Choice Morsels

I always like trying new summer pasta salads and found this one on Pinterest:   Two Bean Pasta Salad! It involves mixing chick peas & kidney beans with pasta for a higher protein/veggie salad. This recipe came from a blog, but I felt it didn't have enough dressing. Even waiting to the last minute to add it, the pasta still absorbed and it tasted a little dry.  So, here, I've doubled the dressing ingredients, to give you extra to add to help prevent the dry-out! It's a pretty salad and I did add extras like grape tomatoes and carrot matchsticks because I like a lot of color and I didn't have any spinach and I don't like black olives. I also used colorful veggie pasta. (Photo my own) Two Bean Pasta Salad 2 cups cooked pasta, any kind 1 can red kidney beans, drained & rinsed 1 can chick peas, drained & rinsed 1/2 cup sliced black olives 1/4 to 1/2 cup diced red onion 1/2 cup fresh Kraft Parmesan or Romano cheese 1 1/2 cups fre...

Last summer I tried out new Potato Salad recipes; this summer I'm trying out new Pasta Salad recipes. Sweet Macaroni Salad was the first. I found it on Pinterest.  What makes it unique is it calls for Sweetened Condensed Milk (like Eagle Brand). It's actually sweet-sour, since it uses vinegar to balance the sweet. It's not rich or overly sweet or anything. I felt it could stand a tad less vinegar, but I'll give you the measurements as is and you can try it out and make your own adjustments. This salad needs to be made and refrigerated overnight---so remember to make it the day before you want to serve it. (photo is from Pinterest) Sweet Macaroni Salad Ingredients: 1 (16oz) box elbow macaroni 1 cup carrot matchsticks  1 fresh green pepper, chopped small 1 red onion, chopped small Dressing Ingredients: 2 cups mayo 1 (14oz) can sweetened condensed milk (like Eagle Brand) 1 cup apple cider vinegar 1/4 cup sugar 1 teaspoon salt 1/2 te...

Today's Good Eating recipes is a delightful side-dish for all your summer grilling: Caprese Pasta Salad! (pronounced kuh - prey - zey )  It's originally from Pinterest and I've found it so tasty, I've made it twice now! I love it! It's a great recipe to use your abundance of summer garden tomatoes in! And, if like me, you have tons of fresh Basil growing outside, great for that, too!  I didn't know that I like fresh Mozzarella until I tried this recipe, but now I love it! The soft cheese absorbs the flavor of the pesto! The recipe comes from a cooking blog called Pip & Ebby I make my own Basil Pesto by adding to a mini-chopper 1/2 cup Kraft Red Roasted Pepper Italian Dressing (just 30 calories per 2 Tbsp), 3 or 4 Tablespoons olive oil, 1 clove of garlic & a gob of fresh Basil leaves. Pulse this well chopped, then pour over the tomatoes & mozzarella & stir to combine and set aside until pasta is cooked, cooled and ready to add! Or...