Summer Orzo Salad

I love this salad. It's one of my favorites to make for and bring to BBQs and I've always gotten rave reviews!

The original recipe came from a former boss of mine. She made this for the surprise wedding shower that she and all of my co-workers threw for me. She served it on lettuce leaves but really it's good all on its own!!

Feel free to play around with this a bit...I have and I LOVE it!!

Orzo Chicken Salad

1 box Orzo pasta prepared according to box directions (I like to cook mine in chicken broth)

1 to 2 packages thin sliced chicken breasts

Garlic powder

Onion Powder

Salt

Pepper

Red Bell Pepper- I use one good sized pepper and dice it

Shredded Mozzarella cheese- The recipe calls for about 1/2 cup but I use closer to a full cup. I have also used the pizza cheese mixes where it's 3 or 4 different Italian cheeses mixed together.

Two packages Good Seasons Italian Dressing Mix prepared according to package directions but with balsamic vinegar


Season both sides of chicken with garlic powder, onion powder, salt and pepper. You can also use a little oregano, I don't care for it.
Bake chicken on non stick pan in a 350 degree over for roughly 35 minutes or until done. You can also grill the chicken.
Once the chicken is done and cooled down a bit chop into bite sized pieces and set aside.

Once Orzo is finished cooking, drain and transfer to a large bowl. Drizzle a little bit of olive oil over pasta and mix. Just enough to make sure the pasta does not clump together. Allow pasta to cool slightly.

Add diced pepper and chicken to pasta and pour salad dressing over and mix well.

Allow to chill in fridge for a few hours. Just before you are ready to serve make sure the pasta is not too dry, you can add more dressing.

Stir in mozzarella cheese and serve chilled!

Enjoy!!

Pudding Delight

This recipe comes from a friend of mine who may end up joining us on here as an author...we'll see!
This is a healthy and really tasty treat for any time of year, but especially for the Summer!
I make mine in a trifle bowl and it not only tastes yummy but it looks good, too!

1 container of blueberries- washed

1 large bunch of grapes- green or red or mix!

1 to 2 cans of sliced peaches in pear juice, drained

1 container of strawberries- sliced

1 large box of Instant Vanilla pudding- prepared according to package directions

1 container of vanilla yogurt

Directions:

Layer grapes, blueberries, peaches and then strawberries in a bowl. Mix Vanilla pudding with vanilla yogurt and pour over fruit in bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and place in fridge for at least 30 minutes. Serve alone or with some whipped cream or cool-whip!

This dish is best devoured on it's first day! The second it's pretty good, too! I've found after that it gets a bit watery and the fruit gets kind of mushy!

ENJOY!!

Italian pasta salad

prep: 15 minutes

serving: six or more? depending on how much pasta you make

ingredients:

one box cork screw pasta, tri-color
one bottle (reg. size, I like a lot, you may not) Italian dressing, zesty is ok too

with the following ingredients you can decide how much you want in the salad
peperoni
mozzarella cheese
broccoli
cherry tomatoes


Cook the pasta according to the box

cut the peperoni, mozz. cheese, broc, and tomatoes how you would like them in the salad

put the pasta, peperoni, mozz. cheese, broc, and tomatoes in a bowl

mix in the Italian dressing, how ever much you would like

I like it cold, so I refrigerate mine for at least 30 minutes or more.

Shish Kabobs

There are many ways to make Kabobs. This is just what I am doing tonight. Its not that hard, something you can do on the grill and get ready ahead of time.

Ingredients:

marinade
(I bought something from the store today. ://http://www.kensfoods.com/kf/products/productView.servlet?consumerProductId=46&productCategoryId=&productFlavorId=18
You may also use Italian dressing or whatever marinade you like. )

chicken
sausage
beef (I am using bottom round chuck, but use whatever you like)

Cut meat into cubes

baby portabella mushrooms
zucchini
onion
corn on the cob
grape or cherry tomatoes
Don't forget your skewers either bamboo or metal.

Prep: Marinate the chicken, beef, and sausage. The bottle I am using says it has to be marinated for at least 30 minutes.

So when you are ready to grill the kabobs, put the ingredients on the skewers. (I always forget but you can put your bamboo skewers in water to prevent them from getting on fire)

Grill until the meat is done. I would say about ten-fifteen minutes. Depending on how big you cut everything.

Hello from HRD

Hello, I am the HRD part of this blog. You may email me at hrnrdd-cooking@yahoo.com with any recipes and/or pictures you would wish to have us share on this site. Also if you know products or techniques that work let us know.

These are only suggestions. I am not an expert at cooking or have taken any cooking classes. These are just recipes that I have used and wanted to share. I am not responsible for anything that comes out wrong or is not good. If you don't like it, share why. We want this to be a place you can go, get ideas, and see what other people thought about it. Many times I look in recipe books or mags and wonder, does that taste as good as it sounds?

Welcome

Hello!
Welcome to Make This, You'll Like it! This is brainchild of HRD and Stella who were sitting around one morning trying to figure out what to make for dinner and dessert and said, "We should start a blog where we share our recipes!"

Yes, there are ton out there but why not create another?!?!

Feel free to add your recipes to the comments, we'll even copy them and put them in a post! If you'd like to you can email me, Stella, at mcgearstella at gmail dot com and send along the recipe and a picture of it to post!

Stay tuned...the recipes are coming!