greek orzo salad

oh, hey friends. i know its been a while. one week without a computer, one family wedding, and one week of harvest later and im really dropping the ball on this blogging thang.

i guess i should be apologizing to chris for how little cooking i've done, but i think he's pretty happy with a diet of mostly burritos and pizza.

i made this dish for a pot luck birthday party and its a great pot luck dish for a birthday party. i also ate it for lunch for three days following the party. its great with or without chicken, but the chicken really takes it from being a side to a well balanced meal. orzo is a pasta thats about the size of rice, and the only thing that's greek about this salad is the combo of flavors.

i started by baking chicken breast covered in herbs.

i used oregano, thyme, garlic powder, crushed red pepper, black pepper and sea salt.

rub it all over with some olive oil and bake it in a dish, covered with foil like so,

after about 30 minutes at 400F, pull it out, let in rest 10 minutes and then cut her up!

the dressing is a 2:1:1 ratio of olive oil, balsamic vinegar and lemon juice, with salt pepper and many cloves of minced garlic. lets just say as many as you're comfortable with (i tend to push that boundary in my cooking)

the salad starts with jarred sundried tomatoes, sliced kalamata olives, and a heap of feta cheese.

then a whole bag of spinach, chopped (its going to wilt and reduce with the hot orzo) and cherry tomatoes. i also added chopped red onion. and more feta.

toss with the dressing and add a whole box of cooked orzo whenever you're ready. this can be served hot or cold, but if you're serving it hot, cook the pasta at the last minute so you dont have to heat the whole salad which would change the flavors and textures.

add that chicken on top, or toss it in to serve. or omit it completely and live poultry everywhere will be relieved.

lettuce-wrapped turkey burgers

apparently im really into interestingly-flavored patties right now. i cant explain it. but these are delicious and kinda asian-fusionish (and low-carb if you have those kind of concerns).

i sauteed a chopped onion in veggie oil with carrots, chili garlic sauce, chopped crimini mushrooms and a hefty splash of soy sauce. then i mashed it well in a bowl with ground turkey, green onion, a small handful of panko breadcrumbs and an egg.

i let the mixture sit for about 20 minutes in the fridge before forming patties and then pan fried them because im way to lazy to start the charcoal bbq up on a weeknight. sorry. but dont worry, these patties would hold up just fine on a grill.

wrap these babies up with some sriracha mayo, raw carrots and red onion for a crunchy, burgery, pretty-darn-healthy dinner.

spicy shrimp salad

shrimp salad reminds me of summer.

but it has to have avocado and cucumber in it.

the pop of the shrimp, the creamy avo and the crunchy cucumber are a holy trinity of cool, summer deliciousness. of course, tomatoes and carrots dont hurt and sriracha makes everything good better. teeny tiny bay shrimp are very inexpensive and an excellent source of lean protein.

i whisked together greek yogurt, sriracha, olive oil, rice vinegar, salt and black pepper, popped the shrimp in and let them marinate for about 20 minutes before adding a whole avocado, half a cucumber, cherry tomatoes and carrots.

if you lay that mix on a bed of lettuce rather than tossing lettuce into the bowl, you can control the amount of dressing that ends up on the lettuce and you can store the salad overnight without lettuce going limp and soggy.

wait, let me say lettuce three more times... lettuce lettuce lettuce. ok. done.