Guilt Free – Protein Packed Pasta Salad

I always loved pasta salad as a kid, but stopped eating it when I started my paleoesque diet. I didn’t eat any kind of noodle or processed food that contained gluten. I got so accustomed to eating gluten free that I never craved pasta anymore. Trader Joe’s has great alternatives to pasta that are gluten free and contain more protein than traditional pasta. These red lentil noodles have the same amount of calories as regular pasta, but they have more protein and less carbs. Combining the red lentil noodles with some chicken creates a delicious protein packed pasta salad that’s great for meal preps. This recipe is especially great for preps because it’s best served cold.

Ingredients:

• 8 oz Red Lentil Pasta (mine is from Trader Joes)
• 12 oz Shredded chicken (I like to added 3oz of chicken to each serving of pasta)
• Diced cucumber
• Diced red pepper
• 3/4 cup Italian dressing

Directions:

1. Pour the noodles into a pan and cook on high until the noodles are soft (same as regular noodles)
2. Cut up veggies while the noodles are cooking
3. Drain noodles
4. Add noodles, veggies, chicken, and dressing to pan/bowl and stir to evenly mix all of the ingredients
5. Enjoy!