Mom's Pasta Salad

This is the pasta salad I grew up eating. It's a family favorite and a great dish for a potluck or barbeque with the family. It's easy to make, feeds a bunch, and the leftovers taste good too!

• 1 box of rotini pasta
• 3-4 hard boiled eggs
• three quarters to a whole red bell pepper chopped coarsely
• 1 green onion sliced thin
• 1 carrot schredded
• 1 cucumber quartered and sliced thin
• half a packet of dry Italian dressing mix
• light mayonaise
• Marzetti's Slaw Dressing
• water to taste

Make box of pasta. Meanwhile, cut and prepare other ingredients. Drain pasta and let cool. Mix it with eggs and vegetables.

To make the pasta salad dressing combine loosely filled half a cup of mayonaisse with slightly less than half a cup of slaw dressing and stir to combine. Add a little bit of water, if you think it's too thick and stir again. If about a cup of creamy dressing seems like a lot, you can reduce the amount of mayonaisse and dressing added but keep in mind it is going on a full box of pasta and quite a bit of vegetables.

Add to pasta, egg, and vegetable mix. Stir to combine. Shake up dry Italian dressing seasoning packet to combine contents and then sprinkle approximately half on top of salad. Stir to combine. Add more mayonaisse if the mixture looks dry. Refrigerate for several hours or overnight.

Serve along side traditional barbeque foods, with a sandwich, or top with left over grilled chicken. It's great and it just woudn't be summer without it! After posting this, my mom added these tips to the comment section: I stir the dry Italian dressing into the mayo/Marzetti combination. Also, I use fat-free milk to thin the dressing if it's too thick. But whatever makes sense to you will work. Also, I use 2-3 green onions per box of pasta - but that depends on your taste. Sometimes I'm lazy, and rather than shredding a carrot, I use the pre-packaged julienned carrots.

Visit A List Maker's Life for more Saturday Salad recipes! I've also added this to Tempt My Tummy Tuesday at Blessed with Grace and on Tasty Tuesday at Balancing Bedlam and Beauty.