Healthified Pesto: 5 Ways

Thanks you guys!  We had SO much fun at Saturday's BBQ! Sunday was good too, it took a turn though when Austin comes in from the garden with a gallon size bag of basil on Sunday. A GALLON. Being that I hate to waste food (hate, hate, hate it), I decided it was time to try my hand at making pestos (without pine nuts, mind you, as I've yet to find a reasonably priced bag!). Enter the following 5 Pestos:

1. First, I made one of our FAVORITE pestos, Sun-dried Tomato Pesto. I made 3 batches of 4 servings each. We had one this week, and the other two are frozen. I'll just need to add pasta, chicken and feta on top - done!

2. Then we thought about doing a classic pesto, but with the nut we had on hand, peanuts! We made a batch, loved it, so doubled it ending up with 2 batches of 4 servings each and froze it all. We call it Classic Peanut Pesto. Recipe & picture coming soon!

3. Then I was like let's do something VERY different. So we made Spicy Asian Peanut Pesto. We kept this one to 1 batch of 4 servings as it's the highest fat one (being that it was made with peanut butter & basil - crazy! Recipe & picture coming soon!

4. After attempting the different one, we went back to classic but with a new nut. Enter Classic Almond Pesto. VERY good. We made 1 batch of 4 servings.Recipe & picture coming soon!

5. From the almond batch, we branched out and made Lemon Basil Almond Pesto. Basically the same as #4, but without Parmesan but with lemon juice and lemon zest. Recipe & picture coming soon!

So friends, this is one way to use a packed, gallon-size bag of basil!

Lots of pestos ready to go - each tub is 4 to 8 servings - just add pasta & chicken!

so happy with these - we froze a lot - YAY!

And speaking of the Sun-Dried Tomato Pesto, please tell me my photography skills have improved! Yes, this is the SAME dish, just about 2 years apart...

New School

Q: Have you ever made pesto? If so, what's your favorite mix?!


Q: Have your photography skills vastly improved since blogging?! Don't get me wrong - I still have a long way to go! But WOW - i'm just horrified at some of my old pics. I'm like, hmmmm I KNOW it's a yummy recipe but I don't even want to eat it! LOL


So yes, this was my Sunday - cooking pestos with Austin, working, doing laundry, getting ready for Monday and a bit of reading - not a bad Sunday!