Garden Vegetable Pasta Salad

so, my boyfriend andrew and I have made a pact that we're going to eat completely healthy from here on out, which is fine because we should be doing that anyway, right? well, I have a huge sweet tooth so the whole "in moderation" thing may cause some trouble. anyway! last night after we sat at the foot of the falls at hogs back park we ventured to the grocery store to buy ingredients to make real, healthy meals. we both work so lunches are always a problem. you can only eat so many meat and cheese sandwiches before it gets old so I decided I'd throw together a pasta salad. I've been eyeing this recipe in my foodgawker favourites for a while so I decided it was time to actually throw it together.

it is cheap (which is nice for students like us) and really, really easy to make. I didn't stick exactly to the recipe that I found online so I'll post my rendition, too.

I bought a basil plant instead of buying fresh basil leaves every time! it smells delicious and for $3 it'll last me forever.

I find buying produce to be tricky. there is always more than a recipe calls for so I use what I need then put the remainder in the fridge but lo and behold I usually forget about it then I find it weeks later shrivelled up and resembling nothing like it did when I picked it off the shelf.

our local grocery store carries veggie trays for around $3 a piece so I grabbed one of those because three out of the four vegetables in it were what I needed! aside from that I had to buy a red onion and celery and a bag of pasta shells.

andrew and I had a bit of a dilemma trying to pick which size shells we wanted to use. the conversation went a little something like this:

E: small or big pasta shells?

A: it's totally up to you, whatever you think would work best.

E: well, I think with the small ones there will be a lot of pasta.

A: isn't that the point? 

well played, my friend. well played. we went with the big ones anyway because, well, go big or go home.

I used about eight slices of cucumber chopped up, a quarter of a red onion sliced and diced, two stalks of celery, five or so cherry tomatoes cut in half, roughly half a cup of broccoli, five leaves of fresh basil, two and a half cups of pasta, and four tablespoons of zesty italian salad dressing.

cook your pasta until tender, chop up your veggies and throw them in a bowl. rinse pasta under cold water so it doesn't stick and shake it well so it's dry. mix it in with your vegetables, pour dressing over and stir! put it in the fridge to chill and there you have it, a simple easy salad!

if I didn't see a need to photograph every step of everything I make, I could probably have it done in about half the time. you could easily whip this together in 10 minutes!

until next time, happy making!