Meyer Lemon & Pea Shoot Pesto Pasta w/ Garlic Breadcrumbs
Experience a burst of vibrant flavors in this bright springtime pasta. A zesty pesto featuring fresh pea shoots, parsley, and dill harmoniously combines with the essence of Meyer lemon. Tossed with a nice wide noodle and complemented by salty ricotta salata cheese, this dish promises a delightful culinary journey that celebrates the essence of spring.
Mahi Mahi with Grilled Kale & Scallion Pesto
It is harvest season! That time of the year when you don’t know what to do with your copious amounts of (insert vegetable here). For me, it is lettuce, kale and zucchini. I try to eat salads daily, but it seems like it has all grown back by the time I finish my stash in the fridge. After letting some of my kale sit in the fridge for a little too long, I knew I needed to use it up ASAP. I also had half of a bunch of green onions that were looking pretty sad. Voila! Sad looking vegetables turned into a match made in heaven.
Kale Pesto Quinoa w/ Poached Egg
Hey, I warned you didn’t I? Another quinoa bowl. This one was especially satisfying because I used my first harvest of kale from my garden! No matter what you grow, it will always taste better freshly harvested from your own garden. No farmer’s market or grocery store can create that feeling of accomplishment that growing your own food can.
Dandelion Pumpkin Seed Pesto
This summer has been filled with delicious veggies from local farms! A while back, I picked up a bunch of dandelion greens. I had heard raves about their health benefits, but also knew they would be bitter. I was determined to find a unique way to put my dandelion greens to use when I found a recipe on The Kitchn for a Dandelion Pumpkin Seed Pesto.
Pesto & Goat Cheese Potatoes
Do you ever find yourself making the same thing over and over again for dinner? That’s how I was beginning to feel about oven roasted potatoes; so one day I decided that I was going to amp them up a bit.
Breaded Zucchini & Eggplant Pasta w/ Chive-Basil Pesto
The fall has begun to roll in and the garden veggies just keep on coming. It is kind of nice hardly ever having to go to the grocery store. Instead, I get to walk into my garden and look around for what my next meal is going to be. The spaghetti squash have also begun to grow and there are tons of tomatoes waiting to turn. Of course, the zucchini has been endless as well. I also got a lot of eggplants from my mom’s farm, so I decided to make this dish using my homegrown herbs and veggies. Here is the continuance of my never ending zucchini recipes.
Spinach-Cilantro Pesto
In only a year, my olive oil collection has grown substantially. I seem to accumulate nice olive oils, then never use them. I always just buy the massive bottles from Costco to use instead. The other day my mom mentioned to me that she only had nice olive oils left, so she was only going to use them. I think I have some sort of mental block that I should save them for a “special occasion”. When will there ever be an olive oil special occasion? This has brought me to the decision that I am going to use my nice olive oils as well. I have begun using the oil that my mom got from her adopted olive farm, my chile infused olive oil from New Zealand (summer 2010!), a lemon olive oil, as well as my new DEVO Cilantro and Roasted Onion infused olive oil. When I heard of this DEVO oil, I was instantly intrigued. I had never heard of such an interesting flavor infusion- I had to try it! DEVO also has many other interesting infused oils, check them out!
Savory Pesto, Sausage & Spinach Turnovers
I will start this post by saying that I am aware of my pesto addiction. I find myself putting pesto on everything. The original recipe I found for these turnovers did not include pesto or cheese, but I felt that they would keep them from being too bland. My mom recently posted a recipe for Homemade Italian Sausage that had me intrigued. I was surprised how easy it was to make! I think if you are planning on dicing up your sausage, you might as well just make your own.
These turnovers are a perfect lunch or easy-to-eat dinner. They have lots of healthy veggies and delicious flavor all packed into one little turnover (or one large if you are me!). You want to be sure to strain out the excess liquid after cooking the filling, otherwise you will end up with a soggy turnover.
Also, you will notice that my recipe is in a new format. I finally got my new plugin, Easy Recipe, to work (HUGE thanks to my IT friend Cooper here in Cape Town!). If you are a food blogger you should definitely get this plugin, it helps your recipes get noticed on big search engines like Google by formatting them properly for the recipe search.
How to Spatchcock A Chicken: Pesto Chicken
Whenever I go to the grocery store I usually just buy chicken breasts or whichever part of the bird I want to cook that night, but there is something to be said for taking the time to cook a whole bird every now and then. This week whole organic chickens were on sale at my work for only six bucks, so I had to get one. The reason I usually don’t cook a whole chicken, and probably why you may not either, is dealing with cutting it off the bones afterwards. This is where spatchcocking comes in handy.
Spatchcocking a chicken is basically cutting out the spine, breast bone and ribs, so that you are left with only the meat and the bones for the limbs. It makes it extremely easy to cut and serve the meat once the chicken is cooked. For my spatchcocked chicken, I added pesto and onions to make a tasty dish. One benefit of keeping the skin on the bird it that you can stuff any sort of spices or seasonings in between the skin and meat to cook it with extra flavor.
