In The Kitchen With Orzo

No this is not a person with a big red nose, floppy shoes and oversized mismatched clothes blowing up animal balloons. This is a whole grain that resembles rice in appearance and pasta in texture.

I have recently been inspired by my friend Jaime Gibbs to revisit the idea of whole grains and fresh live foods. She made such a convincing case for oat groats that we made a trip to Whole Foods ourselves today. Of course, it didn't stop with the oats.

The bulk food aisle has always been our favorite. We also had to get short grain brown rice (hopefully like the rice served at P.F. Changs,)whole wheat gluten flour, couscous for Jeremi, millet, sea salt, and the usual granola snack for each person in the car in their own little plastic container.

While standing in front of the little containers with plastic shovels, Tiffani recognized the orzo. She exclaimed, "Oh look mom! They have orzo! Can we get some?" Now, you have to understand that we used to have this little grain from time to time, but it has been a very long time. In fact, I don't think we have had it since we left RV life. We certainly had to get some, even if just for posterity sake.

When we got home, she wanted to cook it up right away. Tiffani found a recipe and began putting it all together. After tasting it 2 or 3 times along the way to ensure that it was 'al dente', she said to me, "It has to be just like I remember."

Well, it turned out nothing like I remember. I would have remembered this one. Tiffani made it very healthy, fat free and delicious! She is a very good cook!