Mama Mia Pasta Salad

Mama Mia! I was inspired by the Hyvee pasta salad the hubby brought home the other week. The items that inspired me were the whole cherry tomatoes, whole green and black olives, and three variety of cheeses. I was grocery shopping at ALDI's and they were having a sale on all of the Italian inspired ingredients. Cha-ching! now the cherry tomatoes that I used were gigantic, so I cut them in half. 

• To make it more diabetic friendly than I did, use whole wheat pasta and add only half of the box.

Chop up the onion and bell pepper into small dices.

 Cut in half the olives and the cherry tomatoes if too large. The frozen peas will unthaw on their own.   

 I had some light balsamic in the frig that I used for the dressing.

Pasta Salad

I box pasta of choice (I used Rotini) 

1 can black olives 

1 pint cherry tomatoes 

1 red onion

1 bell pepper (any color)

 1/2-1/3 cup each Mozzarella and Colby cheese 

1/2 cup frozen peas

Dressing

1/4 cup virgin olive oil

2 tbsp lemon juice

2 tbsp balsamic vinegar

1 tbsp Italian seasoning

salt and pepper, to taste

• This yields 1/2 cup but you should add dressing in to taste (I prefer a wee bit of dressing)

Cook the pasta according to the directions on the box (it is best to have firm pasta). Drain and let it cool. I added some ice to speed up the process. Prepare your veggies and cheese.  Once pasta is cool mix all of your ingredients. I added 1/4 cup of light balsamic dressing.