Orzo and Vegetable Salad

Hello Hello! Boy it was a hot one today. After a long day at the beach, nothing was more refreshing than a nice plate of this orzo vegetable salad. Who wants something hot on a day like today? This dish truly is easy, presents beautifully and travels well to bring to a summer picnic or party. It's as easy as heating up some pasta but much more special.

Ingredients:

12 Oz. uncooked orzo

20 grape tomatoes

1 small cucumber

1 yellow or orange bell pepper

1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese

1 Tablespoon dried parsley

1 - 15.5 oz can premium great northern beans

1/3 Cup balsamic vinaigrette

1/4 Cup olive oil

1 Tablespoon lemon juice

Salt and Pepper to taste

Boil water and cook orzo according to package directions. While water is boiling prep your veggies. Half the grape tomatoes. Dice the cucumbers and bell pepper. Rinse and drain the great northern beans. Once orzo is cooked, drain and rinse well with COLD water until the orzo is cold to the touch. Be sure to drain thoroughly. Combine orzo with all of the veggies, beans and cheese. Now in a small bowl, whisk together the vinaigrette, olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper. Pour over orzo mixture. Toss everything together to make sure the salad is evenly coated with the dressing. Serve.

* For vegans subsitute feta for tofu cut in very small cubes or vegan "cheese." Finally a pasta type salad without mayo!

Thanksgiving in July

Hello and happy Fourth! I hope everyone enjoyed the holiday. Tonight I decided to cook up a "Turk'y roast" (this is not real turkey, it's a vegetarian alternative) that has been hanging around my freezer. However I realized I didn't have any gravy of any sort to go with it. So spur of the moment, I took inventory of what I had around the house and decided to whip up an easy cranberry sauce to serve over it and some garlicy asparagus for a side dish. Hope you find this meal as easy and tasty as I did!

Cook Roast as direct. While roast is cooking prepare sauce

Cranberry Sauce:

Ingredients:

1 cup pure cranberry juice (not cranberry juice cocktail)

2 oz dried cranberries

2 cinnamon sticks

a sprinkle of ground ginger

6 cherries, pitted and de-stemmed

1 Tablespoon raspberry jam

Combine all ingredients in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil. Once boiling reduce heat to medium and simmer 10 min, stirring constantly. Remove from heat to cool a little before serving spooning over slices of roast.

Garlic Asparagus:

Ingredients:

2 large bunches of fresh asparagus

1 clove of garlic, minced

dried garlic flakes to taste

garlic salt to taste

1 Tbs olive oil

black pepper to taste

Cooking spray

1 tsp grated lemon rind

Preheat broiler. Chop ends off asparagus. Not the pretty tips, the round ends, these are tough and are not to be eaten. In a large bowl combine Asparagus, 1 Tbs of olive oil and all the seasoning (not the lemon rind). Spread seasoned asparagus out on rimmed baking sheet coated with cooking spray. Put under broiler for 3 minutes. Yes that's all just 3 min! Once out of the oven sprinkle with lemon rind and toss. Serve right away, texture will be perfect.

I hope you enjoy this easy meal as much as I did! To really make it thanksgivingesque I picked up some pumpkin ravioli from my local gourmet grocer. Delish.

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