Mom's Pasta Salad

Mom's Pasta Salad was one of my favorite dishes as a kid. I had been kicking around the idea of updating it a little to fit my dietary needs. My mom turned to me when we were at Whole Foods and was like "We should make that pasta salad with quinoa or brown rice pasta so you can have it." When we got home, she bought the ingredients and made it all by herself! It was a treat, for sure! :) I love that she thought of using different pastas for this dish...it definitely makes it more fun! :) And great minds really do think alike. ;)

Mom's Pasta Salad

Ingredients:
1/2 container brown rice penne
1/2 container quinoa elbows
1/2 container quinoa garden pagodas
1/2 cucumber
1/2 zucchini
1 carrot
2 Roma tomatoes
1 can black olives
Optional: avocado
               fresh corn
               marinated artichoke hearts
               any other vegetables you want to toss in
1 small jar of capers
1/2 container Italian dressing (we used Newman's Own dressing)

Directions:
Cook pasta according to the package directions. Drain and rinse with really cold water until the pasta cools off. Chop up veggies into small pieces. Combine veggies and pasta in a big bowl. Add in capers and Italian dressing. Mix well. Right before serving, slice avocado and stir in. Enjoy!