Arugula Pasta Salad

I don't know about you but I rarely eat a big breakfast or lunch, especially if I'm by myself. It just seems pointless to me to spend a lot of time and effort on a meal that only I will be eating...especially when I usually have other things I would rather spend that time and effort on! Because of this attitude I sometimes skip breakfast and lunch all together which I know is NOT healthy so don't start yelling at me :-) I'm trying to do better at coming up with different things to eat for these 2 meals so that I don't skip them and saw this recipe over on skinnytaste.com the other day (a GREAT blog by the way!) I changed it up a little and it made a fantastic lunch that was both fast and easy. Definitely a keeper!

What you need

- 1 C gluten free penne pasta
- 3 big handfuls arugula
- 1 C canned garbanzo beans
- 2 stalks celery. sliced
- 2 green onions, sliced
- 10 cucumber slices
- 1/4 C chopped sun dried tomatoes
- 2 T extra virgin olive oil
- 2 T balsamic vinegar
- salt and pepper to taste
- A few shavings of parmesan cheese





Directions


- Bring a pot of salted water to a boil and cook the pasta until al dente. Drain and rinse with COLD water to stop the cooking process

This is the penne pasta I used. I think it holds up really well and the texture is perfect!

- While the pasta is cooking, prepare your celery, cucumber, green onions, tomatoes and cheese

I used the sun-dried tomatoes packed with herbs in olive oil. I just rinsed them a little and dried them with a paper towel before I chopped them up.

- Drain and rinse the canned garbanzo beans. Refrigerate the leftover beans for a later use (hummus anyone?)

- In a large bowl, add the arugula, garbanzo beans and pasta

You don't have to use arugula but if you haven't tried it I highly recommend you do! It has a wonderful peppery flavor.

- Add all the veggies in

- Add the olive oil and balsamic vinegar

- Add a small palmful of salt and pepper

- Toss contents together gently


- Plate up and top with parmesan shavings

- Happy lunching! This salad is filling enough for a dinner meal as well and is packed with fiber.

*NOTE: You could easily add or take away things from this salad. A southwest version of this would be really good with black beans, corn and bell peppers!*