Easy Sun Dried Tomato & Sausage Orzo!

Hi My Loves!!

I recently cooked a super yummy dinner and showed it to you guys on our daily vlog channel . It was so good and I figured it would be a crime not to share how to make this recipe :) This was a new favorite and is very filling as well. I think this would feed a family of 4 easily. We had it for dinner and then left overs for dinner the next night too and it reheated really well. We all really loved it (which some of you know can sometimes be hard to please a toddler at dinner time)....

Here's the finished result! SO YUM!!!

WHAT YOU WILL NEED:

1 Jar Classico Sun Dried Tomato Pesto

Pine Nuts (I used half of the bag)

1 Pack of Aidells Italian Style Mozzaella & Garlic Chicken Sausage sliced

1 lb of Orzo Pasta

1 Orange Bell Pepper diced

1 Onion diced

Asparagus cut into 1 inch pieces

Olive Oil

1. Get 2 separate pots of water boiling with olive oil and salt

2. Add diced onions and bell peppers to a separate pan with olive oil and cook on medium heat until onions are transparent

3. Add orzo to water and cook until al dente (about 9 minutes)

4. While the orzo is boiling, add your sausages, sun dried tomato pesto and pine nuts to the onions and peppers and stir until everything is coated with the pesto sauce.

5. Turn heat down to low and keep stirring occasionally.

6. The last 5 minutes of waiting for your orzo to cook, add asparagus to the other pot of boiling water and boil for about 4 minutes.

7. Drain pasta and asparagus and add to sausage mixture.

8. Give everything a good mix and serve.

We added parmesan cheese to ours and it was super delicious. You could just add the aspragus and cook it in with the bell peppers if you wanted but I don't like the way the feel as far as texture goes when I do that, that's why I boil them first. You could always steam them too... however you like to cook them :)

The most time consuming part is just chopping up the veggies and sausage. Other than that this is pretty easy and fairly quick. It took me about 1/2 hour all together to make.

Hope you like it!

Please share a picture on my facebook or twitter and let me know how you and the family likes it :)

Pesto & Goat Cheese Pizza

Hi My Loves!!!

Last week I posted this picture on Instagram and a few of you asked for the recipe, so I thought I'd share it with you :)

I actually saw this on Pinterest a while ago and thought I'd give it a go. They put theirs on the grill (I don't like the taste of food on the grill so I chose not to)..... I baked it instead.

Here's what you will need:

Rustic Crust Italian Herb Pizza Crust (here's what it looks like... I got it at Walfart Link!)

3/4 Jar of Classico Traditional Basil Pesto Sauce Link!

1/2 Small Tub of Crumbled Goat Cheese (I can't remember which brand I used)

2 Fresh On The Vine Tomatoes sliced

Directions:

1.) Preheat oven to whatever your pizza crust directions say (I think it was around 400-450)

2.) Unwrap pizza crust and spread your pesto sauce all over crust, leaving the edges bare

3.) Sprinkle goats cheese on top of Pesto (use as much or as little as you like)

4.) Place sliced tomatoes over

5.) Place directly on center oven rack for about 10 minutes (could vary depending on which crust you use, just keep an eye on it) 

WARNING!!!! MAKE SURE YOU PLACE A BAKING TRAY UNDER THE PIZZA ON THE SHELF BELOW! 

The oil from the pesto dripped on the bottom of the oven and started smoking.... setting off all of our smoke alarms. We were wafting the smoke alarms for a good 10 minutes with baby blankets..... At least we know they work :)

6.) EAT IT!!!

There you have it.... a super easy, quick and amazingly yummy dinner. Serve with a nice fresh salad and you have dinner made in less than 20 minutes.

Hope you like it and like always, post a picture on my Facebook Page Link! and let me know how you like it :)

Thanks for reading!

Sam's Chicken Spaghetti Soup!

Hi My Loves!!

We got a rotisserie chicken and had some left over breast meat that I wanted to use up, so I decided to make some homemade Chicken Noodle Soup :) I normally don't like chicken noodle soup but this one turned out so yummy! We all loved it! 

I told you guys on facebook, if it turned out I would post the recipe so here you go :)

INGREDIENTS:

2-3 Tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil

1 White Onion Diced

3 Cloves of Garlic Minced

6 Organic Peeled Carrots (Cut in Half Length Wise and then in 1/2 inch pieces)

6 Celery Stalks (Cut in Half Length Wise and then in 1/2 inch pieces)

5 Cans (about 10 cups) of Swanson Low Sodium Chicken Broth

4 Cups of Water ( I added this after I added the spaghetti... just keep an eye on it, it depends on how much broth you want)

Rotisserie Chicken Breasts (I used both breasts and just tore them into bits with my fingers, I like them more natural feeling, than cubed)

Thin Spaghetti (I broke mine into 3 inch pieces, they were a bit long so I would go with 1 inch pieces)

Parsley (to taste)

Basil (to taste)

Salt & Pepper (to taste)

Any kind of cheese to grate over the top when it's ready to serve ( I used Cabots Extra Sharp Cheddar Cheese)

DIRECTIONS:

1. Get a nice big pot and put your olive oil in :)

2. Dice your onions and add to pot and put on medium heat

3. Chop your carrots and add to pot (keep stirring your onions and carrots in between the next steps)

4. Mince your garlic and add to pot and cook all the ingredients so far on medium high heat for about 5-10 minutes or until onions are transparent

5. Chop Celery and add to pot

6. Add chicken broth and parsley, basil, salt and pepper.

7. Add chicken and stir

8. Bring to a boil and cover it and let sit for about 10-15 minutes on medium to high heat.... you want to make sure the celery and carrots are soft and not all crunchy :)

9. Bring heat down to low/medium, give it a stir every now and then and put the lid on and wait ;)

10. About 10-15 minutes before you are ready to serve, add your spaghetti or any other pasta you like and when it's al dente, you are done!! WOOHOO!!

I started cooking mine at 5pm.... When Jay got home from work I added the pasta while he got his comfy's on etc..... and then BS came over and we ate at 7pm. So all together the soup took about 2 hours to make ;) Obviously you don't have to leave it that long, you just want to make sure all the veggies are cooked and not hard any more ;) But I find with soup's that the longer it sits, the better it tastes. Serve with some warm french bread and you have a super yummy meal that wasn't too hard to make ;) It was sooooo yummy and super filling too :) Normally I hate chicken noodle soup, but I loved this one.... I know exactly what kind of chicken was put into it, not all those nasty chunks of chicken that you don't know where it came from, they are all slimy and sick.... YUCK! :/

Hope you like my recipe!

If you do make it, please let me know how it turns out and post a picture on my facebook page :)

MY FACEBOOK PAGE.... CLICK HERE :)

Thanks for reading!!

Happy Saturday!

Sam

xxx