Chopped Salad Appetizer Shells

Ingredients :

8 ounces Jumbo pasta shells ( about 24 )

Salad :

4 cups chopped romaine lettuce
1/2 cup chopped fresh tomato
3/4 cup chopped peeled cucumber
4 ounces crumbled feta cheese
1/2 cup onion
* you can add any other vegetable you want like spinach, green pepper, zucchini, beet etc..

 Dressing :

3 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoon red wine vinegar
1 teaspoon mixed Italian herbs
1/8 teaspoon sugar
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Cook shells in plenty of boiling water according to package directions, being careful not to overcook them. Rinse in cold water; set aside. (For advance prep tip, see note at end).
2. Chop all salad ingredients, making sure you have all the pieces quite small so that you can easily stuff the salad into the shells.
3. Make dressing; pour over salad and toss lightly. Add salt and pepper if desired.
4. Stuff salad into cooled shells (now you will understand why you chopped the ingredients into small pieces!).
5. Refrigerate up to 4 hours before serving.

Advance preparation tip : "The day before, cook the shells, rinsed them in cool water, separated them and let them cool. Then, put them in a zip-lock, chopped everything for the salad part and put it in a zip-lock, without the dressing. The next day, mixed the dressing into the salad and stuffed the shells. Worked like a dream."