Ok this is my absolute FAVORITE pasta salad! I got this recipe from my Dad and decided to make my own modifications so that it would be a healthier version. It's really simple to make and I actually made this batch up for a cookout I'm going to tonight. The Italian dressing gives it a really light, fresh taste along with the crunchiness of the peppers and cucumber.
This pasta salad also goes great with turkey burgers or grilled shrimp, perfect for the summer! Yes, yes I know it's only March, but I'm beyond ready for the warm weather to kick in! This recipe is only 205 calories with 2 grams of fat per serving as opposed to the original recipe which is 407 calories and 24 grams of fat! Now I'm sure you could find an even healthier Italian dressing to use or even make your own using oil and vinegar, but in my opinion, this recipe wouldn't taste as great as it does without using Zesty Italian dressing.
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Servings: 6
Serving Size: 1 cup
Calories: 205
Fat: 2 g
Carbs: 40 g
Fiber: 4.6 g
Protein: 6.4 g
Old Points: 3.5 pts
Points+: 5 pts
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Here are the ingredients:
1 (14.5 oz) box of Dreamfields Penne Rigate Pasta (or whole wheat pasta is great too!)
Half a bottle of Kraft Light Zesty Italian dressing
1 green bell pepper, chopped
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1 whole cucumber, chopped
1/3 of McCormick's Perfect Pinch Salad Supreme Seasoning, I usually just eyeball the amount
Cook pasta, using the box directions, until al dente and drain well. I usually pour a bit of olive oil over it so as to prevent the pasta from sticking together. While pasta is boiling, chop up the red and green peppers and the cucumber and set aside. Mix together the Zesty Italian dressing with the pasta then add your chopped veggies. Once those are combined, slowly add in the Salad Supreme seasoning until well-coated throughout. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours before serving. Makes great leftovers!!
11 lovely comments:
Is the 4 points the new PointsPlus or the old POINTS value?
Old points value :) I haven't looked up the new PointsPlus yet but for this I just calculated the calores, fat and fiber amount to get the points.
How many servings in the whole thing? How big is a serving? Would love all the calorie serving info on the print sheet. :) YEHA.
Nice recipes.
Susie
Oh and I click on print and it comes up the shamrock shake. :)
Susie
Thank you for letting me know! I will start putting all the calorie information on each print sheet and change this to the pasta salad. Hehe I'm still working out all the kinks on this. The pasta salad has about 6 servings as I used one box of pasta and one serving is 230 calories with 2 grams of fat. Hope that helps!
Thanks. It printed out find and I added the calorie info.
You're doing great,
Susie
I love Italian Pasta Salads! I make my specialty with the Garden Rotini Multicolor Pasta (idk if the flavor is different but it adds a great lively color to the salad!) chopped up a green, red, and yellow bell pepper
2 cucumbers (or more, i loooove 'em!)
1 large or 2 small tomatoes
and the best part! the zesty Italian Dressing!!!!!!!!
I'm thinking of maybe added a few more things. I have to experiment with it tho (:
Looks great, just added this to my links for today's post!
How much pasta if you are using another brand? This just says "one box".
Also, is the McCormick's Perfect Pinch Salad Supreme Dressing a packet? A bottle? What is it? And do you have a substitution if you can't find that particular brand?
Thanks!
OK I looked up the seasoning and see it's a bottle. But this recipe just says "1/3 of..". How much do you use? It comes in different sized bottles. Thanks!
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