Grilled Vegetable Summer Pasta Salad Recipe

After the pool party we recently hosted, we had lots of leftover grilled vegetables. Pasta salads are a great way to make use of leftover veggies, so today I prepared some for the family. It was really easy; all I needed to do was boil some pasta and add some salad dressing to it.

This time around I made a spicy salad dressing that I drizzled over fusilli pasta, roasted bell peppers, grilled eggplant, grilled Portobello mushrooms and sun-dried tomatoes. This meal met everyone's diet, except for my father-in-law who's allergic to mushrooms (no meat, not nuts, no eggs), so I placed the grilled mushrooms on the side.

Back to School Macaroni and Cheese

Do you want your child to be the most popular kid in the lunch room? Try this macaroni and cheese recipe. I flavored the béchamel sauce with roasted red bell pepper, garlic and sun-dried tomatoes and of course a variety of cheeses. The color turns out more vibrant and the texture is perfect with both gooey and stringy cheese mixed together.

I packed the mac and cheese in a bento-style thermos lunch jar so the dish would remain warm until lunch time. My little 6-year-old sis-in-law has been going to school for less than a week but she's already made a lot of friends. When she came home, I found an empty box. She told me her lunch box is a great conversation starter!

Tuna Pasta Salad Recipe

Tuna pasta salad is one of the easiest school lunches of all times. The pasta salad can be prepared a day in advance; I usually prep the ingredients the day before and assemble the salad the next morning. All you need is mayonnaise, tuna, boiled pasta (I used fusilli) and various grilled vegetables.

Back to school lunches have never been that easy! Fusilli pasta have a fun look and the corkscrew curl in the center traps the mayonnaise so you get a creamy pasta salad. This one dish makes a balanced meal for kids in your life.

Morel and Blue Cheese Pasta Gratin Recipe (Cheese Pasta Casserole)

Our vacation is coming to an end, and we head back home in the morning. For the ride back, I made a pasta gratin using radiatore pasta with fresh morels and a blue cheese white sauce. You know, just in case anyone gets hungry! I combined the ingredients in a casserole dish sprinkled with shredded Parmesan cheese and served the gratin casserole dish with tomato and greens.

I got many of the ingredients yesterday at the Rogue Valley Farmers' Market in Ashland, where I discovered a myriad of wonderful fresh products. I was particularly drawn to the white raspberries, Oregonian goat sausages and fresh morels. After purchasing the ingredients at the market, in the afternoon we visited the headquarters of Harry and David where I bought some delicious blue cheese that ended up in this dish. Southern Oregon has turned out to be absolutely delicious!

Red Pesto Pasta Salad Recipe

Pasta salad is an easy dish for quick on-the-go meals. For this version, I used radiatore pasta because its unique shape that traps the sauce into the corkscrew-style curls. The sauce is a colorful bright red pesto made of sun-dried tomatoes, roasted red bell pepper, eggplant and pine nuts.

This is a perfect main course or side dish for picnics or summer parties. This time, I let the pesto pasta salad chill in the refrigerator for our family’s road trip to Oregon. We're leaving in the wee hours of the morning today and will arrive in Ashland for Oregon's annual Shakespeare Festival. We're looking forward to the visit! I will try to post about it and share our experience with you.