This BLT Pasta Salad recipe is easy and delicious! You’ll also find a cool and delicious summer menu including a yummy Bing Cherry Dessert!
In this post, I’m sharing and easy meal plan with a tasty BLT Pasta salad recipe and a cool and delicious Bing Cherry dessert recipe! These are super easy recipes that will please your family! You’ll also find some useful tips to help you use leftovers and stretch foods, which is especially helpful with inflation and rising prices!
[dining]
BLT Pasta Salad Meal Plan:
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This BLT Pasta Salad can serve as a standalone meal if you like, but if you’d like something a little more elaborate, here is an easy meal plan and recipes to go with it.
BLT Pasta Salad*
Peas
Herbed French Bread*
Bing Cherry Dessert*
Recipes:
If you’d rather have something different, this Bacon and Cheese Toast Recipe is a great alternative served with this meal plan.
Tips:
- Creamy mac and cheese. The next time you make macaroni and cheese, use sour cream instead of milk. It makes the macaroni and cheese so much creamier. This works great for other things, too. I often use sour cream in recipes when I find I am out of milk.
- Leftover rice. If you have leftover rice, use it to make pancakes. Mix with 1-2 beaten eggs then drop by spoonfuls on a greased skillet. Cook both sides until lightly brown and serve with maple syrup.
- Bacon is getting expensive but we do so love it. Today’s recipe gives you one good way to stretch your bacon. You can use less bacon by crumbling it in this salad than if you were making real bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwiches.
- Here is another example of how to stretch your bacon: This recipe is great for after school snacks, to include with soups, stews, chili or salads or to round off any meal.
Can you please make the recipes in printable form?
Love you!
for printing this recipe: https://www.livingonadime.com/blt-pasta-salad-bing-cherry/
There is a green “print friendly” button at the top right-hand side of each recipe
Are these recipes from your cookbooks?
Kate we have so many books right now that I can’t remember off hand if all these exact recipes are in our books but I do think a couple of them are. We now have put out thousands of recipes between the books, website and youtube channel so it is hard for me to keep track of all of them. One thing though most of our recipes are similar to all of these. We try to make them simple, easy, not too expensive and things that normal families will like and love.
On the BLT Pasta Salad, does lettuce go in it & it gets served on the lettuce? Or is the lettuce just for being served on?
The lettuce is just for serving on.
BACON! UMM! You could also substitute potatoes for the pasta, and I prefer mayonaisse.
I buy the precooked bacon at the Dollar Tree or Sams. It’s cheaper and easier to use. What’s not to love?
Yes, bacon can be expensive, so if I want a low fat BLT, I use turkey ham! Yes, when I slice turkey ham thinly and fry it, it smells and tastes like bacon! We get more meat and it costs less! I buy turkey ham for about $2/lb. unsliced at WinCo. But, if I buy it where they have a butcher, they might slice it for me for free!
Just an idea… Thank you for your BLT pasta salad idea!
It’s so hot right now, I made lemonade slushies for my family. I put 1/2 cup lemonade mix in the blender, filled it with ice, then up to the 5 cup mark with water and whirled it up! Everyone was getting grouchy, this settled them down.
For me, I whirled up a grapefruit juice slushy. One part juice to two parts ice. I should have whizzed up the ice first, then poured the juice on top.
My solar cooker is up to 210 degrees and cooking up lentils for dinner. Free heat without heating up my house! Good deal!
I buy turkey bacon instead of pork kind. It has more meat and cooks faster to crisp. I usually get it at the Grocery Outlet for $2.49 and I sign up to their email newsletter and get $3 off $20 coupons, so that makes a really good deal.
It’s a 12 oz pack, so not too bad.
I know it’s much more expensive than buying a pound of bacon, but since I don’t use much bacon I buy the small packages of pre-cooked bacon bits. They go a long way and add a lot to a salad, green beans, or recipes like this one.
Cindy, I think that the precooked bacon is cheaper because you don’t pay for the fat that fries away. Besides, not having to clean up is worth something.
This is true. Tawra loves using the bacon bits from Aldis in all kinds of things.
I LOVE the bacon bits from Aldis! A little bit of bacon flavor inhances so many dishes. I sprinkle a few in scrambled eggs, and in frozen green beans I cook slowly on the stove. I also use them in egg salad and even a few when I fix grilled cheese-YUM! The best part is no frying, draining and crumbling. It’s all done for you. A package lasts me a really long time. It ends up being really cheap.
Barb you just gave me something to think about. I love cooking my scrambled eggs in bacon grease (just a little) for flavor and love to use bacon grease in my green beans but I don’t get much bacon grease any more because I just don’t cook it as much with me by myself so that would be a great replacement for it in both of those and many other things I use it for.
I have a great tip for creamy mac and cheese. If I run out of milk and sour cream I use buttermilk for the replacement. I know some people don’t cook or bake with buttermilk but I usually have either the powdered or liquid around for biscuits. I have also added salsa or picante to mac and cheese with ground beef or turkey. A favorite dinner for the kids is a box of prepared mac and cheese with ham and sour cream topped with either a slice of processed American cheese or shredded cheese of any kind. Sometimes I sneak in some broccoli or green peas also.
Good tips Katrina. I love using buttermilk. It really is good in so many things. Not to long ago I was making mashed potatoes and got ready to mash them and had no milk, sour cream nothing but some buttermilk so thought what do I have to loose. Those were the best flavored potatoes I have ever had. Would never had thought to use it before. Anyway thanks for the suggestions.
Jill,
I take frozen green beans and add dried onion flakes, salt and some of the real bacon bits in a little water. I let them simmer on low for several hours. The taste is wonderful! It reminds me of my grandma’s green beans so much. Sometimes I add a couple of potatoes, too.
I ALMOST hate to get your newsletter as I seem to spend way too much time reading all the great info, recipes and hints.
Thanks and keep it up.
I make a pasta salad similar to the one here but with a few changes.
I use the colored spiral pasta, add celery and red pepper, finely diced. Use parmesan bacon ranch dressing (I use the store brand and try to buy it when it is on sale for $1 and keep it in the cupboard) instead of miracle whip and sprinke bacon bits on top or add to the pasta when you mix it. Put a little extra parmesan cheese on top with bacon bits and parsley to garnish.
This is a festive pasta dish because of the colored pasta and it makes an easy extra dish (and filling) for a picnic.
I usually mix this when it is warm so that the dressing mixes in well, then refrigerate. An easy make-ahead dish. You can serve extra dressing on the side if you feel it is too dry after you take it out of the fridge.
try adding sliced boiled eggs to this salad
Can’t wait to try the cherry dessert. I found sugar free cherry pie filling at the grocery and just rinse the “sauce” off and serve them with a little non-dairy creamer as a quick dessert. We love them. The sugar free cherries are a little more expensive than the regular ones but cheaper than fresh and in the winter when you need something fruity, it’s great.
So glad you sent this out again. I want to make the cheese spread for us for the weekend. Also, my son’s best friend and his wife just had (yesterday) a new baby and I am making them ziti and was going to do garlic bread but this cheesy bread looks even better. So, half a bagette for me and half for them.
My husband and I like breakfast for dinner some evenings and we always have bacon on Sunday with a few pieces leftover. I scramble the eggs and break up the leftover bacon and sprinkle it in the eggs. You get a nice flavoring for the eggs without the extra fat. A slice of melon and toast. A great evening meal without heating up the kitchen.
Also, I use leftover odd pieces from a ham for my green beans. I keep it in the freezer and take out some portion and put it in the pan with the beans. By the time the beans are done, the flavor has permeated them and they are delicious.
Good ideas. I too love breakfast for dinner. If you don’t have ham for your green beans Maggie try adding 1/2-1 tsp of bacon grease to them.
Going to make this over the weekend when I am off of work. My kids will turn up their nose at the tomatoes. I’ve tried to get them to try homegrown bec they really taste so much better, but they still hold on to their dislike of fresh tomatoes! I guess if they’re hungry, they’ll eat;)
That’s funny because my grown son loves tomatoes too but not the fresh home grown ones. I tease him because the more like cardboard that something taste likes the more he loves it. He is not a gourmet when it comes to food. : )
Great job ladies; thanks for all the hints! Hope Tawra feels better soon…hugs to Mike (he sounds like a great guy). Catch you on twitter real soon I hope! BTW, I KHU feel- I have Celiac, Fibro, EBS, IBS, ICS, Low thyroid and Low BP & more, and it seems you always come to my rescue. God bless you’re a sweet heart. Love your posts!!! HUGS!!!
I made the BLT pasta salad today. It was great. I chopped up spinach & added it to the pasta salad instead of using lettuce.
Thanks for the idea!
I would like to participate in your survey – I think surveys are fun! But my security program (McAfee) would not open the site, saying that it posed a high security risk. !?!?!?
Though you’d want to know. I really enjoy your newsletters. Thanks.
Cathy Richie
Some security software are just set too high. You can change your software if you want to participate but we might be at the limit now.
Cathy, try to get this newsletter on u-tube…..I cant open it either on fb. hope it works for you….love this site..
We also love bacon, so to make it stretch I chop up several slices before frying it a little and then add sliced potatoes. The potatoes take in the bacon flavor, and the bacon grease is absorbed by the potatoes, served with eggs in the morning and everyone feels like they got all the bacon they wanted or even for lunch and dinner paired with toast and/or cheese. One (10) slice package purchased on sale goes for one meal.
I keep the bag of precooked, chopped bacon in my freezer, it stays ready to go whenever you want!!