Chowdah, Corn Chowdah

Let’s skip the awkward, “it’s been a while” talk.

Hi!

The hubby has been bugging me about making corn chowder for about a month now. Like, twice a day, every day, type of bugging. Here’s the thing…I don’t like chowder. I generally don’t make things that I don’t like/eat.

I don’t know what came over me, but I decided to google “easy corn chowder” and a ton of recipes appeared. I was pleasantly surprised to find that you could probably make chowder with items you already have in your pantry and fridge. After looking at about 10 recipes, I decided to create my own, despite not having a clue what I was doing. I liked the freshness of some recipes that included bell peppers and fresh corn, while I liked the ease of throwing in a can of cream of mushroom to create a thicker consistency.

Here went nothing.

Ingredients

Bacon – 6 slices

Celery – 2 stalks

Corn – 2 fresh, 1 15 oz can, drained

Bell Pepper – Half of a medium size

Onion – Half of a medium size

Potatoes – 4 medium size red

Cream of mushroom soup – 1 can

Chicken broth – 1 package, approx. 14 oz

Butter – 1 tbsp.

Salt and Pepper to taste

Water

Leftover Chicken (Optional)

Corn Starch (Optional)

I began by cutting 6 strips of bacon into small pieces. I threw them into my pot over medium heat, and as they cooked, I chopped up the onion, celery, and bell pepper into a small/medium dice. Remember to stir your bacon occasionally; you don’t want it to burn. I wanted the veggies small enough to cook quickly, but big enough so you could taste and see them in the chowder. Once the bacon was cooked, I removed them with a slotted spoon and placed the bits on a paper towel to drain excess oil.

I then added butter to the bacon fat, followed by the cut onion, celery and bell pepper. You’ll want to stir this occasionally to allow the veggies to cook and keep the stove on medium heat. Season with salt and pepper. While this is cooking, cut your potatoes. I chose a larger dice. I don’t know why. It seemed like the right thing to do at the time. Once your onions are translucent and the veggies appear soft, it’s time to add your chicken broth and water. [Note here: I added 4 cups of water, and my chowder remained a bit on the brothy side. In hindsight, I should have only added 2-3 cups to get a more thick, recognizable, chowder consistency] Add your potatoes, add some salt and pepper, and turn the heat to high. I wanted a low boil, to cook the potatoes half way quickly, since they’d sit in the pot for a while.

While the potatoes are cooking, cut your fresh corn. Reality is, you don’t need fresh corn, canned

corn on its own would have been fine. I thought some fresh corn would make the chowder….fresh.

Anyway, be careful when cutting corn off the cob. It will fly EVERYWHERE. Try one of those hacks with inverted bowls or a bundt pan. Otherwise, you’ll have corn all over the counter, floor, and yourself. After the potatoes have been low boiling for about 5 minutes, reduce the heat to medium/low, and add the fresh corn, canned corn, cream of mushroom soup, and half of your cooked bacon. Mix well. Taste. Add more salt and pepper if necessary. I left this on the stove on low heat for about 30 minutes. The potatoes were soft, some of the smaller pieces disintegrated, that’s ok.

Use leftover bacon to garnish the top of the soup.

Optional

 I found the consistency to be too brothy, so I made a corn starch slurry (equal parts corn starch and cold water in a bowl, stirred) and added it in and allowed it thicken up with the heat off for 10 minutes.

I had leftover chicken thighs from the previous night’s dinner, so I chopped up the meat and added it to the chowder when I added the corn and cream of mushroom soup.

End Result

I thought the flavor was good, and my husband loved it. Chowder still isn’t for me though.

This was easy enough to make, and fairly inexpensive. I estimate my total price (including chicken) to be $13, for roughly 8 huge servings. I would definitely make this again, for a chowder loving crowd.

Try it and let me know if you like it!

Your Mama’s Salsa

No really.

The salsa I’m making here is my go to recipe. It’s likely the same kind of salsa your mama made, if your mama made salsa. I think the success of this recipe lies in its simplicity. There’s a great depth of flavor thanks to the roasting of a few ingredients, and brightness due to the onion, lime, and cilantro. I get a lot of compliments on this recipe. It's super easy and great to take to potlucks.

Now that I've hyped this salsa up, let’s get to it.

Heat oven to 400 degrees.

Ingredients:

Tomatoes (5-6 Reg or 10-11 Roma)

2 Jalapenos

3 Garlic Cloves

1 medium yellow onion

1 bunch of cilantro

1 lime

Salt, to taste

Canola Oil (approx. ½ tbsp.)

Place tomatoes, jalapenos, and garlic in an oven safe dish. Toss with oil. I've estimated the oil here. Really, a little goes a long way. You want just enough to coat everything.

Roast for 20 minutes, until the skin begins to blister and peels off easily. If the skin hasn't begun to separate from the tomato, leave in the oven longer. Ideally you don't want to go longer than 25 minutes.

Remove from the oven and let cool. Once cooled, peel skin off of tomatoes and jalapenos. Add tomatoes, jalapenos, garlic, juice of the lime, and salt to a food processor. Blend until smooth. You may have to do this in 2 batches due to the capacity of your food processor. Make sure to taste once

blended, this is your opportunity to add more lime or salt, depending on your taste. You may also want to start with one jalapeno in your mixture and then taste for heat level. Some jalapenos are spicier than others and you never know what you're going to get. If you are anti-spicy, after you peel the skin off of the jalapeno, slice the jalapeno length wise, and remove all of the seeds and ribs before

blending in the food processor. The flip side is also true; feel free to add more jalapeno if you want it really spicy, but I find two works for most people. I like the flavor of the jalapeno, but serrano peppers work here too.

While you're waiting for everything to cool, it's best to dice your onion and cilantro. I prefer a finer dice. I use the entire onion and the full bunch of cilantro. Once diced, throw both into a bowl. Go for a medium to medium/large bowl. This makes a lot of salsa.

Once your tomato mix is blended, add to the onion and cilantro bowl. Mix. Done.

Eat with chips.

Add to anything and everything.

Tip: My grandmother has always told me that you only want to use wooden spoons when mixing or scooping your salsa, so it won't get watery. I don't know if it's true, but why chance it? Use a wooden spoon.

Tip 2: Keep covered, in the refrigerator. I'd say it lasts about a week, but I don't know since we've never had any left on day 7.

Enjoy!

I scream, you scream...for Lemon Basil Ice Cream

Hello Robyn's faithful blog readers!

My name is Inez and will be guest blogging today. A little about me: I'm your modern day homemaker, I love food, I talk a lot, and I watch lots of reality TV. 

Still with me? Awesome. 

A few weeks ago, I sent Robyn home with lemons and she made an amazing lemon sorbet. I was inspired by her blog post and knew I wanted something equally fabulous. 

So, there are some things that I always have an abundance of at home.

Complaining children.
Shows to watch on the DVR.
Dishes that need to be washed.
Lemons.
And Basil.

So I thought, hey, two birds one stone, make Lemon Basil Ice Cream. I googled. I found this site, and it seemed easy enough. I didn't have enough heavy cream, so I adjusted slightly to 1.5 cups of heavy cream and 1.5 cups of milk.

Before you start, make sure your ice cream maker base has been in the freezer at least 12 hours.

Ingredients

1.5 cups heavy cream
1.5 cups 2% milk
1.5 cups basil
1 tsp. lemon zest
1 pinch of salt
5 egg yolks
3/4 cup sugar

I started by adding the cream, milk, basil, lemon zest, and salt to a medium sized pot. I turned the heat to medium low and stirred constantly. Two things here, 1) I wanted to get the mixture just to boiling then turn it off, and 2) I didn't want the bottom to burn. I was cautious with my heat setting and it took about 7 minutes to get to a boil. As soon as it boiled, I immediately turned off the heat and let the mixture infuse for 20 minutes.

While that mixture sat, I separated my eggs. This recipe, like most ice creams only calls for the yolks. That doesn't mean you should throw away your egg whites! There are so many things you can do with them. I chose to make some macaroons (see below) with mine.

Once separated, add sugar and whisk, whisk, whisk. The mixture becomes very creamy and will have a pretty light yellow color to it.

Set aside.

Put the mixture in a blender and blend.

The next step is the trickiest and could ruin the whole process. Temper your eggs. Add warm liquid to the sugary eggs a little at a time while whisking constantly. Adding too much too quick, not whisking, or having too hot liquid, will result in scrambled eggs. Which would be great if we weren't making ice cream. Once the eggs and cream mixture are fully whisked together, add the whole mixture back to the pot over low heat. Stir constantly. At this point, you're thickening the base. Stir constantly so it doesn't scorch the bottom. You'll know it's ready when you can coat the back of a spatula or spoon with the mixture. For added reassurance, run your finger through the mixture on the back of the spoon that you coated, and if the track you made stays, it's plenty thick.

Once it's ready, it's not ready. Let the mixture cool down. You don't want to add super hot liquid to your ice cream maker. I let the mixture sit for about 15 minutes. It was in that time I made the macaroons that I'll talk about soon.

Once cool, I added the mixture to the ice cream maker and let it churn away. I allowed the mixture to churn for about 45-50 minutes. The consistency should be somewhat thick and creamy. If it's runny, keep churning. Don't forget that the base should be in the freezer until about 1 minute before you need to use it. If it's not frozen and super cold, it won't make ice cream. Once it was done churning, I put the mixture into these containers that I love and use for everything. Make sure you allow at least 12 hours to freeze.

While that churned, I decided to give this Coconut Macaroon recipe a try with the leftover egg whites I had. The recipe was super simple, and only required a wooden spoon and some elbow grease. These were delicious and gone by that night.

This recipe can be made from start to finish (minus preheating the oven) in about 22 minutes.

This is a good, go-to, easy, delicious recipe to have on hand, and deserves it's own blog post! Soon, promise.



Back to the ice cream. Here it is in all of it's glory. I won't lie to you. I have mixed feelings about it. It's immediately sharp in taste, but creamy, and then you get a hint of sweet. It's not as sweet as you normally imagine ice cream to be. I think next time I would strain the mixture to not have itty bitty pieces of basil throughout and maybe some sweetened condensed milk just to make it a tad sweeter.

Enjoy!

Albondiga Soup

So, I know it's summer.

It's hot.

And for most people, hot soup is the last thing they want on a hot day.

 

I'm not most people. I love soup. I could eat it every day, all day. My favorite soup, since I was a little girl, has been albondiga soup. It's a Mexican meatball soup filled with rice and veggies (the way I make it) and it is hearty and delicious and perfect any day of the year.

 

When I did my Sunday meal prep, I tried to make things I knew I could eat for a few days and not tire of. For me and the kid, this soup is it. It's relatively cheap to make too, the most costly ingredient being the protein.

Let's begin!

 

Start this recipe by putting a large pot of water to boil. To the water, add 8 ounces of tomato sauce (1 small can), 1 tomato bouillon cube, salt, pepper, dried oregano, cilantro (all to taste).

 

Ingredients for the meatball

Ground beef

Cilantro

Salt

Pepper

Cumin

Dried Oregano

Garlic Powder

Chili Powder

Hot Sauce

Egg

Pinch of uncooked rice

 

Note: I didn't include measurements, because it's really to taste. Want to cut salt? Leave it out. Don't like heat? Omit the hot sauce and chili powder. The taste of the meatballs can be accommodated to everyone's taste buds.

 

Note about protein: You can easily swap out ground beef for ground chicken or ground turkey. My favorite is ground chicken. It has incredible flavor, but I didn't have any, so I used ground beef.

 

Note about ground beef: try to go lean or you'll have a really oily, greasy soup. I like fat, but I found myself skimming the fat quite a bit in this 80/20 beef. I think 90/10 is pretty ideal. Also, if you're making this ahead, after the soup cools, put the entire pot in the fridge overnight and in the morning, the fat will have solidified and will be easy to remove. If you're eating right away, skim, skim, skim.

Now, add all ingredients to a large bowl and mix with your hands. Once mixed, let sit until your pot is ready to go. Once your water (broth?) in the pot, comes to a boil, lower the flame a bit, you want a gentle boil to cook the soup.

 

Roll your meatball and add to the pot, one at a time. I prefer the size of a golf ball or slightly smaller.

 

Let cook for about 10 minutes, and prep your veggies.

 

Veggies.

You can add any veggie that boils well. You can certainly add more veggies than  I do. Since I like the meatball to be the star of the soup, I only add three veggies: carrots, potatoes, and squash. You'll want to peel or wash your veggies before chopping. I peel the carrots, but leave the potato skin. You also want to add veggies into the soup based on their cook time.

 

Since carrots are denser, I add them first. I peel, and dice, season with salt and pepper. Add to pot. After about 5-7 minutes, I chop up the potatoes, slightly larger than I did the carrots, season with salt and pepper, and add them to the pot. After 5-7 minutes, I dice the squash. I also take out the middle of the squash, it tends to overcook and leave mushy bits throughout the soup. Season with salt and pepper, add to pot.

 

It's very important to season everything on it's own, no bland food here!

 

After 5 minutes, check to make sure all veggies are tender by sticking a fork in them.

 

It's important to know approximately how long it takes your veggies to cook. You don't want hard or overly cooked vegetables.

So after about 30-35 minutes (after your pot has come to a boil), your soup is ready. Not too bad, right?

 

Time to assemble.

 

Pick your bowl. Add some cooked rice. (I made rice in bulk on Sunday too, stay tuned for that blog post!) Ladle on your soup.

 

Add, to taste, lemon and/or hot sauce. I chose both.

 

Note about hot sauce: I like Cholula. It's not very hot, at all, but very flavorful. If you want spicy, choose a Tabasco or Tapatio, or even better, something homemade!

 

I made this recipe in bulk, enough for one nights dinner for me and the kids, and lunches throughout the week for me and the kid.



 

You might not think this is kid friendly fare, but I have found that kids LOVE meatballs. It's strange really, I haven't met a kid who doesn't. A soup like this is a great way to introduce veggies to kids who maybe are opposed to them. You can chop up the veggies and meatballs to small dices, so they can't differentiate what the veggies actually are. Dice the veggies small AFTER cooking, before serving, otherwise, if you make them that small to start with, they'll just turn to mush. My kid loves carrots and will eat them in any state of cooking. The other veggies, not so much. So, I leave the carrots regular size, and dice up the other veggies small, like I suggested earlier. He eats up the whole thing, and sometimes even asks for seconds!

Last note, but more of a tip. Notice my first picture, is the bowl of soup on top of a plate? My soup came out of the fridge today and needed to be heated up in a microwave. I like my soup HOT, temperature wise. Just microwaving the bowl of soup, would leave the bowl way too hot to handle. By heating up the bowl on top of a plate, the bowl and it's contents get hot, but the plate gets only slightly warm, making it easy to remove from the microwave and not burn your fingers.

 

Why? I have no idea, but it works.

 

Hope you enjoyed today's recipe and if you don't make it, hope you took away some tips or tricks.

 

Until next time!

Sunday Funday Bulk Meals

We have a pretty hectic week coming up.

 

My eldest starts 11th grade on Tuesday. Before we continue, can you hold me while I bawl my eyes out? She was 2 a second ago. Sniff. Not only is school starting, the hubby is going out of town for work for 3 days, which leaves me at home without his help.

 

Normally, it would have been so easy to just grab some take out, but with my trying this SAHM/Modern Homemaker thing out, I've realized that a big part of saving money is to make food at home. Not only make food, sometimes utilize one item in multiple ways.

 

So, due to the hectic week, the goal of saving money, and overall healthier choices, I made some bulk meals for the week.

 

I've decided to share with you the things I made, and touch upon them and give recipes throughout the week.

 

So here it is:

 

 

I boiled chicken thighs and made: 2 quarts of stock, dinner for Sunday, and a tray of enchiladas for the week.

 

I made a giant pot of albondiga (meatball) soup for 1 dinner during the week and lunches for me and the kid (4 yo).

 

I made 1.5 cups of rice, more than enough for 2 meals during the week and lunches.

 

Lastly, blueberry muffins. The eldest loves these muffins and they freeze well. I froze half, so she could grab one, heat it up, and eat on the way to school.

 

Stay tuned this week for more information!

 

Also, follow this blog on Instagram: _home_grown_basil_

 

Hope to see you there!

Easy Summer Salad

Before you say anything, I know... a blog post about salad?

Easy, you say? What's easier than a bagged salad and ready made dressing?

I get it. Really I do. There are some days where I tear up lettuce, add thousand island dressing and proclaim it as my salad. And that's ok. If that's how you like your salad, it's wonderful, I like it that way too.

But, if you're feeling fancy, or you want a change, or you're hosting a dinner party and want to impress, I cannot stress to you how delicious and easy this salad is. It's crispy, crunchy, chewy, soft, sweet, tangy - it has it all!

 

Ingredients

Spinach

Romaine Lettuce

Raspberries

Craisins

Slivered Almonds

 

Dressing

Canola Oil

Apple Cider Vinegar

Honey

 

I started this salad, by soaking my spinach. Spinach tends to be gritty and that's not something I want to eat, so I let the spinach soak for a minute, rinse it, and soak again. Let it soak while you prepare the rest. Grab a small pan and add your almonds. No oil, no spices, no nothing. You'll want to pay close attention so the almonds don't burn. Toasting the almonds deepens their flavor and makes them taste nuttier. They are delicious. They also burn easily (this is so important, I mentioned it twice). Move them around pretty constantly. I trust my nose to tell when they're done. If you're not comfortable using that method, look for them to be lightly toasted (light brown in color) or about 7-8 minutes if toasting on medium low.

The next thing I did was make my dressing. This was a lot of trial and error for me, and this is the combination that I liked the most. You can adjust the quantities based on the flavors you like most. Want it sweeter? Add more honey. Want it more tangy? Add more apple cider vinegar. Back to the trial and error. The husband and I went to a dinner last year and we had a spinach, strawberry, feta salad with a sweet, creamy dressing that I was obsessed with trying to recreate. And I never did. I can't quite get it, but that's ok, because in trying to make that, I have this simple fix. Ready for it? Add 1 teaspoon of each: canola oil, apple cider vinegar, honey. Mix. Done. It's sweet and slightly tangy and fantastic with fresh summer fruit.

Next, drain spinach. Rinse the spinach and your romaine lettuce. Spin to dry. I love our salad spinner and recommend it highly. Last thing you do is assemble. I toss the spinach and romaine with dressing in the bowl. I use about half of the dressing. Then top with the raspberries, craisins, and almonds.

 

Done.

 

A few notes: I didn't add quantities, because you could add as much or as little as you want. Really like raspberries? Add a bunch. I will say that half of the dressing was more than enough for about 2 cups of spinach and romaine.

I love this salad because you can mix and match fruits and nuts based on your taste or what's in season. Some ideas:

Almonds with blueberries or cherries.

Pecans with apples or peaches.

Walnuts with apples or pears.

 

 

Let me know if you make it and what combo you used.

Tomato Parmesan Fettuccini

So, it seems the last time we spoke, I was on a roll. Something like 2 blog posts in a week and I was taking photos of food, coming up with ideas on what to make and blog about, and then life happened.

 

My dog became sick suddenly, and within 4 days passed away. As I was beginning to cope with that loss, my cousin passed away unexpectedly. Still reeling from the first loss, this second loss was like a punch to the gut. Honestly, blogging, even making food, was the last thing on my mind. And then we went on vacation. 14 days. It was nice to get away. It was nice to be with my husband and kids. I've had time to reflect, time for myself, time with family.

Now I'm here, ready to get back to it.

 

Tonight's dinner was inspired by a recipe I found through Pinterest!

Although inspired by this recipe, I did modify it somewhat.

 

Here's what I used:

16 oz. package of fettuccini

2 tbsp. olive oil

1/2 onion finely diced

2 garlic cloves

3/4 carrot finely chopped

1/2 pound ground beef

28 oz. can of San Marzano tomatoes

1 cup of shredded parmesan cheese

1/2 cup of heavy cream

To taste: salt, pepper, basil, red pepper flakes, sugar

 

 

I started by dicing my onion, garlic, and carrot. I prefer a fine dice. I then shredded my parmesan cheese.

A note about the carrot: First, I would have used a whole carrot, but the minute my son saw I was using a carrot, he swiped about a 1/4 of it. I'm surprised he's not orange with the amount of carrots he eats. Second, the original recipe does not call for a carrot, but I like adding carrot to some of my pasta sauces to cut the acidity of the sauce with the carrot's natural sweetness.

 

I added the olive oil to a pan and turned the heat to medium low. Once warm, I added the onion, garlic, and carrot to the pan. I cooked these on medium low until translucent and soft. If you crank the heat here, you'll burn your garlic and it'll give your sauce a very bitter taste.
                                                                                                                          While that was sautéing, I opened the tomatoes and threw them in a food processor. One tip I learned from the above website was to pulse the tomatoes slowly. Blending quickly will result in a pink, foamy, thin sauce. That's not what you want here. So, pulse a little at a time, until tomatoes are broken down, and sauce is relatively smooth.



Let's take a minute and talk San Marzano tomatoes. A lot of recipes call for them. They are supposed to be the best you can get canned for your sauce. Maybe it's my unsophisticated palate, but I can't tell the difference between the San Marzano and any other canned, whole, peeled tomatoes. Having said that, they're also a little pricey. Having used other ingredients that were relatively inexpensive, still makes this meal pretty cheap. However, if you were making this in bulk (for freezing or giving away or a huge family dinner) I'd use regular tomatoes. If you want a good compromise, use organic canned tomatoes.

 

 Ok, back to cooking, and here's where it gets slightly complicated, but stay with me. I am not a fan of chunky sauce, so I always blend it. However, with a meat sauce, you don't want blended meat. So, I put the onion, garlic, and carrot into a bowl, and then brown the meat.

 

 

 

 

I added salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes to the meat, to taste. As the meat cooks, I let the onion, garlic, carrot mixture cool and then add to the food processor with the blended tomatoes. I again, process slowly, so that the mixture and tomatoes combine until smooth. Once the meat is browned, I drain the oil from the pan. I then added the tomato sauce to the meat, mixed, and added salt, pepper, red pepper flakes, basil, and sugar to the sauce, to taste. I know what you're thinking, I added carrots to provide sweetness but then added sugar. Well, instead of having to add a tablespoon or more of sugar, I only added a teaspoon.

 

Simmer.

 

A note about the salt. You'll want to add salt to the meat and tomato sauce, but you'll eventually be adding 1 cup of shredded parmesan cheese, which can be salty. It's better not to add too much, since you can add some at the end.

 

After adding the cream.

At this point, I began the process of boiling the pasta. Fill your pot, turn on the burner, add salt. The water should taste salty like the sea. I prefer to cook my pasta in a big-ish pot (not the biggest I have though) and waiting until I have a rolling boil. Once there's a rolling boil, I drop my pasta. Now the next two minutes are critical. The temperature of the water will drop when you add the pasta and work its way back up and at the same time, the pasta releases its starches. You'll want to constantly stir your pasta for at least the first two minutes to prevent the pasta from sticking together. In fact, I do a two and two kind of deal. Stir constantly two minutes, let boil two minutes, stir constantly two minutes, etc., until the pasta is done. I know it seems like a lot of work, but it works for me and I don't have sticky pasta. During the first two minute boil, I added the cheese to the sauce and mixed well. During the second two minute boil, I added the heavy cream. When adding the heavy cream you have to stir constantly. I don't know why.

 

 

I need a bigger pan!

Once the pasta is done, save a little pasta water in case you want to thin your sauce. I saved water, but I did not end up using it. Drain your pasta. Add to your sauce. Mix. Done.



 

All that's left is to plate, garnish, and eat. I used more basil and parmesan as my garnish. The basil I cut using a chiffonade technique and I used the potato peeler for cheese shavings.

 

This recipe turned out better than I thought it would. The kids liked it too. This makes quite a bit, so it's a great family night meal; you could serve bread and salad to complete the meal. If you have some leftover, this should be an easy freezer meal as well. Either as a tray for a complete dinner or in quart bags for individual meals.



 

Enjoy!

 

 

 

 

When your garden gives you basil, make pesto!

The most amazing and inspiring thing happened yesterday.

 

Two friends tried two separate recipes that I’ve shared and liked them.  What?  Amazing!  I was completely inspired to create and share more.  If you try anything, and whether you like it or not, I would love your feedback!

 

Now onto food!  On our menu yesterday was Pesto Pork and Butter/Garlic/Lemon Pasta**

**title subject to change

 

Since basil is something we grow, and grow a lot of, I’ve always wanted to make pesto, but never have.

It's a jungle out there.

 I’ve heard horror stories about using old pine nuts and how they wreak havoc on your taste buds.  Not to mention, they’re rather pricey at the market.  I scoured the internet and found a recipe using almonds.  And by scoured, I clicked the first link. 

 

http://littleferrarokitchen.com/2013/02/basil-almond-pesto/

 

It seemed easy enough, so I was determined to do it. I only had a couple of minor tweaks, but I think that mainly because I over mixed in the food processor.  Oops?

I started by toasting the almonds:

No oil, just almonds in a pan, to toast.

I only toasted them about 3-4 minutes.  Add to food processor.  Take two garlic cloves, or 1 giant clove like the one I got:

 

Listed in my recipe book as a GIANT clove of garlic.

Make sure you cut up your garlic before adding to the processor - this clove I cut into 4. Then pulse away.  In retrospect, I think I pulsed too much, so next time I would pulse until the size of large panko, not fine breadcrumbs.

 

 

 A little too much pulsing...

 

 Next, I measured* out the basil. 

My scale is so well used, that the letters on the buttons have worn off.

The original recipe called for 2 cups, so I stuck to that, initially.  Added it to the food processor.  The recipe also calls for 3/4 cup olive oil.  So to start, I added 1/4 of it to the food processor and the rest I drizzled in as it mixed.  After completed combined, I added a pinch of salt and some fresh cracked black pepper, about 1/4 tsp.

 

Too much liquid, not enough chunk.

Then it was time to taste.  Two things were evident to me right away: first, I over mixed it, it was way too liquidy and not chunkish, like traditional pesto.  Second, it felt like it needed something.  My immediate go-to when something needs a little something, is acid, in the form of lemons.  Mainly because I have a giant lemon tree in my backyard, but also because it adds great flavor.  I squeezed half a lemon, which yields about 1 oz.

It was better, but still off.  A friend suggested adding more basil, so I added the rest in my bag, which was a little under a cup, but a cup would be fine here too. I manually pulsed three times, to leave a little bit of chunk in those added basil leaves and WHATDOYOUKNOW? Amazing. Delicious.  Still on the thin side, but so good, it didn't matter.

It's chunkier than it looks and the more it sat, the better it was.

I decided to use the pesto as a topping for pork.  I used center cut pork chops, about 1-1.5 inches thick.  I seasoned with salt, pepper, and garlic powder, knowing that the pesto was going to bring a punch of flavor.  I seared them in olive oil for about 6 minutes of each side.  After, I drained the oil, I put about half a tablespoon of pesto on each, covered the pan, and let sit for a few minutes.

 Big flavor in a small quantity.

Pesto Recipe

1/4 cup toasted almonds

1-2 cloves of garlic, based on your taste

3 cups basil (54 grams used in this recipe)

1/4 cup fresh grated parmesan

3/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

1 oz lemon juice

Salt and Pepper to taste

This recipe made* 18 tbsp. and I made the serving* 1tbsp.

Macros per serving: 1g Carbs, 11g Fat, 1g Protein

I decided to pair the pork with a simple pasta.  Normally I douse my pasta with tons of cream and cheese, but being conscious about fat these days, figured packing more flavor in the way of garlic and lemon could distract from the lack of fat.

 This pasta was better than I had hoped.

 I used what I had on hand, hence the strange butter measurement, but the rest seems pretty standard.

 

Butter/Garlic/Lemon Spaghetti

39g unsalted butter (a little under 3 tbsp.)

1 tsp. crushed garlic

Zest of 1 lemon (approx. 2 tsps.)

1/4 cup freshly grated parmesan

Squeeze of half a lemon (1 oz.)

2/3 cup of cooking liquid

12 oz. Spaghetti

Salt to taste

 

Macros: 42g Carbs, 7g Fat, 9g Protein – per serving

 

Unfortunately, there are no pictures for the pasta process.  After you boil the pasta (according to package directions) in salted water, drain.  In the same pot, add the butter.  Turn the stove on low-med to melt the butter.  Add garlic and lemon zest.  Turn off stove once melted and mixed – you want everything warm but you’re not cooking anything, and then add the rest of the ingredients, minus spaghetti.  It’s important to taste your sauce before you add the pasta.  If it’s good on its own, it’ll be amazing with your pasta.

 

I didn’t measure* this recipe like I normally do, because 2 oz. of dry pasta = 5 oz of cooked pasta, and the package itself told me there were 6 servings, of 2 oz. dry pasta.

The finished product:

I eat carbs.  Lots of carbs.

 

I topped with a minimal amount of parmesan, because parmesan.

 

*A note about measurements, recipes, servings, yada, yada, yada:

Since I’m big into macros these days, I am very conscious of every ingredient. I keep a notebook next to me as I cook, so I remember to write down everything I add.

Here’s the anal retentive part of me: after I cook, I try and figure out what I’d like the serving size to be.  Like, how much of this would fill me up, and that would be one serving.  I then take my finished product and use my measuring cup, and scoop it into another container until there’s none left and I know exactly how many servings I have.  Example: cooking ¾ cup of rice gives me 10, 1/3 cup cooked rice servings.  Once I know that, I enter it all into a recipe on myfitnesspal and get every detail about the food I’ve made. 

Notice the cross outs, brand names, etc. - I like to be exact.

It sounds like a lot of work.  Totally, and it kind of is. 

BUT, once you do it once, especially to things you cook all the time, you only have to do it once, as long as you stick to your recipe.

 

Happy cooking!

p.s also makes a great gift!