Our favorite pasta salad

And a couple of other super easy recipes …

We have been making our favorite pasta salad for several years now and it’s super easy and always a hit with just about everyone who tries it.

First, make your own dressing using the following:

Good Seasons Italian dressing mix, olive oil, and balsamic vinegar.

I have one of those shaker things that tells you right on the side of the jar how much of each ingredient to put it – super simple and the dressing comes out so yummy every time.

Other ingredients needed are:

One box of tri-colored rotini noodles

One whole cucumber

One box of cherry tomatoes

One block of colby/jack cheese

One stick of pepperoni

Cook the noodles and while you’re waiting for them chop up all the other items – we chop the cheese into small cubes, the pepperoni & cucumbers into small quarters and the tomatoes in half.

After the pasta is cooked drain it, then give it a bath in cold water, then drain again. Find a large bowl and toss the pasta, chopped items and dressing all together. And that’s all! Serve well chilled! Makes great leftovers for a couple days too!

Here is another simple thing we made for the 4th of July weekend – red, white and blue strawberries – SUPER delicious! Wash and dry your whole strawberries, then melt white chocolate and dip the strawberries about 2/3 of the way into it. While the chocolate is still ‘wet’ dip into blue sugar. Set on a sheet of waxed paper and allow to set. You can keep them in the fridge for a couple days. These were SO.SUPER.YUMMY.

 

 

And lastly – since you all know by now I’m a semi-homemade kinda gal – these cute and fun ice cream sandwich pops! Simply cut your ice cream sandwiches in half, stick a popsicle stick in the middle and roll the edges in fun, colorful sprinkles! Freeze until you’re ready to serve! I was hoping for red, white and blue sprinkles but couldn’t find any, so I just went with the rainbow colored ones.