Easy Pasta Salad, BAoK, Charleston Meet up

First off, thank you all for letting me know your hopes/aspirations for the next five years. Sounds like a lot of you have some big plans!! As for me, five years from now, I'd love to be generally healthy & happy, have A kid, and still be spending tons of times with Josh & Frank.

I love making up pasta salads because they make for a filling meal, you can make them ahead of time (in fact they taste much better if they have more time to set in the fridge), and you can always switch up the ingredients based on what you have on hand. You can make them with or without meat. I placed ham in this recipe for Josh’s salad since my parents had given him some to take home after our Easter dinner. For a vegetarian substitute, I used chickpeas for my own version

Simple Pasta Salad

Ingredients:

• ¼ box pasta (any shape will do)
• Cooked/cubed meat or beans (recommend chickpeas)
• 1 can artichoke hearts, quartered
• Other leftover veggies- I used Brussels sprouts
• Cubed cheese- I used mozzarella
• 1-2 tablespoon olive oil
• Juice of ½ lemon
• Salt & Pepper or other desired spices
• Parmesan cheese to top

Directions:
Cook pasta according to directions on box. Drain and let cool. In a large bowl, mix together olive oil, lemon juice, S&P/spices. Add in pasta, meat/beans, vegetables and cheese and toss to coat. Cover and place in fridge until you’re ready to serve. If you’d like, top with Parmesan cheese.

Josh’s salad:

I’m glad the weekend is approaching. What are you up to this weekend? My plans are sort of up in the air. Teaching attack today, step Saturday, otherwise??

Also, have you participated in BAoK??? If so, shoot me an email letting me know what you did. My first BAoK recipient, the awesome Melissa, received her package. I sent out a second box on Wednesday. I will be doing a recap post soon to talk about some of the other BAoK going on.

Any other Charleston area readers or foodie bloggers out there? Interested in a meet up? Email me at Itzyskitchen at gmail dot com.