Cheesy Orzo

Did you get an instant pot yet? I admit, I don't use it as much as I thought I would but the other night when we had guests for dinner and a tiny window with which to get dinner ready, I used it. We also sous vide our meat for dinner so it was really hands off!

This cheesy orzo was sooo flavorful. Pretty much the best updated mac & cheese I've ever had.  My 3yo wan't a fan even though she said it was good she didn't want any. My 18m loved it!  So good.  Run don't walk to get the ingredients to make this tonight!

Recipe here and below. I used asiago cheese instead of parmesan and didn't measure exactly cause more cheese is always better, right?

Ingredients:
1/2 onion chopped
3 small cloves of garlic chopped
2 T butter
2 t olive oil
8oz orzo
2 Cups Chicken broth
1/2 t salt
1 C mozzarella cheese
1 1/2 C asiago (or parmesan) cheese
1 Cup whole milk or half & half (I used milk)

Directions:
1. Turn the instant pot to saute and add butter & Olive oil.  Add onions and cook until translucent.
2. Add garlic and cook for 30 seconds
3. Add chicken broth and salt and bring to a simmer stirring. Add orzo. Put the lid on
4. Turn off the instant pot and set to manual, high pressure, 4 minutes.
5. Once the 4 minutes is up and it switches to warming, turn to quick release and wait for the button to pop. Open the lid, stir in cheeses & milk, salt to taste, serve immediately

Unicorn Yogurt Bark

We had some friends in town and Hazel was keen on making
this yogurt bark. What a cinch to put together! This is a recipe for eating right away or else it melts like yogurt, which is still good but half the fun is gone.  I used some whole milk vanilla yogurt and some mixed berry greek yogurt and both turned out great. I think you could potentially skip the food coloring and just use lots of different colors of yogurt, but this was much more vibrant with the coloring.

Ingredients:
6 - 8 cups yogurt of your choice (I used 6 C vanilla & 1 C mixed berry), separated into bowls
Gel food coloring
sprinkles

Directions:
1. Prepare a sheet pan by lining it with parchment paper then make room in your freezer for the pan
2. Mix each cup of yogurt with a toothpick full of gel food coloring to desired color, I used yellow, green, blue, pink, purple and some maroon color
3. Spread yogurt on the prepared pan. Then swirl slightly with the back of a spoon or spatula to get the desired rainbow affect
4. Sprinkle on a variety of different sprinkles
5. Freeze 3-6 hours
6. Remove from the freezer and break into chunks like bark, you can easily do this with your hands. Serve immediately or freeze bark in a ziplock bag

Chicken ‘Shawarma’ Bowls with Homemade Hummus

I want to branch out my family dinners from meat, potatoes and pasta to something else. So on Monday I prepped and prepped and on Tuesday I whipped up dinner in 10 minutes!  I highly recommend this meal.  I took it from Cooking Light and then changed everything..so I'm going to claim this as my own recipe. Bonus - You get my mom's delicious hummus recipe too!

Ingredients:

Hummus
1 15oz can garbanzo beans (chickpeas), drained
2 t olive oil (more to taste)
2 T sesame seeds
1/4 t cumin
1/2 t salt
pepper
1/2 large lemon (more to taste)

1 clove garlic


Chicken Shawarma Bowls
1/4-1/2 C cooked chicken per person - I used poached chicken or you can use rotisserie, chopped or shredded
Couscous - I used Far East Parmesan, this takes max 8 minutes to make!
Chopped cucumbers
chopped tomatoes
Hummus
Half Lemon
Olive Oil

Directions - Hummus
1. Add all ingredients to a food processor and blend. If it's too thick add more olive oil or lemon juice to taste
2. Chill and if you want sprinkle with paprika to serve

Directions Shawarma Bowls:
1. Make Couscous according to box directions
2. Put couscous on the bottom of the bowl and add cucumbers, tomatoes, chicken and hummus on top.  Squeeze lemon juice and a dash of olive oil
Enjoy!