Thursday, June 2, 2011

Orzo Salad

      I wanted to post this a few days ago, but I am still getting used to finding time to blog. My family (mostly my husband) is trying to get used to me wanting the computer more often. :-)  They are not sure what to do with the fact that mom is now trying to be a computer person! Ha-Ha!
      Anyway, I had a wonderful Memorial Day. We headed over to my brother-in-law's house where we enjoyed swimming, B-B-Q, family, friends, and a lot of sun! My job was to bring a salad of some sort, and my hubby asked for it to be potato salad. I love potato salad, but I have just been told that I have gestational diabetes, so I can't have much of it. I also have to be careful with b-b-q sauce, so I know there wasn't going to be a lot of stuff there that I could eat. So how was I going to navigate through Memorial day with out having a huge sugar spike? I needed to bring something that I liked just as well as all the other food, but that I could eat with no problem. What could that be? I know, Orzo salad! My husband does not like it very much, but I love it. And because it went so fast on Memorial Day, I thought I would share it with you. (Oh, and yes, I made potato salad too.)

So here are the ingredients:





I seasoned this with onion powder, garlic salt, and dried parsley.


You will need :

                    2 cups uncooked Orzo (found in the past isle - it is a small pasta that looks like rice)
                    fresh spinach
                    crumbled feta cheese
                    olives - sliced or whole depending on your preference
                    sun dried tomatoes packed in oil - drained and chopped
                    1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
                    1/2 cup olive oil
                    pine nuts (not pictured, and optional, but really good!)
                    1 large grilled chicken breast, cubed (optional)

What to do:

                  First you need to cook the orzo according to package directions. This will not take long as it is a  small pasta. Once it is done, drain and rinse under cold water. Normally I would not rinse my pasta, but in this case, the cold water stops the cooking right away, and washes off some of the starch so the little pasta pieces don't stick together. Let it drain well, so it gets nice and dry, then put the orzo in a medium mixing bowl. Add all the other ingredients, except the spinach and toss.(The amount of feta, olives, tomatoes, and pine nuts is up to you. I like a lot of stuff in my salads, so I add quite a bit.) Then add the balsamic vinegar, and the olive oil, and toss. It will seem like a lot, but don't worry, it works out. Then add as much spinach as you like and toss it again to coat it with the dressing. Cover the bowl tightly and refrigerate for a few hours, or over night. Then... Enjoy!!!!

Yummy!

2 comments:

  1. Yum, yum, yum!! I love orzo and I just bought my first package to make some orzo pasta salad myself! How sweet of you to make both salads! Wish I could have been there to eat them! :) I'd love for you link up your recipe to my blog link party!

    http://polkadotsonparade.blogspot.com/2011/06/wow-me-wednesday-12.html

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  2. Thanks Jaime! I was very excited to see that you asked me to link up. I think I did it. Would you let me know if it didn't work. I have never linked up anything before!!! LOL! So I'm not sure if I did it correctly or not. Next, I have to learn how to grab your button. Step, by step, right? ;-)

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