Easy Pasta Salad Recipe – Make Ahead Lunch

Simple school lunches don’t have to be boring! I have been making this super easy pasta salad recipe using the Betty Crocker classic pasta salad, Italian dressing, pepperoni, and fresh veggies for my kids for lunch and it has never let me down.

Having a super easy and healthy lunch option for my kids, and myself is always super important. 

I like being able to prep weekly school and work lunches one night a week as well. That way I can grab and go the rest of the week without having to worry about making something new every single night. 

Pasta salad is the meal that I go to week after week to make my school day meal prep possible. It is quick to make, lasts a whole week in the refrigerator, and can be customized based on personal taste. 

Italian Pasta Salad Recipe

When it comes to making pasta salad for my kids, my secret ingredient is the Betty Crocker Suddenly Salad. 

I swear, I buy this stuff ALL the time! They have a lot of different varieties, but the classic is my favorite for this particular pasta salad recipe. 

Other than that, you can add anything you like honestly. I add in as many fresh veggies as I can. This is great when it comes to getting the kids to eat more veggies for sure!

Ingredients

You don’t need a lot to make this easy lunch. Most of the ingredients are pantry staples, which seems to be a theme with most of my recipes. 

• Betty Crocker Suddenly Salad
• Pepperoni
• Medium Black Olives 
• Cucumber
• Pint Cherry Tomatoes
• Bottle Italian Dressing
• Parmesan Cheese 

Easy Lunch Meal Prep

First thing’s first, make the noodles as per the box directions. 

Once they are cooked, put them into a large bowl and add in the seasoning packet from the Suddenly Salad. 

This is where you stop the “box directions” and start forging your own path by mixing in your bottle of Italian dressing. I didn’t have a full bottle, but it worked fine!

Along with the Italian dressing, mix in a good helping of parmesan cheese. I did not measure this, I just felt it with my soul as there is no proper way to measure cheese since you can’t possibly ever have too much.

Now just chop up and toss in all of the veggies. 

Drain the black olives, dice up some cucumber, slice cherry tomatoes, cut up some pepperoni and toss everything into your bowl. 

Mix it up and BOOM you are done! 

See, I told you it was easy! About 12 minutes of prep and cook time and you have a good and healthy lunch for the whole week. 

You can either put a lid on your big mixing bowl and store it that way or separate it out into individual lunch containers. 

Either way, you have a grab-and-go lunch perfect for work, school, or anything in between! 

Grab the Printable Pasta Salad Recipe 

Make sure you grab the full printable recipe before you go!

Pin for Later

Love this recipe and want to make pasta salad for lunch every week? Pin the image below to save the recipe for easy access every time you want to make it.

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