Veggie & Pasta Salad

It's been a while since I've successfully cooked on two consecutive nights. For some reason, I've been having a tough time finding joy in cooking lately. I'm fairly certain this is part of a bigger lesson that God is teaching me about where to funnel my creativity, so I'm trying to push through and cook even when I don't feel like it. One thing I discovered today is that if I leave all meal prep until just before dinner, I'm exhausted and overwhelmed and want to quit. Today, A & B had friends over to play, so I made part of our dinner in the afternoon so that it would be chilled and ready. That worked much better than starting it at 5:00 when my girls are cranky and I am, too.

1 box Italian pasta salad
1 cup whole wheat pasta
1 bunch broccoli, chopped
1 zucchini, chopped
1 cup marinated cucumbers (see below)
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/3 cup apple cider vinegar
1/3 cup Parmesan Italian dressing
Italian dressing packet from salad box

Cook whole wheat pasta for 4 minutes, then add pasta from box for remaining 4 minutes.

Steam broccoli and zucchini for 2-5 minutes, to desired tenderness. Rinse immediately in cold water to stop the veggies from cooking more.

Mix all ingredients together.

To Marinate the Cucumbers:

1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup sugar (I use a scant 1/2 cup)
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar

Mix milk, sugar and vinegar together and pour over peeled, sliced cucumbers. I used 1/2 of each marinade ingredient for two cucumbers. You can vary the marinade amounts up or down depending on how many cucumbers you are using. My mother-in-law gave me this recipe and I love the way the cucumbers taste tangy and sweet when prepared this way.

I had planned for us to have fruit salad to go with this dish. Alas, by the time we returned home from Sam's at 6:30, the last thing I felt like doing was preparing more food. So the kids had cherries and blueberries alongside their pasta salad. Oh, well. At least we didn't eat out.