Mustard-Herb Crusted Panko Chicken with Basil Parmesan Orzo

I owed my friend a home-cooked meal, so we looked through a couple of recipes and ended up making panko crusted chicken with a side of basil parmesan orzo. I went grocery shopping right before Blizzard Nemo, so supplies were thin and I managed to snag the only pack of chicken breasts left within the entire supermarket. Unfortunately, I was now saddled with $17 worth of chicken. The breasts were huge, so we only used two and cut each in half and it was more than plenty for the two of us. I also greatly underestimated how much orzo one box makes - hint: it's a lot. So even though only the two of us ate it, this will most likely serve four.

I pretty much made the chicken to the letter, only substituting dried herbs, since the supermarket was a mad house and there were no herbs left :( The orzo was a different story. Neither of us had a lot of experience making orzo, so we pretty much messed up the entire recipe. Here's what we did (though I would advise you to never follow it):

Ingredients
1 box orzo
1 cup chicken stock
1 cup parmesan cheese
2 tablespoons dried basil
salt and pepper to taste

Directions
1. Cook orzo as directed on the box. Strain, and then add the chicken stock. The orzo will still absorb all the liquid. Add the parmesan, basil, salt and pepper and mix until creamy. Bam.

We were left with slightly awkward tasting orzo with an odd texture. You couldn't really taste the basil, and the orzo was still on the drier side so the cheese made it drier, rather than creamier. It was also pretty bland, adding the chicken stock after cooking the orzo, instead of cooking the orzo in the chicken stock. I will definitely have to make this recipe again and see if I can make a better version. Maybe follow the recipe or something.

Baked Ziti

Sorry for the late post - things have been hectic with the start of the new semester and I haven't had a chance to sit down and properly write out a post. This one will be short and sweet, and hopefully I'll have another one up soon for this week.

So last week my friend and I decided to come back to campus a week early to catch up on some lab work, and made a huge pan of baked ziti, which lasted us about 4 days. We're lazy, I know. I take absolutely zero credit for this recipe, this one goes to Brian. The recipe is (sort of) as follows:

Ingredients:
1 pound of ziti
1 pound of ground turkey
salt and pepper to taste
1 tablespoon Adobo seasoning
8 ounces shredded mozzarella
8 ounces shredded colby jack
8 ounces cottage cheese
1 jar (25 ounces) pasta sauce

Directions:
1. Cook pasta in salted water as directed on the box.
2. In a large skillet, add ground turkey, salt, pepper and Adobo seasoning and cook for 10 minutes on medium-high heat. Add the jar of pasta sauces to the pan and let simmer.

3. In a large casserole dish, add a layer of pasta across the bottom (about half of the pasta). Layer half of all the cheeses on top, and top with half of the sauce. Repeat the layers, and save a small amount of cheese to add to the top of the ziti.

4. Bake at 375ºF for 20 minutes or until the cheese is melty and golden brown on the top

And voila! It's delicious, can feed a crowd and stores well. I know I'm going to fish this recipe out a couple of times throughout the semester when I'm in a pickle and need something in my fridge I can pick at for a while.