Lemon Balsamic Summer Pasta Salad

Happy Monday Everyone! I hope all of the mothers out there had a wonderful Mother's Day weekend celebrating! We are fortunate to have my family live about 2-3 hours away, so we drove down for the evening to spend some time with them, especially my Mom whose birthday was also on Mother's Day! My contribution was to bring pasta salad and some meat for grilling. I usually make my go-to pasta salad, but this go around I thought I'd try something different. This turned out very light and perfect for a hot Summer day. It was also tasty as leftovers, especially since you serve this cold to begin with (or I do at least). Feel free to get creative and swap out whichever veggies you want to use, but this was the version I made. Enjoy!

Ingredients

16 oz pasta (I used fusilli and recommend that or farfalle)

1/2 zucchini, cut into bite-size pieces

1/3 cup shredded carrots

3/4 cup grape or zima tomatoes, cut into bite-size quarters

1/4 cup balsamic vinegar

1/4 cup olive oil

1 tsp salt

1 tsp black pepper

1 tb dijon mustard

1/4 cup lemon juice, squeezed

1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese

1/4 cup fresh parsley (optional; I didn't have any on hand)

Directions

Bring a pot of salted water to a boil. Cook the pasta per the instructions. While cooking, mix the dressing by combining the following ingredients: balsamic vinegar, olive oil, salt, pepper, Dijon, and lemon juice. Whisk. When the noodles are done, strain and rinse them with cold water. Place in a large mixing bowl with 3/4 of the dressing, so that the noodles do not stick. Combine the zucchini, carrots, and tomatoes. Right before serving, add in the remainder of the dressing and the feta cheese. Enjoy!

NOTE: You could easily add chicken or shrimp to this for a lunch dish!