To get out of my lunch rut, on Monday, I cooked up a cup of tricolor pasta, left over from some other recipe, then rinsed until cool. I combined it with a rinsed and drained can of low-salt black beans, a small chopped red onion, some chopped tomato, and some chopped cucumber. (This was a "what's on hand in the refrigerator" dish.) I softened 1 Tbs. of Penzey's Italian Dressing mix in 2 Tbs. water. I mixed it with 3 Tbs. red wine vinegar and 3 Tbs. olive oil, and a tsp. of sugar, tasted it, then added another Tbs. of red wine vinegar. I tossed pasta salad in the dressing. I had a serving with grated parmesan on top. I have leftovers for the next few days, and it is all mine because my husband does not like cucumbers or black beans.

I first had black beans when I was in graduate school, and a friend and I went out for lunch. I really liked the taste. I'll have to post my Turkey Black Bean Chili recipe.

For Tuesday dinner, I made Dilled Salmon and Couscous. We ate it with sweet corn because everything goes with sweet corn!