I love to cook for my household so, it’s no surprise that I also cook for the daycare children. My home daycare is great for busy working families, I serve their children healthy home cooked meals. Having young children myself makes it easier to cook one big pot for everyone. Our daycare participates in the Illinois ‘food program’ that guides what we serve, the portion size, sugar content, and calorie count.
My household’s meat diet consist of fish and poultry, we do not eat any kind of red meat. My husband and I were vegetarians for years but, decided we needed some protein so, we sacrificed the fish and poultry. I say poultry because I eat chicken, duck, turkey and game fowl. He doesn’t like duck meat but since I don’t cook it – a Chinese take out is fine by me. I sometimes follow a Pescatarian or all vegetarian diet for months…a little cleansing of the body is always good. I have an affinity for all Indian vegetarian meals…but this recipe is not Indian so let me carry on.
This recipe uses some: Chicken breast, red peppers, onions, garlic, mushrooms, carrots, orzo, chicken /vegetable stock, soy sauce, Italian seasoning & garlic salt.
I am not a chef so I don’t have all the exact measurements but the children always enjoy this recipe when it’s prepared.
Cut up the seasoning and put aside. Add the amount of seasoning you like. I used half pepper, half of a large onion, 4 garlic cloves, some mushrooms and one large carrot.
Then clean and wash chicken breast. Season with garlic salt and some soy sauce. I cooked the cutlets then cut them up but, you can dice prior to cooking. You can cook immediately or let marinate for an hour.
Brown chicken in a frying pan until no longer pink inside. I used olive oil to cook it.
Add diced seasoning to the chicken for flavor. (don’t drain oil…this will help the orzo from sticking to bottom of pot)
I then added some carrots. I try to add enough vegetables for the children. They usually eat the vegetables when they cook in some stew than just water. Add Italian seasoning.
Toss a little with the carrots then take the chicken out – you don’t want to overcook the breast. The leg and thigh could possibly stay in to cook with the orzo, but since the chicken breast cooks easily, I took them all out.
Add some sundried tomato to sizzle (optional). I also did other versions without the sundried tomatoes and it tasted good too.
Add the vegetable stock to mixture – about 2 cups to 1 cup orzo
Then add orzo.
Mix together reduce heat and let cook until done. Keep stirring to avoid orzo sticking until orzo is cooked. Can add a little more stock if orzo not fully cooked, but keep on low flames.
When cooked and cooled – Serve to the children. Excellent with Avocado.
I hope your children enjoy theirs as mine did.
I am not an expert with recipes so, I do not know the calories and I mostly eyeball my measurements. I openly apologize if yours did not come out exactly like mine did.
Leave a Reply