The Ultimate BLT Pasta Salad

This pasta salad is full of the bacon, lettuce and tomato flavors that are part of that classic sandwich combination but it also has some extras to take it to the next level. Serve it at your next BBQ, potluck or picnic and enjoy the rave reviews! 

     Happy Sunday!  As normal, we have been having a fun weekend full of running around outside and playing at the park.  I really should use the weekend cleaning up the house and getting things done, but there was a little guy who wanted to go visit the rolly slide, so we did that instead!  This week's theme for Sunday Supper is Dad's Favorite Recipes and it is being hosted by The Chef Next Door.    You would think that would be an easy theme to pick a recipe.  Just imagine your dad's favorite recipe and make it.  The problem is my dad likes everything.  He really isn't picky at all and seems to enjoy most anything you could put in front of him.


     So I thought long and hard.  I was tempted to do something orange creamsicle related, but I just did a no-bake cheesecake not too long ago.  I thought about homemade chocolate covered cherries, but those usually take a couple of weeks and heavens knows I'm not that far ahead of the game right now! (Though I do have a chocolate covered cherry cookie recipe that is delicious!)  I have been wanting to post more savory recipes, so I tried to get my wheels turning that direction.

   My dad, like most I think, loves to grill and loves all of the sides you think of when you think of BBQs and picnics.  In fact he loves pasta salad so much the requests it from my mom sometimes.  I dropped by to pick something up once and saw her making pasta salad. For one. She doesn't eat it and he wanted it so she made him a little bowl of pasta salad.  It was kind of funny to see it!  Now, Matt has a summer tradition of BLTs.  And since he is a dad too, I decided to combine the two to make the ultimate dad's recipe in honor of them both.

   But here's the thing.  I love a good BLT, don't get me wrong.  But you know what I love even more?  A BLT with an egg and some avocado.  YUM!  So I took all of the delicious parts of my turned up BLT and stirred them in some pasta with a simple dressing that lets all of the flavor of the sandwich fillings shine.  Oh heavens!  I actually used spinach here instead of lettuce, mostly because I had a bunch that needed picked from the garden.  So maybe I should have called this BEAST mode pasta salad?





Bacon
Eggs
Avocado
Spinach
Tomato

Too much?

Probably.  But whatever.  I live dangerously ;-)











   Silly names or not.  Spinach or lettuce.  No matter what, you owe it to yourself to give this a try.  It would be perfect alongside burgers, brats, fried chicken and would travel nicely in your pick-i-nick basket as well.

    So now I'm dying to know. What are some of your dad's favorite things to eat?

The Ultimate BLT Pasta Salad

by Cooking With Carlee June-12-2016

Ingredients

• 12 oz pasta, cooked, drained and cooled
• 1/2 cup mayonnaise
• 3/4 cup sour cream
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp ground black pepper
• 4 T apple cider vinegar
• 1/2 pound bacon, cooked crisp and chopped
• 9 oz cherry tomatoes, halved
• 1/2 lb spinach, roughly chopped (or your favorite lettuce)
• 4 hard boiled eggs, chopped
• 2 avocados, cubed

Instructions

1. In a large bowl, stir together mayonnaise, sour cream, garlic powder, salt, pepper and vinegar.2. Toss in pasta, baco, cherry tomatoes, spinach and hard boiled eggs. Stir to coat. Cover and refrigerate until ready to use.3. Stir in avocados when ready to serve.The avocados actually hold up pretty well in the leftovers. So if you need to stir them in before you are ready to serve, they should be fine. I just like to wait until the last minute if I can and hold off the oxidation for as long as I can!

Details

Prep time: 15 mins Cook time: Total time: 15 mins Yield: serves about 12