Home ยป Easy & Cheap(er) Basil Pesto + Weekly Menu

Easy & Cheap(er) Basil Pesto + Weekly Menu

You know what SUCKS? Being inept when it comes to technology and trying to operate a fancy camera. Or a blog. Or a podcast, for that matter. I’m having my share of hardships on ALL fronts in the past few weeks and I’m getting a little PO’ed to say the least.

My DSLR is literally eating the images I take. I photograph these beautiful foods, VERIFY that the images were captured on the camera, go to upload to post and……nothing is there. Someone help – how is this even possible? If it happened only once, I’d certainly consider the possibility of user error. But this has happened several times, all recently.

While I curse out my camera and try not to lose motivation to post, the rest of my crew is hungover. Not literally, but they’re whipped from spending ALL day yesterday at the beach. I mean, we were there ALL day. We watched people come and go. We nearly stayed for the SECOND beach wedding of the day.

It’s a good thing my brother showed up with a giant tent to shade us from the sun – it was fierce. Of course my little mermaids wanted nothing having to do with sitting still or being in the shade, so we furiously reapplied sunscreen…often. Okay, Mark reapplied their sunscreen often. I did a poor job last weekend and they ended up a little red and thus, I was demoted.

Needless to say, everyone is sleeping (Mark included) while I get a blog post up and next, a podcast episode up. My house hasn’t been this quiet in a long time. The only noise is my keyboard clicking away and the dishwasher running behind me. GLORIOUS! Considering how productive I’m being, I may even get in 2 minutes of reading before all the little monsters get up! Here’s hoping.

Our other activity this weekend was making our first batch of pesto for the year. I’m not sure what exactly Mark does to get our basil to grow so well, but I’m guessing it’s not organic. J Oh well. It’s local from our yard and oh my heavens, the smells! With as much basil as we produce, I had to start doing things on the cheap. As in, make pesto without pine nuts. No doubt about it, pine nuts are top dog in my mind when it comes to pesto, but a mixed nuts (hold the peanuts) version is not a long shot runner up! Enjoy!


Easy & Cheap(er) Basil Pesto
Author: 
Prep time: 
Total time: 
Serves: 4 cups
 
Ingredients
  • 1 cup mixed nuts (pistachios, pecans, walnuts, etc - no peanuts)*
  • ½ cup grated Parmesan
  • 1½ tsp salt
  • 1 bulb garlic (about 12 cloves**), peeled
  • 8 oz fresh basil leaves
  • 2 cups extra-virgin olive oil
Instructions
  1. In the bowl of a food processor fitted with the blade, pulse together the nuts, cheese, salt, and garlic until finely ground, about 1 minute.
  2. Add the basil, gently pressing down to fit. Run the processor while adding the oil in a slow and steady steam; process about 1 minute.
  3. Use immediately, store in the fridge for up to 3 days with plastic wrap placed directly on the surface to prevent browning, or freeze in ice cube trays or plastic freezer bags.
Notes
*sunflower seeds work great, too!
**if you don't LOVE LOVE LOVE strong garlic flavor, reduce by half.
Nutrition Information
Serving size: ¼ cup Calories: 303 Fat: 31.6 Carbohydrates: 3.0 Sugar: 0.3 Sodium: 302 Fiber: 0.6 Protein: 2.4 Cholesterol: 3

Weekly Menu: July 21st – 25th

Be well,

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