March 13th: orzo super salad, veggie & barley soup, mushroom & cream pasta

Clearly, I am going on another work trip and my guilt complex has caused me to go overboard on the "preparing food for my family to survive in my absence" drive. Here's all the stuff I made Sunday:

From 101 Cookbooks: Orzo Super Salad. This is a cold pasta salad with green veggies (you can substitute whatever you want), feta and avocado in a lemon, garlic, olive oil dressing. It's awesome.

I doubled the garlic, which caused Olivia to declare it "too spicy" and not eat it. Strike 1 of the day. I loaded in the cilantro, which caused Greg to decide he could probably force some of it down. Strike 2. Looks like I'll be eating it myself. Part one of making food for my absence failed. On to part two.

Inspired by Cooking With My Kid, and the tasty beef & barley soup we ate last week, I made a veggie & barley soup. I loaded in the Swiss chard, which apparently tastes like beets to Greg, and he doesn't like beets. Strike 3. I have A LOT of soup to be eating up in the next two days. Luckily, O seems to like it, so we'll share the load. Here's my version:

Vegetable and Barley Soup

oil

1 cup each chopped celery, carrot and onion

4 garlic cloves, chopped

1 bunch Swiss chard stems, chopped finely (save leaves for later)

4 cups, or one carton, beef broth

3 cups water

1 cup tomato sauce

2 medium red potatoes, diced

2/3 cup pearl barley, rinsed

1 1/2 tsps marjoram

3/4 tsp thyme

1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper

salt to taste

2 bay leaves

1 bunch reserved Swiss chard leaves, chopped finely

1/3 cup minced fresh parsley

1 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice

Heat oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add celery, carrot, onion, garlic and Swiss chard stems and cook, stirring occasionally, for 5-10 minutes, until starting to brown.

Add next ten ingredients (broth through to bay leaves) and bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat and simmer, stirring occasionally for 1 hour, 20 minutes. Stir in Swiss chard leaves, cover and cook for 10 more minutes. Stir in parsley and lemon juice, season to taste, and serve hot.

Makes 8 servings.

Part two semi-failed. Part three:

Finally, for supper, inspired by the vegetarian salmon, I made a mushroom & cream pasta, to which I added the leftover asparagus and broccoli I didn't need for the orzo salad. This was actually pretty good, and G & O agreed. No surprise there, as it was the plainest of the three foods I made. Unfortunately, I didn't make a tonne, so it's not going to last more than a day or two. The recipe didn't say how much pasta to cook; I used two cups dry penne, and that seemed like the perfect amount. Strike 4ish, for not making enough of this. Part three semi-failed.

Best laid schemes.