Taco Pasta Salad

Where do you go to find your recipes these days?  Seriously, does anyone use allrecipes.com anymore?  I don't.  My recipes search engine is Pinterest (<-- follow me!).  I am a totaly Pinterest-a-holic!  And I openly, freely admit it.  So when it came to needing to make a side dish to take to a BBQ that's where I went to search.  And I found this Taco Pasta Salad recipe.  Sounded good to me!

Taco Salad Pasta

Ingredients:
1 lb pasta (recommend something smallish)
1 (15 oz) can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 (10 oz) pkg frozen corn
2-3 medium tomatoes, seeded and diced
8 oz shredded Mexican-blend cheese
1 1/2 cup fresh salsa
1/2 cup sliced black olives
1/2 cup olive oil
3-4 tbs lime juice
1 tbs cumin
1-2 tsp chili powder
2 cloves garlic, minced
freshly ground salt and pepper, to taste
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro
1 avocado, diced (optional)

Directions:

1. Cook the pasta al dente according to package instructions.  Drain, rinse with cold water, and set aside.
2. In a large bowl (or 2 medium bowls), combine the black beans, corn, tomatoes, salsa, olives, and cheese.  Once pasta is cooled, stir in and mix to combine.
3. In a small bowl, whisk together the olive oil, lime juice, garlic, cumin, and chili powder. Pour over pasta salad and mix well.  Stir in cilantro and season to taste with salt and pepper.  Just before serving, dice the avocado and carefully stir into salad.

Comments:

• For the salsa, I used pico de gallo
• I omitted the avocado, because I didn't have one.
• I used reduced fat cheese. 

Recipe from The Sweet Life