Ultimate Recipe Swap: Chicken Orzo

The theme for today's Ultimate Recipe Swap is freezer meals. I'm sharing my recipe for Chicken Orzo as well as some links to other dishes that I like to freeze!

My freezer was getting pretty low on ready-made meals so last week, I planned to spend a naptime preparing some things to freeze. That didn't happen but I did manage to double and triple some recipes a few nights while preparing dinner. I got a good deal on ground beef so I made up a batch of meatballs while cooking dinner the other night.

I'm rather hit or miss when it comes to making meals for the freezer. I don't really have a specific list of dishes that freeze well and I usually end up with a very odd assortment of stuff to freeze based on what ingredients I have on hand. It works, but my organized, list-loving personality would like to make a chart of what kinds of things that we like to freeze so I could have a better variety as well as come up with an actual cooking plan that would be an efficient use of my time. That is on my list to do next!

Anyways, some main dishes that I like to freeze are:
--meatballs
--spaghetti pie
--homemade pizzas
--chicken chimichangas(I want to try these with beef, too.)
--chicken pot pie
--lasagna

And here's the recipe for Chicken Orzo:
This is so easy to put together. Whenever I make it, I plan to make 2 and pop one in the freezer for later.

Chicken Orzo

1 or 2 cooked chicken breasts cut into strips or chunks or 1-2 cups cooked chunked chicken
1 cup Italian dressing
1 cup uncooked orzo pasta(rice-shaped)
1 can (2 1/4 oz.) sliced black olives
1/2 cup chopped sun-dried tomatoes
1 medium sweet pepper (green, yellow or red or variety) cut into small strips
a little chopped onion
Parmesan cheese(optional)

Cook pasta according to package directions. Drain well. Mix chicken, dressing, olives, tomatoes and pepper into large bowl. Add orzo and stir altogether. Pour orzo mixture into greased casserole dish. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese and bake at 350 degrees for 30-40 minutes or until heated through. (If you make this right before dinner and all ingredients are still pretty warm, it might not take as long to heat through! I often make my dinners early in the morning and refrigerate until time to bake for dinner.)

For freezing-wrap pan well (I usually double-wrap.)and label with recipe name, cooking directions and date. To bake, remove from freezer(duh!!!:-), thaw and bake as directed above.

**Thanks to Life As Mom for hosting the Ultimate Recipe Swap!