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 

Greens in question

Today I only ate veggies at breakfast.  I had plans for a nice pesto pasta for dinner, but my husband and I had to go to the store for supplies for a time sensitive house project.  So we ate at the diner.  You know, tough life.

My CSA email said that this week's box contained both spinach and chard, however, I only received one bag of questionable loose greens.  I figured that the bag was a mix of both greens and after washing the greens (how I wash greens here) I had a feeling it was chard, but stayed optimistic that it could be mixed with spinach leaves as advertised.

Wrong!  I should have known by the yellow stems...

This is now the second time I was told that my CSA box contained spinach only to find out that it was chard by the taste.  And there is nothing more off putting then taking a sip of your delicious green drink only to taste dirt.  It's not that I don't like chard, I just don't care for it in my green drink as it has a very "earthy" taste.  Earthy is great in a salad, and I love roasted beets with cheese, but earthy is not so great in a drink.  For those of you who stumble across this post I would love to know any suggestions for incorporating chard into a green drink without having to add tons of sweetener to mask the taste as I fear I will have more chard to come throughout this season. 

Remaining veggies:

- Mixed greens
- Yellow squash and 2 zucchini
- Purple onion
- Swiss chard
- Bag of basil
- 2 cobs of corn