Pasta Salad for Lunch This Week!

duonyte's Note:

This recipe came from Real Simple. It's one that you clearly can modify to use whatever you have handy in the pantry and fridge. Bringing a lunch from home is a great way to save money - even the employee cafeteria is getting pricey! You can use pretty much any short variety of pasta. I would add julienned sundried tomatoes to several of these, or some chopped red bell pepper, for color and flavor. I threw in a little Chinese Roast Pork with the Asian version. Please note: I seem to get only 4 servings from a pound of pasta, so you might want to check that.

• Total Time: 25 mins
• Prep Time: 10 mins
• Cook Time: 15 mins

Ingredients:

Servings: 5

Pasta

• 1 lb penne or 1 lb fusilli or 1 lb farfalle pasta
• olive oil

Day 1 - Mediterranean Pasta

• 1/2 cup canned chick-peas or 1/2 cup cooked chickpeas
• 1/2 cup arugula
• 1/4 cup crumbled feta
• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice

Day 2 - Artichoke Almond and Parmesan Pasta

• 6 jarred artichoke hearts, chopped
• 2 tablespoons chopped roasted almonds
• 2 tablespoons grated parmesan cheese
• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

Day 3 - Tuna Red Onion and Olive Pasta

• 1 (3 ounce) can tuna, drained
• 1/4 cup pitted kalamata olive
• 2 tablespoons choppped red onions
• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 2 teaspoons red wine vinegar

Day 4 - Asian Pasta Salad

• 1 carrot, thinly sliced
• 1/4 English cucumber, diced
• 1 tablespoon canola oil
• 2 tablespoons chopped roasted peanuts
• 2 teaspoons low sodium soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon rice vinegar

Day 5 - Chicken and Pesto Pasta

• 1/2 cup shredded chicken
• 1/4 cup prepared pesto sauce

Directions:

1. Cook the pasta as per package instructions. Rinse in cold water and toss with a little olive oil. Refrigerate.
2. For each day, whisk together the liquid ingredients, if there is more than one.
3. Mix the remaining ingredients with 1 1/2 cup of the cooked pasta, then toss with the liquid ingredients.
4. For the Chicken and Pesto version, I found that warming the pasta in the microwave just a bit helped it toss more evenly with the pesto. You do need to let it cool a bit before packing it up for your lunch.

Reviews

[Sydney Mike]

What the heck! I made this recipe pretty much as given, to & including spreading it out over 5 days (well, 4 really, but I've got the making for the 5th one tomorrow & since the first 4 have gone so deliciously well, I'm sure that one will, too)! Definitely a great way to work a recipe, & it IS a keeper for me! Thanks for sharing it! [Made & reviewed in 1-2-3 Hits recipe tag]!

[Lalaloula]

This is wonderful! It is so easy to prepare and tastes wonderful! I made the day 3 version using marinated tofu in place of tuna and a yellow onion instead of the red as thats all I had. Also I added in some garlic and pepper. It was so good, Ill certainly make it again.
I had some leftovers and so the next day I added some tomato sauce to juicen them up a bit more and that was even better I thought.
THANK YOU SO MUCH for sharing this keeper with us, Duonyte!
Made and reviewed for 1-2-3-Hit Wonders June 2011.

[~SarahBeth~]

I do something very similar to this as well -- about once every two weeks I cook a big box of penne noodles and some sort of veggie (usually peas or broccoli) that I throw in during the last few minutes of boiling -- then we have it available in the fridge throughtout the weeks for quick lunches, sometimes we throw together alfredo, or just butter and parm cheese. So this group is a great way for me to get new ideas. Which I love. For today's lunch I had the mediterranean option, and this weeks pasta has peas in it so I left the arugula out, added a wee bit of mayo, red wine vinegar and some oregano! Mmmm! This was sooo good! Thanks for posting all these yummy options! :) [Made for 123 Hits]