Colorful Balsamic Pasta Salad

       So last weekend some of my friends and I went to a movie in the park! I've been before and I always end up grabbing Sonic or KFC beforehand, but some people go all out for this event with wine and candles and colorful tablecloths with homemade food so...I decided this year we needed to do it up. Our menu consisted of grilled chicken, pasta salad and strawberry shortcake (oh and lots of white wine). My roommate made the grilled chicken but I made the pasta salad and kind of the strawberry shortcake so I'm going to include my basically made up recipe for the pasta salad. I made a TON but it was delicious and I ate it for lunch the next day. ALSO it is much healthier than creamy macaroni salads (which is normally my go to at Publix). And I know I said I wouldn't mention calories but 3/4 cup of Public brand Macaroni Salad has 350 calories and this pasta salad probably had about 200 calories plus lots of healthy veggies and the tri-color rotini has dried spinach in it so I'm sure you get health points for that!
      Depending on how fast you can chop things this recipe is medium-quick to quick (don't you love my preciseness?). You could also use smaller quantities of everything if you don't want to make a ton. 

 

Sorry I don't have a picture of the finished product but it looked beautiful and colorful and delicious

Ingredients: 

• 1 red pepper
• 1 green pepper
• 1 yellow pepper
• 1 carton of grape tomatoes
• 1 box of tri-color rotini
• 1 cup homemade balsamic vinaigrette (yes i use this for everything props to my roomate for coming up with the recipe: balsamic vinegar, olive oil, garlic, honey etc)
•  1 package of crumbled feta cheese

Steps:

1. Cook pasta according to package directions (boil water, add pasta, wait 7-8 minutes) Begin chopping veggies then when pasta is done strain add a little olive oil and mix it around so it won't stick together and set aside so it can cool
2. Chop your peppers and halve your grape tomatoes (no I don't know how to julienne peppers, I don't even think I use the right knife for things so small squares (diced) worked fine for me. I just made sure I cut them in half then cut out the part with the seeds and then I rinsed them to get rid of all the seeds (I hate those seeds!)...I do know that for the tomatoes I used a knife with a serrated edge so I didn't squish them)
3. Add feta veggies and cheese to pasta and mix. Then make vinaigrette and add that and mix in as well. 
4. Put in fridge and let cool (or not).
5. Enjoy :)