Quickie: Holy Macaroni!

Pasta salad is one of the easiest dishes to make a large batch of, and always a crowd-pleaser.

I stock up on pasta and Italian dressing when they go on sale, and am always ready to whip up a batch for church luncheons and other potluck events.

I like to use Wacky Mac, a multicolor mix of pasta shapes (shells, wheels, and spirals) which adds visual excitement with no extra effort on my part. Wacky Mac is colored with beets, tomatoes, and spinach, not artificial ingredients. Wacky Mac also goes on sale at Big Y frequently, and there are often coupons for it too, so I stock up on it.

Here's what was in my last pasta salad-- The colossal batch I brought to the 9/21 church supper.

1 1/2 pounds pasta (2 bags of Wacky Mac)

16 to 24 ounces Italian dressing (I used 24 oz. of Cain's Light Italian.)

1 1/2 pints grape tomatoes, snipped in half with kitchen shears

2 cans black pitted olives

8 oz. bag of pizza blend cheese (or Italian blend or mozzarella)

Toss everything together.

Of course, adjust the batch size and ingredient proportions to your liking. The cheese added some protein so that the leftovers would be more like a complete meal. Unfortunately, the supper was very sparsely attended, and I packed up three quart-sized yogurt tubs to foist upon others. But it was sooooooo good.