I don’t enjoy cooking. I discovered a few summers ago that I can in fact cook; I was convinced for years that I would burn down the kitchen if I attempted to do anything more than boil water or turn on the oven.  Not being a foodie in any sense I find the entire process tedious, somewhat stressful, and exhausting to the point that I often cook for hours and am too tired and over the process to even eat what I made.

But since having Drake, I have found myself in the kitchen more making healthy snacks and breakfasts to dinner for the family. He seems to have inherited my picky and poor eating habits as opposed to Mr. Chocolate’s “I’ll eat anything” attitude. With Drake we stick to similar meals for dinner, mostly including some form of pasta. I noticed recently that I have 2 go to pasta meals and one chicken dish that always seem to please Drake and are easy to make, as I have most of the items on hand on a regular basis anyway.  This will the first of 3 posts that share my go to meals.

The first one is actually a side dish that I revamped to make it a main dish since I don’t like to cook more than one thing at a time.  I found the recipe off Pinterest.

Orzo with Parmesan and Basil

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The original recipe calls for these ingredients:

  • 3 Tablespoons Butter
  • 1-½ cup Orzo
  • 3 cups Chicken Or Vegetable Stock
  • 6 Tablespoons Fresh Chopped Basil
  • 1 cup Parmesan Cheese
  • ½ teaspoons Salt
  • ¼ teaspoons Pepper

I don’t care for basil so I don’t use that, and I love Parmesan so I use way more than a cup to add more cheesy flavors.  To make the meal more substantial I usually add chicken (I cut up chicken cutlets and saute them in olive oil, garlic, and some kind of seasoning, Adobo or plain salt and pepper depending on what’s around), sun-dried tomatoes, sometimes broccoli, and garlic.

To start off, melt the butter and saute the orzo for a few minutes until they get a bit of a golden color. Then add the chicken stock to it and let it cook the orzo for about 20 minutes or so.  Once you see the chicken stock is mostly absorbed and gone and the Orzo looks plump and cooked, I quickly add the chicken, tomatoes, broccoli, garlic, salt and pepper to the mix and stir it all in.  I just eyeball how much I want to add.  Once it’s all nice and mixed in, I top it off with a generous amount of the parmesan cheese and watch as it melts in and creates a nice creamy texture.  It’s best served hot when the cheese is nice and melty, and usually I add some more cheese on top of my own dish to have that much more cheesy delight.

Overall the entire meal takes me about 30-40 minutes, and as you can see it’s enjoyed by even the pickiest eater in the family.

Yum!