Non-Sugary Items

Now that I am free of educational responsibility, it seems that my life is busier. How that works I cannot tell you, but I have no good excuses for my lack of food words. However, I think this recipe will make up for my absence, I'm almost positive actually. For some reason, even though no reason is really needed, I think that eggplant, mushrooms, onions, spinach, goat cheese, mozzarella, tomato paste, and orzo all go extremely well together, and if you don't think so, well, no one is forcing you to eat this. Everytime I have those ingredients lying around I make the same thing and I've slowly added more spices and tweaked the recipe as it tasted better and better. You might be doubtful, but try it once and you'll try it again. It's like pringles, but for dinner.
Also, I was snacking on some strawberries while making it, just because I could.


Anywho, here is what you need to know:
Ingredients:
1/4 cup orzo
2 tbsp tomato paste
3/4 cup chicken broth
1 cup spinach, fresh
1/2 medium eggplant, cubed
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 medium onion, diced
7-8 small button mushrooms, chopped
2 tbsp goat cheese
1 tbsp mozzarella
paprika, salt, pepper, onion powder, and garlic powder to taste



Instructions:
1) In a skillet heat up some olive oil or canola oil (I like canola because my mama uses it). On low heat, saute onions and garlic, making sure onions are translucent and that the garlic doesn't burn.
2) Add the mushrooms and the eggplant to the skillet and on low-medium heat let cook until done (eggplant should be really soft and mushrooms should not be rubbery). Do not season until the vegetables are cooked (this I learned from the food network, more specifically dearest paula dean and all her butter-full dishes, yum!)
3) While the vegetables are cooking down, boil the chicken broth and add the orzo, let cook for 8-10 minutes until al dente and then drain. Put back into the pot and add the tomato paste. Put back on the stove on the lowest heat possible to keep it warm and to let some of the tomato paste rawness cook out. Add the spinach to the pot and put a lid on it. This will let the spinach passively cook with the steam from the orzo).



4) Season the vegetables with paprika, salt, pepper, onion powder and garlic powder to taste. Don't add too much salt because the goat cheese is pretty salty, ooooo how I love sodium.
5) Ok, now vegetables and orzo are both done, success! Let's combine them. Add the orzo/spinach mixture to the skillet with the vegetables and add the goat cheese and mozzarella.



6) Stir together and there you go. It's time to eat. YES!



I highly enjoy this meal and I hope you do too. If you're reading this, congrats! That means that I appreciate you. So thanks! And I know that we're supposed to start a bakery, but, again, I do like sodium full things. Maybe I can be the other half of paula dean. We can be butter and sodium, delicious.