Vegetable Pasta Salad

Chock this one up as a win on both the eat more seasonally available veggies list and the meatless meals list! We have recently gone organic, cage free etc.. on everything. Gulp. But what is the sense in feeding a kid with allergies to wheat, soy and corn, meat that has only every eat whet, soy and corn?? So we are taking the leap and soon we will have a huge freezer in the basement with half or so of a few animals in it :) Feels kinda crazy I have to admit. But I have lost a ton of that extra baby weight that was hanging on and my kids are being less picky as we continually reply "this is what is growing right now, its all there is, eat it or be hungry" Less choices makes for less pickyness, and I can't even tell you how nice it is not to go in a traditional grocery store just from the stand point of not having to hear "mommy can I have...?" Now at the farmers market it is "mom can we have a honey stick?" Why YES you most certainly can! Anywho, on to the recipe :)
 I have recently acquired and fallen in love with the cook book Simply in Season. Everything we have done so far, even with tweaking for allergies, has turned out great. I think the homemade salad dressings might be my favorite part b/c they don't have any junk ingredients and are so simple! So this recipe is an adaptation of one of those.

Dressing
  1/4 c red wine vinegar
  1/2 tsp salt
  1/8 tsp pepper
  1/4 tsp garlic powder
  Whisk well
Slowly add in 1/4 cup olive oil,  whisking all the while
Sprinkle in some fresh or dried basil and whisk again.   Set aside

Cook 1 cup of rice past a of your choice according to package directions
Drain, pour into serving bowl and set aside

Open, rinse and drain a can of chick peas. Pour into bowl with the pasta

Wash and cut up cucumber slices, tomato wedges, sugar snap peas, and broccoli florets (or any other veggie your family eats)  Toss them into the bowl with the pasta.

Drizzle dressing over all and toss to coat, then if you so desire add some cooked and crumbled bacon and toss one more time.

Set in the fridge a few minuets to cool and collect.

Serve with a sprinkle of vegan parm or mozzarella.

Enjoy!