Mactastic Macaroni Salad

Tomorrow is the first day of summer-picnic season!  Macaroni salad is as necessary to a proper picnic as is a striped blanket, a lovely day, and ants.

This salad is so easy that you might not wait for the ants.





Servings: 8
Time: Prep: 5 minutes, Cook: 9 minutes, Chill: 2 hours
Hardware: measuring spoons and cups, a cutting board and knives, a mixing bowl, a pot, a colander, a large storage container, a small storage container

Dressing

• 1 cup olive oil based mayonnaise (you can substitute lite mayo)
• ¾ cup fat free sour cream
• 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
• 1 tablespoon pickle juice
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 teaspoon onion powder

1. Mix all the ingredients together until they are all completely incorporated. Set aside ¼ cup of the dressing.

Salad

• 8 ounces uncooked elbow macaroni
• 2 eggs
• ½ small onion (¼ cup)
• 1 stalk celery
• ½ small bell pepper (¼ cup)
• 2 tablespoons chopped pickles (use dill or sweet~whatever you prefer)
• Dressing
• A few grinds of fresh pepper

1. Cook the macaroni according to package directions. Rinse in cold water and drain.
2. Boil the eggs.
• You can cook the eggs and the macaroni together to save time.
3. While the macaroni and eggs are cooking prep the veggies. Wash and dice the celery, onion, and pepper. Dice the pickle.
4. Peel and roughly chop the eggs.
5. Mix everything but the reserved dressing and pepper. Refrigerate the salad for at least 2 hours, but preferably overnight.
6. Mix in the reserved dressing and a few grinds of black pepper just before serving.
• Pasta is thirsty and will soak up most of the dressing. The reserved dressing will ensure that your salad is creamy.

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You can also try one of these variations:

Italian Mactastic Macaroni Salad

1 tablespoon Italian seasoning (mixed in dressing)
¼ cup chopped pepperoni
2 tablespoons chopped black olives
2 tablespoons Parmesan cheese

Clucking Good Mactastic Macaroni Salad
Replace the pickle juice in the dressing with lemon juice
½ cup chopped chicken
¼ cup peeled, chopped tart apple
3 slices of fried crumbled bacon

Macaroni of the Sea Mactastic Macaroni Salad
¼ cup thawed English peas
1 small diced carrot (¼ cup)
¼ cup rinsed tuna

Hamtastic Macaroni Salad
4 eggs instead of 2
½ cup diced ham
8 oz cheddar cheese cut into cubes (mix this in with the reserved dressing)

Mactastic Shrimp and Macaroni Salad
Substitue 1 cup of  Lemon Dill Mayo for 1 cup of mayo
Replace the onion with green onion
¼ cup rinsed canned salad shrimp