Simple Tasty Pasta Salad

I wanted to try something different from the average pasta salads I've had. So I decided to experiment and thankfully everyone loved it! Feel free use more or less of any of the ingredients according to your palate.

• Preparation Time: 20 mins
• Cooking Time: 10 mins
• Total Time: 30 mins
• Calories: 678 Calories

Ingredients

• ½ green bell pepper, minced
• ¼ red onion, minced
• 1 (2.25 ounce) can sliced black olives
• 1 (12 ounce) package tri-color rotini pasta
• 4 Roma (plum) tomatoes, quartered
• 1 cucumber, quartered and sliced
• 1 (16 ounce) bottle zesty lite Italian-style salad dressing, or to taste
• 1 (2.5 ounce) package bacon bits
• ½ (6 ounce) package dried cranberries, or to taste

Recipe Instructions

Step 1

Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil; cook the rotini at a boil until tender yet firm to the bite, about 8 minutes; drain. Rinse pasta with cold water until cool; drain.

Step 2

Combine cooled pasta, tomatoes, cucumber, green bell pepper, red onion, and black olives in a large bowl.

Step 3

Pour Italian-style salad dressing over the pasta mixture; toss to coat.

Step 4

Sprinkle bacon bits and cranberries over the salad to serve.