2. Caprese Pasta Salad
This Italian salad offers you a quick and easy dish packed with an abundance of flavor. Although it does look a little bland to the eye due to the fact that it has no salad dressing, do not be deceived, not only can this pasta salad serve up to 10 people but it also carries a whole lot of nutritional value and seasoning.
Caprese is a rather simple pasta salad and needs to be upscaled in order to make for a filling dish. One way to do this is to add some meat, preferably chicken strips or beef strips. This ups the salad’s protein numbers and also makes it more of a meal than a snack. You may also want to consider using a pasta that is more whole-grain which prevents a high blood sugar spike. The dish also adds more nutritional value in its inclusion of some fresh red juicy tomatoes, basil and shaved or grated mozzarella cheese. Despite the addition of mozzarella, Caprese pasta salad only has 12 grams of fat and 255 calories. Without the addition of a meat, the protein level is at 10 grams, add some meat and this can go up to 22 grams.