packaged together on sale for $1.50 at my grocery store. (Of course you can always buy them separately and then chop -- if you do so, you need about 1/2 head of broccoli and 1/4 head of cauliflower plus some baby carrots, maybe 1/4 of a small bag or even a bit less)
• Parsley, chopped of course (just enough to add some flavor, but not overpower)
• Olive Oil
• Ranch Dressing Dip Mix (just the mix or Italian Dressing Mix or put together your own Italian Spices/Seasonings together for it)

Preparation:

1. Cook the pasta and immediately after run under cool water

2. Chop vegetables (if needed)

3. Mix together the pasta and vegetables

4. Drizzle with olive oil, parsley and dressing mix of choice -- add the dressing mix in little by little and taste so that it doesn't overpower everything else. Toss together and enjoy.

Yep - it's that simple, but once the pasta salad chills, I always find it to be quite good. Some additions that I suggest from past experience include: tomatoes and mozzarella or parmesan cheese. You could also add basil instead of parsley.

One another note -- the winter vegetable "chorizo" soup I made last week got more and more delicious and I think I ended up having it for dinner 3-4 nights and it was wonderful each time.