Grilled Shrimp Pasta Salad with Champagne Vinaigrette

Grilled Shrimp Pasta Salad with Champagne Vinaigrette

I’ve always been one to love a good challenge. Heck, coming up with dinner every night can be a challenge. You know those nights when it’s you against the refrigerator and pantry. Opening the doors, staring inside and saying what in the world am I going to put together to feed all these people that live with me? Those are the times creativity comes into play. I’m putting that creativity to good use with today’s recipe challenge. 

“To celebrate the fifth anniversary of Dreamfield’s Pastapalooza summer promotion, we are calling upon bloggers to compete in five “Market Basket” challenges throughout the summer. Bloggers will be challenged to use the ingredients in the Market Baskets (plus up to 2 more of their choice) to create original pasta salad, side dish or summer entrée recipes.

Fans and friends will vote for their favorite recipe from each Market Basket category, with the winning blogger receiving a $1,000 donation to their local food bank/pantry; a $200 donation will go to the food bank of choice of the remaining bloggers. One randomly drawn fan/participant who voted will win a family pack of Dreamfields + a $1,000 donation to their local food bank/pantry.”

My #Pastapalooza CHALLENGE basket required ingredients included: Flavored or wine vinegar, Almonds, Fennel, Protein (any choice – fish, beef, poultry, beans, tofu, etc.) and Dried fruit. Dreamfields pasta, salt, pepper, oil and water are “free” ingredients (whew).

What did we come up with? A pasta salad tossed with a champagne vinaigrette that’s been garnished with almonds, dried apricots, shaved fennel and topped with grilled shrimp. I gotta tell you the flavors in this dish work phenomenally well together. The dish is great warm or cold making it perfect for summer entertaining or picnicking.

I hope you’ll consider VOTING for our PASTA SALAD . The voting page will be live from 12:01 a.m. EDT Thursday, July 2 through 11:59 p.m. EDT Wednesday, July 8.

I mean you’ll be supporting a great cause and it’s my birthday week. No pressure.

xo!

Disclaimer: This post is sponsored by Dreamfields. I was compensated for my time. Opinions are my own. Always have been. Always will be.

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