WHOLE WHEAT ORZO AND CHORIZO

You must be thinking "Finally a recipe!". The past three weeks, Cliff and I have been eating very healthy, lots of salad and honestly they have been a bit boring . We are getting ready for our beach trip coming very soon.  I have been longing for a something really bad, like a grilled cheese or chocolate cake.  Does this happen to you too? Just when you decide to eat very healthy, all you can think of is everything you are trying to avoid. lol
So this past week, I couldn't avoid comfort food anymore especially with the temperature dropping, it was the perfect gloomy day to make this pasta dish and can I just say that it hit the spot. It was so good. The good thing is that it was whole wheat pasta and with it being orzo, you can't taste that it is whole wheat which I love even more. For the sauce, I wanted to do a take on Romesco sauce but with  fresh tomatoes since we had so many  from the garden.

Ingredients:
1 lb of tomatoes
3 spanish chorizo links ( I used D'Artagnan)
1/2 a small onion
2 cloves of garlic
1 cup of whole wheat orzo
1 whole roasted red bell pepper
A handful of almonds ( around 20 almonds)
1 teaspoon of tomato paste
Salt and pepper to taste
3 teaspoons of smoked paprika
3 sprigs of green onion

Direction:
Get all the ingredients ready

The sauce is done in the food processor, so start with almonds

Give it a good blitz until it looks like the picture below, then add the tomatoes, onion and garlic

Lastly add the red bell pepper with some salt, pepper and smoked paprika. Blend it and give it a taste if it needs more salt and adjust accordingly.

In a pan, brown the spanish chorizo and then remove them from the pan. Add the sauce to the same pan, put a lid on and let it simmer for about 8-10 mins. While the sauce is cooking, cook the pasta, they should be done around the same time.

The sauce should look like this when done, add it the pasta, give it a stir

Top with the sausage and some green onions and eat it while it is very hot. So good!

SPICY PANTRY PUTTANESCA

Good morning! It is that time again when you realise it is indeed monday and you really don't want to get out of bed. Yikes! I am still dreaming of the weekend as you can tell, where the weather was amazingly warm. When I am having a hard time getting the week started, I turn to comfort food. There is something about a good plate of comfort food that makes you feel good and happy. So for me, that's pasta among other things. I am sure I am not the only one, right?
Since spring is here and in no time I will be trying fit in my shorts, I figured I might as well  use some quinoa pasta. Have you had that before? It is  very good and the cooking time is quite fast  but make sure to use the timer because it can turn mushy very fast. I called this dish spicy pantry puttanesca, well you guessed it! I was cleaning my pantry and wanted to make something out of what I had in hand. This is so easy and good, you can also skip the spicy part but you know we love a little spicy around here. Let's get started, shall we?



Ingredients:
1 big tomato ( 1 cup diced)
1 can of tomato sauce (8 oz )
1 tablespoon of capers
1 tablespoons of hot pepper spread
6 kalamata olives (halves)
2 gloves of garlic (diced)
1 small onion ( about 1/4 cup diced)
1 box of Quinoa pasta
Salt and pepper
Parmesan cheese

Put everything in a pan except for the salt and pepper and cheese. Let it simmer with the lid on for 15 mins.

With the lid off now, taste the sauce before adding any salt because of the capers and olives. Add the pepper. Toss the pasta in and serve.

Top it with some parmesan cheese and Voila!

I hope that you enjoy this quick recipe!

                                                                         XOXOXO