The BEST you’ll ever have… My Signature Macaroni Salad

I wish that macaroni salad was a food group.

And, of course, you’d get to have 4-6 servings to meet your daily servings requirements.

If that was the case, I’d be SUPER healthy in the summer.

Ugh! I just love macaroni salad so much. I make it and eat it too often when the days are nice and hot. Sure, I can eat it year round but it’s just one of the things that is seasonal to me.

Speaking of seasonal items- hey Starbucks, I love PSL’s A LOT but debuting them for the season in August is too soon. TOO SOON!!!!!

You know the book “When you give a Mouse a Cookie”? Well, I have my own version.

>When you give Nicole a nice day, she will want to grill.

>When she’s grilling, she will want some steak.

>When she’s eating her steak, she will want some macaroni salad.

>When she’s eating macaroni salad, she will want a beer…

Ugh, I’m annoying. Just make this macaroni salad.

I just can’t get over the flavors of this macaroni salad since it’s not like typical ones that have all that tang from pickles. It’s mellow, sweet from the carrots and sugar but there is a follow through bite from the vinegar and onion. You really don’t need much onion either to get it. Start off with a bit and add from there as you taste it.

Besides tasting great, it’s great to serve at parties as you can prepare it a day in advance so you’re not rushing around the day of your party. Plus the flavors are even better once they have mingled a bit so making it in advance is a real win!

I use a zester to grate my carrots and onion. I’m sure there is a fine enough garter on one of the surfaces of a box grater, it’s just that I don’t have one so I use a zester. The most important thing is that the carrot and onion are teeny tiny specs, so don’t try to short cut this by chopping it. It’s worth the tiny bit of elbow grease you need to put into it to grate it up.

Hurry up and make this as the unofficial end to summer is in 2 weeks. EEEKKK!! At least the real end of summer is further on in September so you will still have plenty of time to until then. Yum!!!

My Signature Macaroni Salad

Makes 12 servings (unless you are me and then it’s 3, maybe 4…jk!)

Ingredients

• 1 pound of elbow macaroni
• 3/4 cup of finely grated carrots, about 2-3 carrots
• 1-2 Tablespoons of finely grated yellow onion
• 1 cup Hellman’s mayonnaise
• 1 Tablespoon white vinegar
• 1 Tablespoon sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons pepper

Process

1. Cook the macaroni until it’s just ‘al dente’ according to the package instructions. Drain and rinse with cold water. Toss in ice cubes to chill the pasta as well.
2. Combine the grated carrot, onion, mayonnaise, vinegar, sugar, salt, and pepper in a large bowl.
3. Remove the ice once the pasta is cold. Mix the pasta into the mayonnaise mixture. Adjust salt and pepper to taste.
4. Chill the macaroni salad for at least 1 hour prior to serving. Store in an air tight container for up to 3 days.

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