Grilled Chicken and Cheesy Orzo with Tomatoes and Basil

We love orzo, but it isn't usually on my radar for weeknight dinners. I had a box of it in the pantry, ripe tomatoes and basil in the garden and no idea what to make. Then I remembered a dish my friend C Laz turned me on to called Bruschetta Chicken. I didn't follow the recipe exactly, but it was the same basic idea.


After cooking the orzo with the onions and garlic, I added it to a bowl where I'd tossed chopped tomatoes from my garden with basil, salt, pepper, olive oil and balsamic vinegar. I added in some grated cheese and cubes of mozzarella. SP manned the grill and dinner was served.

You might be wondering what sliced avocado is doing on the plate in the above picture. Well, we bought 4 avocados on Saturday, put them in a paper bag on the counter and promptly forgot about them. Until last night, when SP encouraged me to see if they were ripe before they went too far. One of them was almost overripe, so I cut into it last night:


Isn't it gorgeous? We both love avocado plain so we each had half the avocado sliced, drizzled with lemon juice, salt and pepper. It didn't quite go with the theme of the meal, but it was certainly tasty.