Healthy Eating/Asparagus and Arugula Pasta Salad

I just had breakfast and this picture makes me hungry!!! I made this pasta dish earlier this week and it is absolutely delicious! It's from a fun food blog called Gimme Some Oven. The blog is all about.creating fun, creative and easy recipes that are not only good to eat but healthy as well. The dish is called Asparagus and Arugula pasta Salad and you can find the recipe HERE.

Asparagus is in season right now, so it's full of flavor as well as nice and tender.

While shopping, I found this pasta. It's a blend of 8 whole grains and very flavorful. 

I basically followed the recipe. I began by filling my pasta bowl with fresh arugula.

Because I am looking to add as much color as possible to my dishes, I decided to add quartered grape tomatoes, love these little buggers!! At this point, I sat the bowl aside,cooked my pasta and chopped my asparagus. Be sure to follow the instructions and add the asparagus toward the end of the pasta cooking time.

Once the pasta was cooked and drained, I did not cool it down with water, rather I returned it to the pot and added the rest of the ingredients, except for the toasted pine nuts. Before combining the pasta with the arugula  and tomatoes, I sprinkled a little olive oil over the arugula. The pasta mixture was then added to the salad mixture and topped with the pine nuts. So in essence, I served the pasta warm. It was great! We had leftovers, so for the leftovers, I simply piled a little fresh arugula on a plate and topped it with the pasta salad and served the leftovers cold.
If you like pasta salad, by all means give this recipe a try. It's great warm and cold, so it will make a wonderful leftover, lunch time dish as well.
On the Gimme Some Oven website, you'll find a nice printable version of the recipe, so be sure to pop over. If you would prefer a vegan version of the dish, just leave out the feta cheese.

Here's to your health!
Rhonda