About last night... Basic Pesto Recipe

I had plans to blog about my veggie eats yesterday since I incorporated veggies into TWO meals, get it girl, but I was exhausted after work and making dinner.  Plus, soaking my feet and watching Master of None was much more appealing.

BREAKFAST

Turns out chard is much more palatable in a green drink with berries.  Yesterday I blended chard with Siggi's Mixed Berry Yogurt, vanilla almond milk, and frozen mixed berries.  I pounded it on my way to work.

The earthy taste of the chard was masked with the sweetness of the berries.  I normally like pineapple with spinach or kale, but I think chard goes best with berries.  I have some more chard to eat so I'll continue to experiment.

DINNER

Dinner was very green, but awesome!  I love pesto and whenever I get basil in my CSA box I make some type with stuffed pasta and last night was no exception.  I made a traditional basil pesto with cheese tortellini and sweet Italian chicken sausage.

Plus a side of sauteed zucchini and onions because the week is coming to an end and I have to eat all the veggies in my box! #goals

I think I make a delicious pesto if I do say so myself. You can substitute the basil with any green, however, I recommend that at least half the greens are basil when making this recipe. 

Basic Pesto

Ingredients:
2 cups washed and dried basil, stems removed
3 cloves garlic
1/4 cup parmesan reggiano cheese
1/4 cup pine nuts
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
Combine all ingredients in a food processor and blend until the consistency of your choosing.

It's that easy.

You can eat this pesto cold or warm.  When eating it with a pasta I cook the pasta as directed and then bring the pot back to the warm stove top.  With the flame off I add the pesto to the warm pan and gently fold in the cooked pasta.  In this case tortellini and chicken sausage.  The pesto will warm with the residual heat of the stove top.

Serve with cheese and enjoy!

Remaining veggies:

- Mixed greens
- Yellow squash
- 1/2 of a purple onion
- Swiss chard
- 2 cobs of corn 

Steak Salad

Day 2 and more veggies consumed.

LUNCH

For lunch I ate last night's leftovers.  Wasn't really craving fajita filling, but I hate throwing food away and the whole point of this week is to eat all the items in my CSA box, not waste.  More about my week's goal here.

Thus I took one for the team. 

DINNER

Starting around the third trimester I started craving red meat, which is not my norm.  My husband is in heaven.  We eat a lot of steak salad because it is quick, easy, and relatively healthy.  Plus we get a lot of different lettuce types since getting our first CSA box and the lettuce is delicious.  It tastes so much better than the packaged (and washed) lettuce you buy at the grocery store.  The only thing I dislike about the lettuce is it is not washed so I have to make an extra effort to get rid of the dirt and creepy crawlies.  Easiest way to clean lettuce is to submerge it in cold water.  

 

I repeat this a number of times until the dirt and bugs settle to the bottom of the bowl before I transfer the lettuce to a salad spinner.

 

 

We generally don't finish a bag of lettuce in one sitting so I make sure to spin, spin, spin the lettuce in the salad spinner, dump out the water, and then spin, spin, spin the lettuce again.  And dump out more water repeating this process until I get the lettuce as dry as possible.  If you thoroughly dry your lettuce it will stay crisp in an airtight container for up to a week.  You're welcome.   

So dinner was delicious.  We made DIY salads using the fresh Jersey corn in our box warm off the grill, mini heirloom tomatoes, filet mignon, and red onions and feta for me and blue cheese for him.

Happy Campers!  Now since we ate "low carb" we theoretically should be able to have dessert right?  Let's be real, we would have had dessert either way.

Remaining veggies:

- A few mixed greens leftover from tonight
- Yellow squash and 2 zucchini
- Some purple onion
- Bag of Swiss chard / spinach (not sure yet what it is)
- Bag of basil
- 2 cobs of corn

Eat your veggies

I get a CSA box every Sunday because I firmly believe in supporting local farmers.  Plus, my mom treated us to this box for the second time because organic ain't cheap!  My husband and I try to meal prep on Sunday's to make sure we utilize everything in our box.  Emphasis on try.  We generally start the week out strong cooking what we planned to make and eating lots of veggies.  However, by the end of the week we are both tired and end up ordering take out and what's left of the box goes in the trash (sorry cilantro... we're not huge fans) or gets chopped up and frozen to use later (onions from last week).  Not this week!

My goal is to try and eat all the vegetables in the CSA box without having to toss a single item.  To be accountable I am documenting how I eat the box veggies along the way.

This week we got:
- Bag of mixed greens
- Yellow squash and 2 zucchini
- 3 purple onions
- Bag of Swiss chard / spinach (not sure yet what it is)
- Bag of basil
- 2 bell peppers
- 4 corn

LUNCH

Lunch we utilized a few basil leaves after stopping by the deli to get fresh Italian bread, store made mozzarella, and garlic marinated sundried tomatoes. 

And because this fresh sandwich was so good topped with imported balsamic I decided to have another.

And I would have had another, but we ran out of bread. 

DINNER

For dinner I racked my brain on what to make that incorporated both bell peppers and onions and the husband picked fajitas.

You can make fajitas fancy or you can make them super easy.  I chose the later.  I like to make fajitas on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper because I can season the veggies and meat without dirtying a bowl and clean up is as easy as grab parchment paper and drop in trash.  BOOM.  

Pan Chicken Fajitas

Serves: 2-3

Ingredients:
1 lb chicken breast
2 bell peppers
2 small onions
2 garlic cloves
2 tablespoon olive oil
Seasoning (I make my own, see below)

Seasoning recommendation:
1-2 teaspoons Adobo (depending on my mood...I love salt)
1.5 teaspoons chili powder
1 teaspoon (Spanish) paprika
1 teaspoon cumin
Pinch of red pepper flakes

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees
2. Cut chicken into small strips (I recommend about 1/2 inch by 3-4 inches)
3. Thinly slice bell pepper and onions.  Chop garlic
4. Combine chicken, peppers, onions, and garlic on parchment lined cooking sheet
5. Top chicken and veggies with seasoning and olive oil

6.  Mix, mix, mix until evenly coated

7.  Spread chicken and veggies out making sure that chicken is not overlapping

 
8.  Bake for 25 minutes flipping the mixture halfway through
9.  Serve with warmed tortillas, lime juice, and the condiments of your choosing

 

Remaining veggies:

- Bag of mixed greens
- Yellow squash and 2 zucchini
- 1 purple onion
- Bag of Swiss chard / spinach (not sure yet what it is)
- Bag of basil
- 4 corn