My version of Insalata Florentine

A few weeks ago, Jason's step mom and her two crazy friends came to Nashville for a visit. Let me just say that these ladies meant business......drinking, shopping, drinking, eating, drinking, flirting with men half their age (not Jason's step mom of course, just her friends), oh and more drinking.

On their way up to Nashville, they needed to stop and get a drink....I mean some lunch. They stopped and Macaroni Grill, a place we haven't been in years. They brought back their leftovers for us and I sampled a wonderful chicken/pasta/salad dish. It was really an odd combination of flavors and textures. I easily found the recipe online. The tricky part was figuring out how to make this "Jason friendly."


I left out most of the good stuff like olives and capers and kept the dish pretty simple. It is really good though and pretty easy, so I think this one might be going in our summer rotation. See what you think and know that this is one of those dishes that you could add almost anything to and it would be delicious (i.e. roasted red peppers, olives, capers, nuts, shavings of Parmesan, etc).


Kyle's Insalata Florentine

Ingredients:

1/2 cup Orzo pasta, cooked according to package directions

1 roasted chicken from Krogers, cut up into chunks

1/2 bag of Italian Mix bag salad (this mix has mostly radicchio, romaine)

1/2 cup - 3/4 cup of vinaigrette dressing -- use whatever you have on hand. I used O'Charley's Balsamic Vinaigrette and it was awesome!!!

Salt & Pepper

Directions:

1. Cook Orzo pasta (8-10 minutes in boiling water, stirring occasionally)

2. Cut up chicken into bite size pieces

3. Layer chicken and greens in a large bowl

4. Drain pasta and pour hot pasta over chicken and greens

5. Pour dressing over everything and toss well

6. Let chill in the fridge for at least an hour before serving. This is the type of dish though that tastes better the next day.

Curry Rice Salad

Tonight, I made a delicious dish that my Aunt Bettie makes. It's a cold curry rice salad and it's wonderful. I served it with baked barbecue chicken. There's something about warm chicken and a cold rice dish that just works. I love this recipe and I love my Aunt Bettie. When reading the ingredients, you'll note a few that I left out, for various reasons. I will say that green olives would be good in this dish, if you like them. I think I'll chop them up and add them to this the next time I make it and just see if Jason even notices.....probably not.

Curry Rice Salad:

1 box Chicken Rice-A-Roni

4 green onions, chopped

1 teaspoon curry powder

1/2 cup mayo

1 jar artichokes, chopped (keep some of the liquid from the jar)

***Now, the recipe actually calls for the following, which I didn't add:

1/2 green pepper, chopped (I thought I had one in the fridge, but I didn't....oh well)

12 stuffed green olives, chopped (Jason doesn't like green olives)

1 can water chestnuts, sliced (Kyle doesn't like water chestnuts)

Directions:

1. Make Rice-A-Roni according to package directions and let cool completely (I used the microwave)

2. Add remaining ingredients (including just a little of the juice from the artichoke jar)

3. Let sit in the fridge for a while before serving, the flavors are much better when they've had time to get acquainted

Why Salad?

This is what Jason said when I told him we were having a salad for dinner. He didn't want salad, but I felt like something easy, so this was it. Like many mom's out there, I wound up making something different for my little picky eater.....see below. This salad turned out really well, if I do say so myself. I know you probably don't write down recipes for salads, but this one was really good.



Simple Salad:

1 roasted chicken from the supermarket

1 Hass avocado, chopped

Goat Cheese crumbles

1 bag salad mix

Salt & Pepper

Honey Balsamic Vinagrette by T. Marzetti

This is what Jason had for dinner tonight. If you have a child, even a niece or nephew, this is probably something they would love to eat as well.....box macaroni and cheese, chicken tenders, and ketchup.