Killing Three Birds with One Pot

My loves, my darlings, my friends. Welcome to Summer.

It’s hot and steamy down here in NorCenFLA post Memorial Day and after a week of no A/C in the classroom at my school of employment (hello 87 degrees inside and 95 outside= no relief anywhere!) it’s truly a miracle that no teenagers were injured in the production of this post.

Hot summer weather makes me crave two things: tubing down the river/springs and cold pasta salad.

This pasta salad to be specific:

The beautiful pasta bounty above was my brain child last summer when a gaggle of friends came up to spend a weekend in the “woods” and exploring Ginnie Springs and it’s been my go-to “picnic” food since.

So, when the craving for cold, crisp feta and veggie loaded orzo hit, it hit hard.

I rushed to the pantry: yes, orzo I had…but NO black olives. Well, it still might be ok. To the fridge: used up all the peppers in my breakfast scramble, oh and that’s where the feta went too. Pasta salad fail.

Ok, no worries. I’ll just make tuna salad. It’s cool and refreshing. But while rooting around in the pantry (for a second time now) I stumbled across a hidden box of Annie’s Shells & White Cheddar. Oh dear.

Now I wanted tuna, mac n cheese AND my pasta salad. Oh dear, indeed.

So, I did what any rational gal would. I made all three. Sorta. Behold my newest mess:

Tuna Mac (with Veggies) Salad

As you probably guessed, this wasn’t a plotted out meal. I grabbed what components of the three items I was craving that my kitchen had on hand and mixed ‘em together.

Some times killing three cravings, by throwing a bunch of stuff in a pot and calling it lunch, just works. If you need to take out three random cravings, like a sharp-shooter, here is my suggestion:

Tuna Mac (with veggies) Salad
serves 4

Now that is what I call a satisfying summer salad. And I didn’t even have to go to the store to make it. Double win, three cravings DONE FOR.

Love to all,
~the cravings killer gal, Jess