Left Overs
Sometimes you don’t have time to go to the supermarket to get things for lunch or dinner. Sometimes you just have to work with what you have on hand. This was my position on Sunday. I was busy fixing my place up and I couldn’t get out, so I decided to work with what I had in my fridge. Since I had sour cream, cheese and bacon from previous recipes along with other items, I decided to make a cheesy tuna orzo. This recipe is nice and quick to make. I actually did this a couple of times, but I used cream cheese instead of the mozzarella cheese to give it more of a rich flavor. So if you have any cream cheese lying around sub it for the mozzarella cheese.
Cheesey Tuna Orzo
Makes 2-3 Servings
4 cups of cooked orzo (al dente)
3 oz can of tuna (keep the juice)
½ cup of milk
½ cup of mozzarella cheese
½ cup of diced onions
3 tablespoons of bacon bits
2 teaspoons of minced garlic
1 tablespoon of margarine
2 tablespoons of sour cream
1 teaspoon of paprika
½ teaspoon of cayenne
Garlic salt and pepper to season
With cooking orzo, you need to be careful because it takes very little time for it to cook al dente. Orzo typically doubles in size once it’s cooked so you would need roughly 2 cups of uncooked orzo to make 4 cups cooked. You will know when the orzo is al dente when you take a bite into and you get a small dense chew in the center of it. Don’t worry if you happen to under cook it. You can always add a little more liquid later on.
So toss in the cooked orzo, the juice from the tuna and milk in a frying pan and cook on medium heat until you see a slight simmer. Then turn the heat to low and add the diced onions, minced garlic, margarine, sour cream, parprika, cayenne and a small amount of salt and pepper. Don’t add too much seasoning because it might become too salty once the bacon is added. Have the mixture cook over low heat until the orzo is fully cooked about 4-5 minutes, turn off the heat and then add in the mozzarella (or cream cheese), bacon bits and tuna. Stir all ingredients until well incorporated and the cheese is nice and melted.
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