Found my new, easy lunch hyper fixation: caprese protein pasta salad, lmk if you try this one!!
has by far been my biggest struggle meal since being postpartum. Just coming up with meal ideas in general has been so difficult. But this week, I got inspired and we’re going to do a little protein caprese pasta salad, the thing I love about pasta salads or any sort of like grain salad is the fact that it’s going to get better as it sits in the refrigerator because I am not really a leftovers or like meal prep girly. But the longer that the pasta or the grain like sits in the dressing and marinates, I feel like the better it tastes. So, let’s make it together. Started off by cooking some of the Barilla Protein Plus pasta. I love that this has just a little bit more fiber, a little bit more protein. Is it that significant compared to regular pasta? Not really, but it does have a little bit more. So, you know, every little gram, especially of fiber, counts. For protein pasta, though, I really like the Brahmi brand. You just can’t find it in grocery stores. At least I haven’t found it in a grocery store near me. I typically will order it on Amazon. I just didn’t have any on hand and didn’t want to wait for an Amazon order. But that’s another really great protein pasta option. Next three ingredients, we have the Bolt House Farms Italian dressing. You could make your own Italian dressing. I don’t have the time and I don’t want to, so I’m just using the Bolt House Farms Italian dressing. I love all of their dressings, their ranch, their dill, all of it is so good. So, I’m excited to try their Italian because I’ve actually never had it. Then, we’ve got some cherry tomatoes and some mozzarella pearl balls. So, I’m going to chop up the tomatoes and then just pull apart all of these little mozzarella pearls. So, this is what we’re working with so far. So, we’ve got our pasta as our base. We’ve got the cherry tomatoes cut up. We’ve got the little mozzarella pearls. And then we also have some Italian dressing on top. I added a little bit of salt and pepper, a little bit of Italian seasoning. And we’re getting part of our power four from here. What we’re lacking on a little bit is protein. So, we have some carbs and some protein coming from that protein pasta, plus a little bit of fiber. We have some color and some micronutrition coming from those tomatoes. And then we have some fat and a little bit of protein coming from those mozzarella balls. So, in order to bulk up the protein content on this, I have a rotisserie chicken in the fridge that I’m going to shred up and just keep separate so that we can use it for other things if we need it for a different protein source. We also have leftover grilled chicken from last night as well that we can use. But, a rotisserie chicken is a super easy option that you can keep on hand. If you are vegan or vegetarian, you could also throw chickpeas in here as well. That’s going to provide you with some good plant-based fiber and also protein. Add in my chicken.
Dining and Cooking