Southwest Pasta Salad

Kevin's friend, Jeff, is over today to help Kevin work on cutting up the Bonneville for scrap... which still resides in our garage. Hopefully they'll get it all done today and we'll have our garage back! I'm just going to grill hot dogs for dinner later, but wanted to have some sides to go with them. I decided to try out this recipe from Eat Better America for southwest pasta salad. We'll also have some roasted asparagus, organic canned baked beans, organic canned pears, and Doritos (which, much to my dismay, Carson LOVES... I'll be glad when this bag is used up. The only reason we even have them is because I had bought them for Kevin's brother to eat while he was house/animal sitting. He ate some, but not all, so Kevin and Carson have been snacking on them here and there.). I snuck a taste of this salad just before sticking it in the refrigerator and it was really good!! I'm excited to have it later with dinner! It was super easy and fast to throw together, too.

Southwest Pasta Salad

2 cups uncooked rotini pasta (8 oz) (I used organic and tri-color)
1 cup frozen organic sweet corn
1 jar (16 oz) Muir Glen® organic medium garlic cilantro salsa (I couldn't find this one, so I used a roasted garlic salsa I found instead)
1/4 cup olive oil (organic)
3 tablespoons lime juice
1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
1 medium green or red bell pepper, chopped (organic)
1 can (15 oz) black beans, drained, rinsed (I used organic home-canned)
1 can (2.25 oz) sliced ripe olives, drained (I left these out b/c we don't like olives)

Cook pasta as directed on box, adding corn during last 2 minutes of cook time. Drain; rinse with cold water.

In large bowl, stir together salsa, olive oil, lime juice and salt. Stir in pasta and remaining ingredients.

Cover and refrigerate at least 2 hours before serving.