Our Favorite Summer Salad

Pictured are the ingredients to our favorite summer salad which we had on the 4th of July. Hubby just finished off the last of it tonite for dinner.

There really is no recipe. And I pictured both plain rotini pasta as well as the tri-color rotini simply because I had just a little of the tri left and used it up along with some of the plain.. You may use whichever you prefer. :-))


Also you may use the beans of your choice. Hubby enjoys yellow beans and I prefer the light kidney beans so I used one can of each. Make sure you drain and rinse well.


Slice up all the veggies, the bell pepper both red and green, big fat slices of sweet onions, mouth size bites of broccoli, toss in a few green olives (or black if you prefer).


Once the pasta is boiled and rinsed toss it in the bowl too... along with your drained beans.


Once all the ingredients are in the bowl douse them with Kraft Zesty Italian dressing and stir it up so all is coated with the dressing. Then grab a tomato.


I slice our tomatoes in large pieces and arrange on the top of the salad. Hubby loves tomatoes and I don't, so leaving them on top not only makes for a great looking salad but also does not require that I fish them out of my serving. Ain't it purdy?


Then to complete the meal I use a marinade packet for our chicken breasts from McCormick.


While the pasta salad is chilling in the fridge I marinate the chicken for about 15 or 20 minutes in a handy little baggie. Hubby grills it.


The two make for a great meal. Serve the chicken on the side, or slice it up and serve on top of your pasta salad. We love easy meals all year round but especially in the summertime. Enjoy!