Picnic Pasta Salad – One Dish Meal

Ingredients

• 1 lb macaroni, cooked and cooled (or other preferred pasta)
• 1 -2 cup diced ham (ham you cut from a real ham is leaner than lunch meat ham or other processed ham products)
• 1/2 lb diced swiss cheese or 1/2 lb diced provolone cheese
• 1/4 cup minced sweet onion (optional)
• 1 lb frozen green beans, cut in 1-inch pieces
• 4 -6 hard-cooked eggs, chopped
• 12 ounces marinated artichoke hearts, drained and chopped
• 1/4 cup cider vinegar
• 1/4 cup olive oil or 1/4 cup canola oil
• 1/4-1/2 cup mayonnaise
• 1/2 teaspoon italian seasoning
• 1 teaspoon prepared mustard (I prefer Heinz brown)
• 1/4 teaspoon celery seed

Instructions

1. Mix all salad ingredients together in a large bowl.
2. Whisk dressing ingredients together until smooth and well-blended.
3. Toss salad ingredients with dressing until well-blended.
4. Let sit, refrigerated, at least 4-6 hours, preferably overnight.
5. Note: Additional vegetables can be added substituted if desired. Frozen broccoli florets or chopped cucumber are particularly good. But if you add a lot of extra veggies you might need an extra half batch of dressing.
6. Note: It is not necessary to thaw the frozen veggies if making it the night before.
7. Note: Fresh beans, snapped to size, can be used raw for a crisper texture or they can be blanched and cooled first.