A Fall Cooking Kind of Day!

It is very rare I get to be at home by myself all day! Today was one of those days! I am off because of Columbus Day! Thank you Mr. Columbus for sailing the ocean blue so I could have a day off! I decided to get up kind of early go for a workout, then spend the rest of the day cleaning and cooking!

I started off with these awesome Pumpkin Muffins. They are so good and so easy!
All you do is buy 1 Spice Cake Mix Box and 1 can of pumpkin. You mix just those two ingredients together put them in a muffin pan, and bake at 350 degrees for about 15 minutes. The friends who gave us this recipe suggest to add chocolate chips to them as well. Since, Scott is on a workout/weight loss journey before he turns 30 I decided to leave those out! They are still AMAZING and YUMMY!

Then I made this really fresh recipe called Orzo Pasta Salad. My sister-in-law gave me the recipe a while back and it is just so good. The original recipe has LOTS of ingredients but it is so worth it. The one I made today was tweaked a bit to save some money!

Original Recipe:
Salt
Olive Oil
¾ pound Orzo
½ cup freshly squeezed lemon juice (3 lemons)
freshly ground black pepper
1 cup minced scallions, white and green parts
1 cup chopped fresh dill, discard stems
1 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley, discard stems
1 hot house cucumber, unpeeled, diced (the kind sold wrapped in plastic)
½ cup diced red onion
¾ pound good feta cheese, cubed (buy the chunk feta)
1 pt. grape tomatoes, you can leave whole or cut in half

Fill large pot with water, add 1 tablespoon salt and a splash of oil, and bring the water to a boil. Add the orzo and simmer for 7-9 minutes, stirring occasionally, until it’s cooked al dente. Drain, rise with room temp water to keep the orzo from overcooking itself, and pour into a large bowl. Whisk together the lemon juice, ½ cup olive oil, 2 teaspoons salt and 1 teaspoon pepper. Pour over the hot pasta and stir well. Add the scallions, dill, parsley, and cucumber, and mix well. Add onion, tomatoes and toss well. Add the feta and stir carefully. Set aside at room temperature for 1 hour to allow the flavors to blend, or refrigerate overnight. But, bring back to room temp and stir before serving.

The one I made today includes: Orzo, olive oil, 2 lemons, 1 pt. grape tomatoes, 1/2 cup diced red onion, Feta cheese, ground pepper, salt, basil and a cucumber diced. It is good either way!! I serve it over fresh spinach and it just tastes so fresh! Enjoy!