Light Italian Summer Salad

Summer is finally here and it doesn’t even feel like it! Are you sick of hearing all us west coasters talk about the unusually cool weather yet? My husband and I are taking advantage of it this first week of summer and trying to revamp our backyard a bit. We might kill each other by the end of it but I’m hoping it’s a project we finish. We’ve wanted to build a gazebo for some time now and we’ve finally decided to make it happen. Speaking of make it happen, I’ve been wanting to share this tasty new light Italian summer salad for a while now and I feel like it’s the appropriate time. Hello summer!

My mother in law is the queen of Italian summer salads. This dish was inspired by my favorite salad she throws together whenever we go swim and BBQ at their house in the summers. I did manage to lighten it up a bit with some fat free Italian dressing and throw in some extra protein to help make it fit my macro budget. Keep in mind this recipe is mostly just to inspire you to create your own version that best suits you and your macro needs. If you’re not macro counting, by all means, throw in all the good stuff and don’t look back!

I found some high protein red lentil pasta at Walmart that I was really impressed with. It didn’t have a weird taste or texture! You can find all kinds of high protein pastas out there now. If you struggle to hit your protein I suggest giving them a try. If you don’t struggle, just use any of your favorite pasta noodles.

You can lighten this up even more with some fat free or light feta. I already had some full fat on hand, so that’s what I went with. Remember when making a salad that a little bit goes a long way and you can manipulate it to fit your macros. Have fun with this recipe!