Leftover BBQ sauce pasta salad

Super fast soapbox moment:

According to a 2012 Hawai'i State House self-sufficiency bill targeting food security, Hawai'i is over reliant on imported foods with on average 80% of our food imported. Add to that a 2018 update on food waste that says that Americans waste 1.3 tons of food per year, roughly 30-40% of the entire US food supply.  Add to that the fact that my husband is a bit of a DIY foodie AND a potential hoarder, and I have refrigerators and freezers (plural, multiple for both) full of food that gets stuffed in and forgotten in said multiple refrigerators and freezers, adding to the tonnage of food waste that goes to our very limited landfill space in Hilo.

As a kid growing up in a single parent household, eating out was not a thing. My mom was the queen of "Stone Soup" which means that she could throw random things together from leftovers and make dinner.  I think I need to get better at that as a way to show my kids how to get better at this too. This is our own food sovereignty movement as a way to figure out how to "stop wasting food," not because the children in China are starving (as my grandmother used to say), but because I do not want my grandchildren to be starving because of our waste.

This is a leftover redux recipe and an "eat from your pantry" recipe.

Leftover BBQ sauce pasta salad

Things I tried not to waste:

• 2 bottles of opened BBQ sauce - one had about 1/4 cup left and the other was about 3/4 full.
• 3/4 of a red onion on the door of refrigerator
• dregs of a little container of grated parmesan (not enough for pasta)
• large jar of capers, about a year past date and 1/2 full (there is so much salt and brining, I still will use it again)
• small can of unopened sliced olives, perhaps bought for a taco night a while ago but forgotten in the pantry
• dregs of mayo in the back of the refrigerator
• old green onion that needed to be rehydrated, stripped of bad parts and cut up

Ingredients:

• 1/2 - 1/4 c barbeque sauce (just keep the ratios for BBQ sauce and mayo the same and adjust the apple cider vinegar)
• 1/2 - 1/4 c mayo
• 1 T apple cider vinegar (I had apple cider vinegar for peppers - not sure what the difference is, but that is just what I had)
• 1/2 lb pasta - elbow macaroni preferable, but whatever there is (I had enough to make this once for lunch and the next night for Sunday dinner, so one box/bag for 2 recipes)
• 1/2 red onion, diced
• 1/2 red pepper, diced (or whatever veg you have that is crunchy)
• 1 can of flaked chicken
• Other things to add if you have them - olives, capers, green onion, parmesan

Directions:

1. Mix the first 3 ingredients for dressing
2. Cook pasta to a little softer than al dente, drain
3. Mix in the rest of ingredients. Adjust the dressing to taste and put it in the refrigerator to meld the flavors.
4. To serve, if you want to reinvigorate the sauce, just add more BBQ sauce and/or mayo and/or cider vinegar.

Note: to make it for dinner, after I took it out of the refrigerator for a couple of hours and adjusted dressing, I added  baby spinach and parmesan and mixed it again.