Tri-Color Pasta Salad

The Tri-Color Pasta Salad is possibly one of our favorite side dishes.  The assembly is easy and quick, and the finished product is addicting.  Its ridiculously easy to eat way too much of this.  Plus, its light and colorful so it's perfect for the classic summer picnic aka Memorial Day.  The other part about this dish is that we have been known to eat it straight out of the serving dish... waiting to put it on a plate or bowl to eat just takes way too long. So yeah, we grab a spoon and go for it. Luckily for us this salad is healthy and that means we can have our fill without worrying about the calories!

This salad uses tri-color pasta, carrots, cheese, broccoli, black beans, and Italian salad dressing.

This recipe is pretty big so feel free to chop this in half, quarters, or whatever you need.  Don't worry about the exact measurements.

Start by cooking two 12 oz packages of tri-color pasta according to the package.

Drain and place pasta into large bow.  Cool the pasta in the refrigerator until cold.

While the pasta is cooling, cut 1 1/2 cups of carrots into small pieces.

Then add the carrots into the pasta mix.

Up next is cheddar cheese. Cut the cheese into small cubes.  You'll need approx. 1 1/2 cups of cheese.

Then add the cheese to the pasta mix and stir.

After is the broccoli, cut approx. 1 1/2 cups of this as well.

The last add in is the black beans.  We just drained one can and threw it in.

The last step is to add the Italian salad dressing.  For this large of a batch we use almost 3/4 of a bottle.

This might seem like a lot, believe us we always try to add less, but as our mother likes to say when we make this, "it soaks it up."  So don't be afraid to douse this thing.  In fact add some, wait a bit before you serve by storing it in the refrigerator and then add some more dressing.

And that's it.  Cook pasta, add in extra stuff, throw in salad dressing and it's done.  It takes next to no time, is delicious, healthy, and wait for it.... cheap.  Coming in at around $9 makes this 20 healthy servings dish equal chump change.

Recipe

2 12oz packages tri-color pasta
1 1/2 cups carrots sliced
1 1/2 cups cheddar cheese cubed
1 1/2 cups broccoli
1 can drained black beans
Italian Dressing to taste

Cook the tri-color pasta according to packages. drain and let cool in refrigerator.
Add carrots, cheese, broccoli, and black beans to the pasta. Mix well.
Add in Italian dressing until it is thoroughly coated.  Eat as fast as humanly possible.
Serves a small nation.