Pasta Salad

Fresh veggies and perfectly cooked pasta tossed together with Italian dressing and Parmesan cheese. It's one of my favorite summer salads!

I hope everyone had a relaxing holiday weekend! My husband has been back to work for about 3 weeks now (he's a school teacher), so it was nice to have a few days off with him.

Now that Labor Day is gone, summer is officially winding down. This recipe is a summer barbeque favorite of mine. I use a variety of summer vegetables: grape tomatoes, cucumbers, bell pepper, red onion, and carrots. Chop them into bite size pieces, toss with cooked rotini and the Italian dressing of your choice. Delicious and simple!

All of the vegetables need to be washed and dried well before assembling the salad. When chopping up the vegetables, leave pieces that are all similar in size as shown below.

Grape tomatoes: slice lengthwise in half, Cucumber: Halfway peeled, sliced and then cut into fourths, Red Onion: Diced, Carrots: Peeled and diced, Bell Pepper: Diced

While prepping the vegetables, boil the pasta according to package directions. Do not overcook the pasta! I can't emphasize the importance of this. Nothing ruins a good pasta dish like mushy, overcooked pasta. I always go by the "al dente" directions on the box, sometimes even a minute less. You want your pasta to have a little resistance when you bite into it. Once you toss warm pasta with sauce or dressing, it absorbs the liquid and softens the pasta a little more. When in doubt, under cook it just a tad.

Once everything is prepped and the pasta is done, toss the veggies, pasta, and dressing in a large mixing bowl. I start by adding about 1/4 of the bottle of dressing (sounds like a lot, but this is a big salad). The pasta will absorb the dressing as it chills, so adjust as needed. Chill the salad for at least two hours before serving. Once it is chilled, give the pasta a quick stir (dressing tends to fall to the bottom) adjust dressing as needed and top with freshly grated Parmesan cheese. I think I ended up using about 1/3 of the bottle of dressing. Of course, a homemade Italian dressing will work just as well. Use whatever you like.

Serve this pasta salad with your favorite barbeque or summer foods. But watch out, it's easy to fill up on this salad! I could make a complete meal out of it.

Pasta Salad

Ingredients

• 1-12 ounce package of rotini, cooked according to package directions (I prefer the pasta al dente)
• 1 small package of grape tomatoes, sliced in half
• 1 cucumber, halfway peeled, sliced and then cut into fourths
• 1/2-3/4 red onion, diced
• 3 carrots, peeled diced
• 1 green bell pepper, diced
• Italian dressing of your choice (I prefer a robust Italian dressing)
• Freshly grated Parmesan cheese for garnish

Directions

1. Boil pasta according to box directions, leaving al dente or slightly firm. Drain pasta well.

2. While pasta is cooking, wash and prep your vegetables. Allow vegetables to drain well, or dry with paper towels. Chop vegetables so that they are all similar in size.

3. Toss pasta, vegetables, and Italian dressing together.  I start with 1/4 of the bottle of dressing and adjust as needed. Refrigerate for at least two hours or until well chilled. Stir and taste before serving. Adjust dressing if needed. Garnish with grated Parmesan cheese and serve.

Chipotle Sauce

Creamy, spicy chipotle sauce. A versatile condiment that is easy to make!

I made fish tacos for the first time the other night. Which, I don't know how I went so long without trying them. So good. Seriously, they were a cinch to make and a nice break from the traditional tacos that I make. I do have to make a few tweaks to my recipe before I post it, but hopefully it will make the blog in the near future.


Since I was trying to stray from my traditional taco recipe, I did not want a sour cream and salsa topping. I whipped up this spicy, chipotle sauce and it gave the tacos the right amount of kick.

With this sauce, you can control the amount of spice you want. If you don't want it to be overly spicy, don't add as much chipotle pepper or adobo sauce. If you do want it to be extra spicy, you may want to add more. I made it in the middle, not too spicy, not too mild. I think it's just right.

I used plain nonfat Greek yogurt and mayonnaise. I feel that the yogurt by itself would be a little too tangy, so I used a combo of both. If you don't have Greek yogurt, regular plain yogurt or sour cream would be good substitutes. In a blender, mix together the yogurt and mayo with some freshly chopped garlic, a dash of salt, and two chipotle peppers in adobo sauce. I also add in a little bit of the adobo sauce (other than what's already on the pepper). Throw those ingredients into a blender with a splash of lime juice (The lime juice adds a nice fresh flavor. I only used a quarter of a lime, but add as much as you would like!). Blend well, scraping down the sides as needed. It took a couple of minutes to get it blended well, as I had to scrape down the sides a couple of times to get everything incorporated and the chipotle peppers chopped up.

Transfer the sauce to an airtight container and lick the blender clean. Okay, maybe don't lick it, but scrape out every bit of sauce you can. Store sauce in the fridge for up to a week.

Drizzle this sauce over fish, fish tacos, sandwiches, salads-there are so many possibilities for this sauce!

Chipotle Sauce

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup plaint, nonfat Greek yogurt
• 1/2 cup mayonnaise
• 2 chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, coarsely chopped + 1 teaspoon of the sauce
• 1 clove of garlic, finely minced
• Dash of salt
• Freshly squeezed lime juice-I used 1/4 of a lime

Directions

1. In a blender, combine the yogurt, mayo, chopped chipotle peppers, garlic, salt and lime juice. Blend sauce until combined, scraping sides as needed. Taste to adjust lime, salt, and adobo sauce.

2. Store sauce in an airtight container in the refrigerator up to one week. Sauce goes great with fish, chicken, sandwiches, salads and anything else you think it'd be good on--use your imagination!

Couscous with Garlic & Scallions

Fluffy couscous with garlic and scallions. It's the perfect side dish that's ready in 10 minutes or less!

Couscous is similar to rice but smaller in size. I tried it for the first time two years ago and it become an instant favorite. It has a very light, almost buttery texture. I sometimes prefer to make couscous over rice because it's quick and easy. Rice can be kind of tricky to make: I either get it perfect or get it too soft. Couscous is very easy to prepare--I don't feel like you can mess it up.

Simply saute some garlic and scallions (green onions) in butter until fragrant. Add water, salt, and pepper and bring to a boil. Once it's boiling, add the couscous, give it a quick stir and cover. Let the couscous sit off the heat for 5 minutes until all the water is absorbed. Fluff the couscous with a fork and it is ready to serve! Seriously, so easy...

I developed this recipe while developing a recipe for garlic-lime chicken (recipe to come). The citrus flavors of the marinade I used needed something light to accompany it. I thought couscous was the perfect pairing. I have kept this recipe simple so that it can accompany the fresh flavors of the garlic and scallions. This dish is very versatile and can be paired with many dishes. I think it goes best with chicken or fish. I prefer using scallions in this recipe because they give a light onion flavor without being overpowering.

Speaking of scallions. I hate to admit this, but for the longest time I didn't realize scallions and green onions were the same thing. I would watch cooking shows and the chefs would be like: "chop some scallions" and I would get discouraged because I could never find "scallions" in the store I could only find "green onions." The green onions looked like the exact same thing they were using, but I figured scallions were an onion that were not available in my area(I live in a small Midwest town where it is hard to find certain ingredients). Nope, scallion is just a different word for green onion. It depends on the area you are from, but both names are for this the same onion. Occasionally you will run across multiple names for the same food. Another area of the country may call an ingredient a name completely different than what you know it as. You just have to do a little research(in my case, Google) to see if it's the same ingredient.

Okay, enough of my embarrassing story. Try this couscous!

Couscous with Garlic & Scallions

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
• 1 large clove of garlic, finely minced
• 3 scallions, finely chopped
• 1 cup water
• 3/4 cup couscous
• 1/4 teaspoon salt and pepper, adjust as needed
• 2 tablespoons freshly chopped parsley

Directions

1. In a medium saucepan, melt butter over medium heat. Add chopped scallions and garlic and stir. Saute for 2 minutes or until fragrant. Stir in water, and a little salt and pepper. Once water begins to boil, add couscous and stir just to incorporate. Cover.

2. Turn off the burner and allow the couscous to sit, covered, for 5 minutes. Refer to package directions as well, times may varies for different varieties of couscous.

3. Uncover and fluff couscous with a fork. Serve with chicken or fish.