A few teachers at Mason were talking about how great this recipe thought so Ryan and I tried it out on a weekend and absolutely loved it. It's from Food Network's Barefoot Contessa, her site is here. This recipe makes a lot and is great cold or heated up the next day, it's a good summer recipe.
Orzo with Roasted Vegetables
Ingredients
1 small eggplant, peeled and 3/4 inch diced (we used summer squash instead)
1 red bell pepper, 1 inch diced
1 yellow bell pepper, 1 inch diced
1 red onion peeled and 1 inch diced
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/3 cup olive oil
1 1/2 t of kosher salt
1/2 t fresh ground pepper
1/2 lb of orzo or rice shaped pasta
For the dressing:
2 freshly squeezed lemons
1/3 c of olive oil
1 t kosher salt
1/2 t fresh ground pepper
To assemble:
4 scallions, minced, white and green parts
1 cup of pine nuts
3/4 lb of feta, 1/2 inch diced not crumbled
basil leaves julienne
Preheat oven to 425 degrees
Toss the vegetables with olive oil, salt and pepper on a large cookie sheet covered in foil. Roast in oven for 40 minutes or until browned turning with a spatula once.
Cook the orzo in boiling chicken broth for 7 to 9 minutes. Drain and transfer to a large serving bowl. Add the roasted vegetables, scraping all of the liquid and seasonings from the cookie sheet into the bowl.
For the dressing combine the lemon juice, olive oil, salt, and pepper and pour on the pasta and vegetables. Let cool to room temperature and add scallions, pine nuts, feta and basil. Serve at room temperature.
This was so tasty!!! You can mix up the vegetables too, add what you like. It definitely needs the feta, and the dressing though.
Now that school is over I plan to blog more on here, sorry it's been so long, I haven't had much time to cook but I do now. So let's start with something I just threw together for dinner with things I had in the fridge and cupboard.
Ingredients:
1 box of pasta, I used Penne
1 Onion chopped
6 slices of bacon cooked
1 container of Philadelphia Cooking cream, I used Italian Herb and Cheese, I absolutely love this stuff, if you can catch it on sale, stock up.
Boil Water for the pasta. While you are waiting for the water to boil, cook your bacon in a skillet.
Once the bacon is cooked removed and drain, then crumble. Cook onion in the bacon grease. Add your cooked pasta with the bacon and the cooking creme and a can of diced tomatoes if you'd like. Cook it all together until heated through. Voila.. quick, easy and tasty dinner.
I was looking for something different to make with ground beef and started flipping through a Pillsbury cookbook I had at home and came across this recipe.
Beefy Nacho Soup
1 lb of ground beef
Pack of taco seasoning
2 cans of condensed nacho cheese soup
1 can of diced tomatoes and green chilies undrained
1 1/2 cups of milk
Shredded cheese
Tortilla chips
Brown the ground beef and drain in a large pot
Reduce heat to medium and add the taco seasoning, soup, diced tomatoes and milk. Cook 10 minutes stirring frequently until heated through. Top with cheese and tortilla chips. I also added green onions and sour cream to it which gave it even more flavor.
The recipe only called for 1 tablespoon of taco seasoning and 1 can of nacho cheese soup but the extra seasoning and soup gave it an extra kick while the sour cream on top cooled it down.
Chicken was on sale at a local grocery this week for $1.79 a pound. After we stocked up, I had to find a new chicken recipe. Here's what I came up with:
Boneless skinless chicken breast halves
Worcestershire sauce
Bacon
Sliced fresh mushrooms
Onion sliced
Monterrey Jack shredded cheese
1 bottle of Marzetti's honey mustard salad dressing
Put chicken in a glass dish and poke holes in it with a fork
Pour Worcestershire over it to soak in and marinade. I put quite a bit actually.
Refrigerate for 1 hour. You can cover it if you want, but I didn't and it came out just as good.
Cook bacon, drain and set aside.
Cook onion and mushrooms in bacon grease. Let sizzle on low.
Preheat oven to broil
Broil each chicken breast for 10 minutes on each side.
Take out and top with bacon and cheese and cook until cheese is melted.
Serve with mushrooms and onions and dressing.
We also had baked potatoes which went quite well. It's not too time consuming but oh so tasty!
For some reason Mexican food sounded really good and I came across a new enchilada recipe in Taste of Home yesterday that I thought I would try. Couple it with some home made Spanish rice and you've got a South of the Border Sunday meal.
Enchiladas
8 servings
2 cups of cooked chicken
1 package of 8oz cream cheese, softened
8 flour tortillas (6 or 8 inch)
1 cup of sour cream
1 cup of salsa
Shredded cheese
1 can of sliced olives
1 can of chopped green chilies
Shredded lettuce to top
Chili Powder
Combine chicken with cream cheese, green chilies, and sliced olives. I added some chili powder for more flavor as well. Mix 1 cup of salsa with sour cream. Spread in bottom of 13 x 9 pan. Spoon about 1/4 cup
of chicken mixture down the center of a tortilla, roll up and place seam side down in a 13 x 9 pan. Spread the remaining salsa mixture on top of the tortillas. Bake uncovered at 350 degrees for 20-30 minutes. Sprinkle with cheese and bake 10-15 minutes or until cheese is melted. Top with lettuce and serve.
Home made Spanish rice
2 T oil
1 cup of uncooked rice (I used Italian Arboro Rice because it's thicker)
1 onion chopped
1 bell pepper chopped
1 can of Mexicorn
1 can of chicken broth
1 can of diced tomatoes with green chilies
2 t chili powder
1 t salt
Heat oil over medium heat
Saute onion, corn and bell pepper
Add rice and cook until rice is browned and onion is tender
Stir in tomatoes and chicken broth and chili powder and salt
Cover and simmer for 30 minutes or until all of the liquid is cooked out.
This rice had a ton of flavor and was quite tasty. It could even be served as a meal if you wanted to add some chorizo sausage to it, which I may do when I make it again.
cupcakes but did have one for Bumblebee cupcakes that I thought would be really cute. I used boxed cake mix, the recipe called for banana but I thought Lemon would taste better so I used Duncan Hines Lemon Cake Mix.
for antennas.
ore all the same color and put 2 on each side of the body for wings.
mmer dessert for a 
picnic!
