I have always hated mayo. To be truthful, I'm not big on condiments in general. Ketchup, mustard, mayo, miracle whip, steak sauce, vinegar, salad dressings in general...I hate them all. I eat everything plain and dry.
And then, a few years ago, I found Kraft Parmesan Romano salad dressing. It's part of their Special Collections line. And suddenly, I was accepted as a "real" salad eater, because I would eat lettuce with a wet topping.
About a year ago, I got to thinking. About half of Salad dressings are based on mayonaisse. And that's a main ingredient in pasta salads, tuna salads, chicken salads...you get the idea. I love all the ingredients in these salads except for the mayo. What if I substituted that Parmesan Romano salad dressing for mayo? And a love affair was born.
Sunday nights usually find me cooking up a big pot of something that can be used as leftovers for at least the first half of the week's lunches at work. Tonight, it's a chicken pasta salad, from various things I found around my kitchen and threw into a bowl. This makes a HUGE bowl of pasta salad. And I love it so much that I'll be lucky if there's any left by lunchtime on Tuesday.
Absolutely No Mayo Whatsoever Pasta Salad
16 oz Rigatoni, cooked
2 Chicken breasts, cooked and cubed (they were seasoned with red pepper flakes, garlic powder and a seven pepper blend)
1 green bell pepper, chopped
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1 can black olives, sliced
7 oz (two little bags) baby carrots, chopped
8 oz mozzerella cheese, cubed
Enough Parmesan Romano salad dressing to make it tasty
1/2 cup parmesan cheese
1 tsp celery salt
a few basil leaves, chopped up
The directions are simple: Cook the pasta and the chicken. Cut the chicken and veggies into pieces you're comfortable with. Mix it all together into a big bowl. Devour.
1 comment:
Good readinng this post
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