Orzo with Chicken and Vegetables

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Orzo with chicken and vegetables

Orzo with chicken and vegetables

When I went to Vancouver with my mom in March, we stayed with my aunt’s family. My aunt’s sister-in-law is a really good cook and one day she made this orzo pasta with vegetables for us. It sounded so simple to make and tasted so good that I made a mental note to recreate the recipe when I get back. After making it for the first time last week I knew I had to make it again so that I can share the recipe as soon as possible with all of you.

Since most sauce-less pasta dishes with vegetables end up being called a salad, I don’t know if this too should be called that. Whether you call it a salad or not, its still plenty good and fresh and light for summer time meals. You could skip the chicken and the butter and make this vegan/vegetarian, if you like. I serve it as a main dish and add chicken in with the veggies, but you could make it just with the vegetables and orzo with grilled chicken or fish served on the side.

I did my first snapchat recipe story today (forgive me if that’s not what its called, I am still learning). Thanks to Asha from Food, Fashion and Party (love her blog) who has been motivating me to start snapping, I finally did today. I am still fairly new with it, but in case you want to follow you can add me @theNovHousewife and see the behind the scenes of making this orzo with chicken and vegetables on Snapchat.

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Tilapia Tacos

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Lime marinated tilapia with a cornmeal crust. Served with brown rice tortillas these make a filling gluten free meal

Fish Tacos

V is a picky eater. He is not one who likes to experiment too much with his food. He can eat baingan ka bharta, toovar dal and roti every day of the week and still not complain. And till very recently he would not eat fish. When we moved to Dallas, I wanted this no-fish policy of his to change. I agree the smell of fish to some can make it a little hard for them to like it ( I am not a big fan of certain seafood too because I can not tolerate the smell) but with the health benefits that fish carry I wanted them to be a bigger part of our diets.

V, thankfully was receptive with the idea. Initially I made the fish with mustard and indian spices to suit his palate and then slowly have graduated to grilled fish and tacos. In spite of its relatively small amounts of beneficial omega-3 fatty acids, I stick to tilapia for V, because of its mild taste. Plus, it still is a great source of protein.

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Garam Masala Tuesdays: Rava Uttapam

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Vegetable Rava Uttapam – easy and quick uttapams made with rava or sooji or semolina.

Vegetable Uttapam | The Novice Housewife

When I was in college in Delhi and staying in the AFWWA hostel, every Tuesday for breakfast we would get Uttapam. I generally never had time to eat breakfast; I was always running late. I would get the Uttapams packed and take it to college to eat later in the day, grabbing my fruit and eating that as breakfast. Even on days when I did have time to eat breakfast, I would make it a point to pack 2 or 3 since my friends had gotten used to them and looked forward to Tuesday Uttapams. I miss college days!

I don’t cook much south indian fare at home, even though I love dosa, idli, sambhar. I am more comfortable with cooking north indian cuisine and stick to that. My idlis are generally made from a packet or are the quick rava idlis I have posted before. The only time I have cooked dosas from a scratch batter is when my friend was kind enough to loan me some of hers. Once I did try fermenting my own batter but it was a huge fail. This was when I had just started cooking about 6 years back, and ever since I have just stuck to eating dosas outside or counting on my south indian friends to make them for me.

Vegetable Uttapam | The Novice Housewife

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