summer pasta salad.

yum! i love orzo.
i think it's the best base for a pasta salad.
those tiny little noodles don't over-power any other guest stars in the salad. not like the way those big curly-q noodles do.
so for this version of light & fresh pasta salad, we have:
-orzo
-diced tomatoes (drained)
-chopped cucumbers
-slivered red onions
-chopped mushrooms (from a can)
-kalamata olives
-red wine vinegar <3
-oregano
-basil
-parsley
(variations: add juice of a lemon, goat cheese, feta. don't worry, you're free to make your own decisions. i won't yell at you. i promise.)

directions are pretty simple. cook the pasta, toss everything together in a bowl.
it's so easy, i bet even cheryl could do it.

pineapple salsa!

teacher appreciation week?
sounds ficticious...
but i'll happily accept your gifts of fresh produce.
enter... pineapple!

i made pineapple salsa!

as for this delicious sweet & savory salsa... i could not be more thrilled! the salsa came out great! fresh and tasty, and to be cliche --- exploding with flavor! bam!
i used about a can and a half of diced low-sodium tomatoes, half of a fresh pineapple, garlic, red onion (soaked in red wine vinegar), cilantro, and lime juice. i forgot a serrano / jalapeno... next time gadget... i tossed all my ingredients in bowl, then added a third of the mix to the food processor, hit puree. added another third, puree. final third, quick puree. adding things in segments to the processor helps give the salsa and variety of textures to the salsa, giving it a puree/juicy layer, a chopped layer, and a more chunky layer.

my salsa went AWESOME with my black bean patties....
get excited!
it's coming....

typical tremendous thursdays!

thursday dinners are always the best!
when i have an audience, i put on my a-game!
woot!
i made a lot of food for dinner this week, and i held it all together with some big flavors. it looked pretty rockin' and it tasted delicious.
here we go...
the shrimp was peeled and deveined. luckily, the deveining was done for me. why? because it's disgusting! i tossed the shrimp in a frying pan on medium / med-low heat and let them get opaque on each side. then, i added my mixture of (surprise, surprise) pineapple juice and spicy garlic texas pete's! yum! i had quite a bit of sauce, so i let the shrimp finish cooking with the sauce, and then i jacked the heat up to high and let that sauce cook down and get nice and thick.
oh, you little neon orange shrimps... how i want to eat you!
i cut up a chicken breast into some super skinny strips. i cooked that over medium heat and added onion powder / garlic / paprika / chipotle rub... anything i pulled out of the spice cabinet, really. made sure my chicken was just cooked through.
smear some fat free refried beans to a la bandarita low carb whole wheat tortilla (they're 1 point!) and added my chicken. they were an unfried, jacked up, taquito! finished that mess off with some mango-pineapple salsa from earlier in the week, and it was outstanding!
i made a plain salad topped with salsa to go with the shrimp, and added some extra beans.

super-fresh, spicy & sweet mexican!
this isn't taco bell, my friends!