What does your cooking series have to do with budget living? It would be fine for a cooking blog, but it's confusing as a Wisebread reader to keep seeing daily posts about your homelife. If you had a 'deal of the day' spot that would be one thing, or even a 'cheap meal of the day' but this series is quickly becoming just a recipe series, nothing more or less.
What's Cooking? 5 Ingredient, Low Fat Pasta Salad
Photo: Moria
When I need a fast, quick, low fat summer meal with lots of zesty flavor, I go for this basic pasta salad. You can flex this recipe and the amounts of every single ingredient to suit your personal tastes and the amount of people you are serving.
Ingredients: tri-color rotini, canned and drained black olives (either pitted, sliced or chopped), thawed frozen broccoli flowerets, fat free zesty Italian salad dressing, and one of my favorite products of all time, turkey pepperoni.
Before I move on to the directions, variations and tips, can I just say this: There are VERY few products in this world that make me want to jump up and down and sing zippity-do-da-day. This one does. The only company I’ve ever seen make it is Hormel. It comes pre-sliced in a resealable pouch. It has over 70-75 percent less fat than regular pepperoni, and in my opinion, kicks regular pepperoni’s arse to the curb . . . and back! It is so much more flavorful, not greasy at all, and gives you access to numerous recipes that might have previously been too high in fat. For example, this pasta salad, on pizza, or tucked in with a grilled cheese.
OK, now on to the salad. Boil the pasta and drain. Dump in the thawed broccoli, olives and turkey pepperoni slices. Dump the bottle of fat free zesty Italian dressing (more than one bottle if you are making a giant batch) in with the mixture and toss to coat.
Possible add-ons: red pepper flakes, grated Parmesan, or chopped fresh Italian herbs.
Variations: try using a different pasta, or experiment with different vegetable, meat and dressing combinations.
This salad is great to make for a large party, or on a hot Sunday afternoon to have at home with lots of extra to take for lunch during the week. It’s one of our favorite summer time savers.
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Actually, I think if you read a little deeper you'll see the support structure there for getting things done efficiently with time and little money. There are no 28 ingredient expensive recipes listed, and strategies have been worked in to fit with busy and frugal lifestyles. Since you have title suggestions, perhaps you would like to start your own column? I would be interested in what you have to offer as far as information. Thank you for your comments.
I make a lot of salads to take to work & when I get bored of salad or run out of lettuce, I make a quick pasta salad to get my veggies in for the day. I'll use any veggies that I have in the fridge-- cucumbers, celery, green pepper, onion, shredded carrot and tomatos. And I always add turkey pepperoni! I discovered it about a year ago and I LOVE it! I also put a little Salad Supreme in for taste, use a homemade light italian dressing and its good to go! Great way to get veggies in & use up the random leftover veggies in your fridge!
Glad to see your ideas posted. I'm glad you picked up on the strategy of how this can fit in with various "hanging around" ingredients. I know the first commenter had some confusion, but honestly, if people aren't able to see the power of carving out extra cash from the grocery budget in ways that can fit in with lifestyle and other money finding strategies, I'm afraid they may end up missing the boat with financial independence. Not everybody has time to make recipes that require lengthy amounts of time or expensive ingredient lists. The trick is to have a bag of tricks regarding simple recipes and affordable ways to pull things off. By that, I mean affordable with time as well as money. Our time is also a valuable asset.
Glad to see I'm not the only turkey pepperoni fan. This stuff rocks. It's really low in fat and huge on flavor and flexibility. Pasta salad keeps longer in the fridge too, which is nice for busy people on the go. Green salad can get brown or soggy in a hurry some times. Thanks for commenting.
I use reduced fat crumbled feta on a lot of my pasta now, and I bet it would go great with this salad. It's a wee bit pricey, but a little goes a long way.
And Myscha, I agree with you - food and drink are a huge percentage of most budgets. Personally, bringing lunch and trying to be a little thriftier with my meal expenditures has saved me a load of cash. Thanks for the series.
