Goodbye springtime, hello summer, but this fresh veggie toss makes a meal for all seasons

I had to prepare this recipe while the title still was appropriate. Summer has crept in all around us; spring is just about a memory. But I guarantee you: this meal is so impressive and colorful, it knows no seasonal constraints.

This recipe was the last untried one from Southern Living’s March 2011 issue featuring “God’s bookmark”—that Southern icon, bacon. Everything else on the page I had enjoyed enormously—starting with the BLT Benedict with Avocado-Tomato Relish that I made for Hubby’s birthday morning breakfast.

Springtime Pasta with Bacon, the dish featured here, was billed as being great served warm or chilled. I was skeptical about whether these ingredients would make for a good cold salad (suitable for a brown-bag lunch for the next day, the magazine touted it) and personally believed it fell only into the “warm” category, but oh my! dining on it for lunchtime leftovers (fresh from the fridge) yesterday was pure bliss.

Fresh snow peas and frozen sweet green peas go into the bow-tie pasta during the last minute the pasta cooks. A wonderful melange of veggies—radishes, carrots, green onions, and fresh parsley—are stirred into the drained pasta/green vegetable mixture. Then all is tossed with a lemon juice-olive oil dressing plus seasonings as desired. Crumbled bacon and feta cheese go on top.

The magazine suggests serving it with grilled shrimp kabobs, but Hubby and I needed nothing else but this.

Goodbye springtime, hello summer, but this dish is a keeper. I just filed it with my Christmas bring-a-dish potentials and made it a meal for all seasons.

Springtime Pasta with Bacon

1 (16-ounce) package whole-wheat bow-tie pasta

1 cup frozen sweet peas

1 1/2 cups fresh snow peas

8 radishes, sliced thin

2 large carrots, grated

2 green onions, thinly sliced

1/3 cup coarsely chopped fresh parsley

1/4 cup lemon juice

1/4 cup olive oil

salt (or salt substitute) and pepper to taste

6 turkey bacon slices, cooked and crumbled

4 ounces feta or goat cheese, crumbled

Cook pasta according to package directions. During the last minute of cook time add sweet peas and snow peas. Drain. Toss pasta mixture with radishes and next 5 ingredients; season with salt substitute and pepper to taste. Sprinkle with bacon and feta cheese. Serves 6-8.

Crazy-healthy pasta salad with amazing combo ingredients is all-time fave!

If Hubby can have his all-time faves, then I can, too! Hubby is always proclaiming that some new dish is the “best-yet!” He does that several times a week (and has ever since we’ve been married—42 years). So his affirmations don’t always signify the greatest discernment, although I’d a whole lot rather have them than constant naysaying as some husbands do.

But this week I prepared a recipe that honestly had my tastebuds dancing in amazement and exclaiming “best-yet!” also. (Need I say that the source was the ever-clever Chickasaw Nutrition Services?) Just look at this combo in Japanese Pasta Salad: cooked brown rice, green onions (proudly from my garden, I might add), fresh apples, cucumber, oranges, and ham, with a mayo/mustard dressing. Pure craziness (not sure why it’s called Japanese), but look at all that health in one dish!

To add to that, you can serve it over a bed of spinach, if you desire! Things just keep getting better!

This salad, which is a meal in itself, can be served the minute you’re finished preparing it or left to marinate for several hours overnight—good either way. It keeps beautifully and improves by the day. We must have stretched it out for lunches and dinners over three-days’ time and were sad to see the last morsel consumed.

Topping this one will be difficult, although I’d like to prepare it sometime with whole-wheat macaroni (also suggested in the recipe) and by adding a little celery (added crunch) or small bits of cut-up cheese.

Japanese Pasta Salad

2 cups cooked brown rice

5 green onions, chopped fine

2 Granny Smith or Golden Delicious apples, small, chopped fine (skin on)

2 fresh oranges, sectioned and chopped fine

1 cucumber, skinned, remove seeds and chopped fine

1 pound ham, cubed

3/4 cup mayonnaise, light or fat-free

1 tablespoon mustard

dash of cayenne pepper

Mix all ingredients together. Place in refrigerator overnight or eat immediately. Can serve on individual plates alone or over spinach. Make 12 1-cup servings.

Fresh green onions from the garden do for this salad what Elizabeth Taylor did for the movies

I adore the freshness that my garden’s green onions bring to a salad. Walk out my patio door, yank up a few onions, waltz them inside, make a few chops to them on the cutting board, and a recipe gets instant spiritedness. I consider my green onions to be place-holders for the additional garden-fresh veggies that soon are down the road. In my spring garden a few rows over from the green onions, burgeoning tomato plants now wave in the wind. Soon we’ll be able to say goodbye to the produce aisles at the supermarket when our backyard plot moves into its heyday.

I added those green onions to a delightful chicken pasta salad that we enjoyed for dinner last night and probably will dine on throughout the weekend. (For sure this dish will grow better each day as it further marinates.) Whole-wheat penne pasta and chopped, cooked chicken breasts get enlivened with the tomatoes, green onion, red onion, and feta cheese, with a little fat-free Italian dressing to tie it all together.

Bistro Chicken Pasta Salad, served alongside some cut-up orange slices and some fresh grapes, made one of the best weekday meals we’ve enjoyed in a while. As we move closer in to the summer, the dining fare will be lighter, so this recipe’s a winner as things “lighten up” a bit.

Bistro Chicken Pasta Salad

2 cups penne pasta, whole-wheat, dry

cooking spray

1/2 pound skinless chicken breasts, cubed

1 1/4 cups chopped Roma tomatoes

4 ounces Feta cheese

1/2 cup fat-free Italian dressing

1/2 tablespoon dried basil

1/4 cup chopped red onion

1/4 cup chopped green onion

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

Cook pasta according to directions. As you cook omit oil and salt. Drain pasta. Lightly coat skillet with cooking spray and cook cubed chicken until done. Shred the chicken. In a large bowl combine the rest of the ingredients. Add pasta and chicken and toss. Best if allowed to chill in refrigerator a few hours before you serve. Makes 9 servings of 3/4 cup each.