Peas and Ham Pasta Salad

The summer is a great time of year for food, and nothing works better for a lunch or side dish as a pasta salad. However, pasta is not known for being low in calories; add some cheese and mayo, and watch out waist line! After doing a bit of digging, I found a couple pasta salad recipes that look rather good, so lets try the first one:

http://www.eatingwell.com/recipes/ham_pasta_salad.html

Now my husband and I are on the opposite sides of the pasta salad debate; I am more of an "oil and vinegar" salad person, where he likes his salads with some creaminess to them. So when I gave him the choice of the two pasta salad recipes that I had found, it was not surprising that he chose this one.

All pasta salads take a bunch of prep I have found, as it is a whole lot of chopping. This one however went rather quickly as I used my electric chopper for pretty much everything. I was surprised at how little ham and cheese there was compared to how many mushrooms we added, but overall it seemed to come together rather nicely. The dressing was a complete surprise for me, because even though it used mayonnaise, it was very light and refreshing, and it complimented the salad ingredients well.

The recipe says that this salad makes "6 servings". I say HA! to that one. With everything added in, it looked a lot more like 8-10 servings! For three people, we had it twice as a main meal (for lunch) and as a side dish once, and yet I still had enough for at least one more meal out of it!!

This pasta salad was good and it was filling (which was nice), but it made way too much for only two people. One of the main problems that I have with foods sometimes, is that halfway through eating it, I get bored of it. Unfortunately that was the case with this salad. It was good, but I would only have it as a side dish with something else. I may try cubing the cheese and ham next time to see if that makes a big difference in the taste. I also may add a bit more garlic, as well as some lemon (it just seemed like it could use that).

Overall rating:

Number of calories: 315/serving

Will I "Make Again"?: Maybe but with some slight changes

Tastiness?: 2.5/5

Fills my tummy?: 4/5