A Week of Salads: Take Two!

Here's the deal peeps.

It's getting too darn close to bikini season and according to my skinny jeans, I am up a couple of l-b-s's. Argh. Instead of consoling myself in a chocolate wonder-fall, I've got a plan to hit it hard this week!

I've got serious cardio planned for the week, ab exercises, squats, planks, and strength training as well. I also informed the hubby we were doing another week of salads.

He was actually ok with this.

The salad up to bat Night 1 was Tuna and Broccoli Pasta Salad.

It was actually supposed to be an orzo salad, but I scoured my pantry for a good 5 minutes in a fruitless attempt to find the orzo. I thought I had a couple of boxes, it turns out I don't have any. I decided to throw in gemelli pasta instead (one of my faves!).

The salad is fairly economical to make since I used a bag of frozen broccoli and a can of oil-packed tuna. I had feta leftover and used kalamata olives, which I always keep on hand. Yum! It was an excellent start to A Week of Salads!

Ingredients:
8 oz pasta of your choice
1 5-oz can oil-packed tuna, chilled
3 cups frozen broccoli, defrosted
1/2 cup kalamata olives, coarsely chopped
1/2 cup crumbled feta
1/4 cup parsley, minced
2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
2 tbsp olive oil
salt
pepper
lemon zest (garnish)

Directions:
1. Cook pasta according to package directions. Run under cold water until pasta is cold. Add to a large mixing bowl.
2. Add tuna through parsley to mixing bowl.
3. In a separate small bowl, vigorously whisk lemon juice and olive oil together. Drizzle dressing over salad. Salt and pepper to taste. Toss to mix well.
4. Zest lemon over salad and serve.