Basil Walnut Pesto

Pesto is one of the yummiest sauces ever! I love that it is so versatile and adds such a wonderful and fresh flavor to dishes. I use it to top pasta, eggs, crostinis, and much more. It is commonly made with pignolias (pine nuts) but I like to use what I have on hand, so I usually make mine with walnuts.

Most of the time I make a whole batch and if I am not going to use all of it for a few weeks I freeze it. When storing pesto in the refrigerator or freezer it is important to store it in an airtight container and cover it with olive oil so it does not oxidize. A great trick I have learned from Giada (food network chef) is to reserve starchy pasta water and mix in a little with the pesto when eating with pasta. This way you can use less olive oil to get it to the consistency you like.

The players:

• 1/2 cup walnuts
• 1/3 cup parm blocks =1/2 cup grated*
• 1/2 tsp salt
• Pepper to taste
• 5 cups basil
• 1/3 cup olive oil
• 2-3 cloves of garlic

Place the walnuts and garlic in the food processor and pulse until it is coursley chopped.

Place the basil, salt, and pepper in and start adding oil and pulse.

Add all the oil and pulse until it is all pureed. If it needs more oil because it is not pureeing, add more. Add cheese and blend until incorporated. Taste it to make sure it is to your taste for salt and pepper. Enjoy!

 

* I use my food processor to grate the cheese to make it easier. Most food processors have a blade that will grate cheese. But if you don't have one or cannot find it like me, cut it up into small inch block, place it in the food processor and pulse until it is finely crumbled.

Red Pepper Sauce Huevos Rancheros

I was having friends over for brunch and was trying to figure out what to make. I knew that they liked Mexican and liked a good kick, so I decided to make heuvos rancheros. I have made huevos rancheros many times, but each time I have made it, it is a little different. Now, there is obviously faster versions of making this recipe but I felt like making it extra special by making the sauce from scratch. So warning, this recipe is not a super quick one and I would make it when you have a little more time. If you make the sauce ahead of time, this will be super easy to make.

This sauce recipe is my favorite! I originally used it for my enchiladas but now when I have left overs use it in my huevos rancheros also! It is so good and worth taking the time to make it. I usually use two types of dried peppers and ancho chilies are always one of the two. The other pepper, I have changed up quite a few times. When I make the sauce, I make a whole batch so I can freeze it and have it on hand. The sauce recipe below will make a ton of sauce, so just remember to make less if you don't want a ton of left overs.

Serves 4 fans

The Players:

• 8 corn tortillas (if you prefer flour you can use those also)
• Garlic infused canola oil*
• 1 Avocado diced
• Approx. 1/2 cup grated cotija Cheese
• 8 eggs
• Garnish: green onions and cilantro
• 1 15 oz can of black beans
• 1 package of veggie chorizo
• 1 tsp of taco seasoning
• 1/2 tsp of cumin

Red Chili Sauce:

• 3 oz. of California Chilies
• 8 oz. of Ancho Chilies
• 4 cups of vegetable broth
• 5-6 garlic cloves
• Handful of cilantro
• 2 tsp of ground cumin
• 1/2 cups of adobo chiptole sauce and 2-3 chiptole chilies with some sauce that it comes in
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 2 cups of water

The Game Plan:

For the sauce:

Add broth to a medium to large pot. Place all the dried chili's in the broth and let soak for 10 minutes.

Then place the pot on the stove and heat it on medium low for 10 more minutes. 

 Place all ingredients into blender and blend till you get a nice sauce. Taste to see if you need more adobe sauce and/or chiptole chili's. 

Everyone's spice level is different. Recheck and add more salt if needed. If sauce is too thick, add more stock or water to make a smoother sauce.

For the tortillas:

Preheat oven to  400 degrees. Take the corn tortillas and brush them with the oil and place them on a baking sheet. 

Once oven is preheated, place in the oven. They don't take very long so keep an eye on them. About 6-8 minutes. Every oven is different but you are looking for the tortillas to be slightly golden and crispy.

For the beans and "meat":

Heat a medium sauce pan to medium heat and add 1 tsp of olive oil and then add chorizo. Cook for about 3-4 minutes. Add black beans, cumin, and seasoning. Once the bean mixture is heated through, adjust seasonings to your taste.

For the eggs:

Make them to your liking: Scrambled, fried, poached.

Now all you do is place the tortilla on a plate with the bean mixture on top, sauce, then the egg with some more sauce on that. Add the avocado, cotija cheese and garnish with green onions and cilantro!

Enjoy!

* I had made garlic infused oil but you do not need to use this at all. You can use olive oil or canola oil and it will still taste delish!

Banana Nut Bread

My mom's best friend makes the best banana bread and it always satisfies my sweet craving. When my husband and I first started dating, he would request it frequently. I never had a problem with making it because it was super easy to make and it always turned out great!

I decided to make it today because tomorrow is our physical therapy student's last day at work. I figured it would be a nice treat and a thank you for her hard work. Also, if you are ever looking for a reason to use up ripe bananas this is a great way. When I do not eat my bananas on time and they are super ripe, I stick them in the freezer and save them for making this recipe.

I did make some adjustments from the original recipe to make it perfect for my taste. I halved the amount of sugar from the original recipe, added cinnamon, increased the amount of vanilla, and occasionally add chocolate for fun! I hope you enjoy this delicious and moist banana nut bread as much as we do!

Yields: One loaf

The Players:

• 3/4 cup vegetable or canola oil
• 2 eggs
• 3/4 cup sugar (if you want the bread sweeter you can add more sugar)
• 1 overflowing tsp of vanilla
• 1 tsp of cinnamon
• 2 cups of self rising flour
• 4 smashed very ripe bananas (if using frozen bananas, make sure they are fully thawed)
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 4 tbs buttermilk or 4 tbs of the watery part of yogurt
• 3/4 cup walnuts
• 1/2 cup of chocolate chips (optional)

The Game Plan:

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Using a mixer, mix up the oil, eggs, sugar, and vanilla.

Note the color of the egg on the right side. Now that is farm fresh!

Once mixed well add the rest of the ingredients and mix all up until smooth. Do not over mix! 

Place in a greased loaf pan (8 1/2" x 4 1/2" x 2 3/4" high). Also, if for some reason this makes more batter than what you loaf pan will hold, do not fill it all the way to the top. You need to leave room at least an inch of room at the top. Otherwise, it will overflow and leave you with a mess! Either toss the extra batter or use it to make mini banana breads or muffins.

Place in oven for one hour and 15 minutes. Poke with a tooth pick in the middle to make sure it is cooked all the way through. Every oven is slightly different, so check on your banana bread after 50 minutes frequently to make sure it does not over bake. Once done, take the banana bread out and let cool completely before taking out of the pan. Enjoy!

Lentil Soup

I went to the farmers market while my husband was out golfing. This of course led to me coming back with a ton of stuff that I probably did not need.  Since I had a bunch of veggies to use up, I decided to make a lentil soup. I figured most veggies would be good with lentils and soup is perfect when you don’t have a lot of time. This soup ended up being so easy to make. It took me an hour but more than half of the time was inactive cooking time.  I hope you enjoy this simple and healthy recipe!

Feeds 4-6 fans

The Players:

1 cup of lentils rinsed

1 tbs olive oil

4 medium to large green onion bulbs (white part) diced (Can substitute 1 cup of diced yellow onion)

1 green onion (green part) sliced

4 garlic cloves minced

2 carrots peeled and chopped

3 stalks of celery chopped

3-5 leaves of kale de-stemmed and chopped

1 plum tomato diced

1/2 to 1 tsp fresh minced jalapeño*

3-5 sprigs of fresh or dried thyme

4 cups vegetable stock

2 cups water

¾ tsp cumin

¾ tsp coriander

¼ tsp salt

Pepper to taste

About 1 tbs better than bouillon or to taste

The Game Plan:
 

Heat a dutch oven or large pot on medium heat with olive oil in it. Add all the vegetables but the green parts of the green onion and the tomato. 

Let the veggies cook while stirring occasionally for about 8 minutes or until softened. Season the vegetables with salt, pepper, thyme, cumin, and coriander.  

 

Add jalapeño, broth, water, tomato, green parts of green onion, and lentils.  
 

Place heat to medium high and bring to a boil. Once the soup is boiling give it a stir and bring the temperature down to medium low.
 

Cover and let simmer for 45 minutes or until the lentils are cooked through. Now that everything is cooked through, add the better than bouillon a little at a time while tasting the soup because it can get very salty.
 

 

 Re-adjust any other seasonings if needed. Enjoy!

 

Strawberry and grapefruit smoothie!

Two of my favorite fruits are strawberries and grapefruit. I love the tartness of grapefruit and the sweetness of strawberries. So I figured why not combine the two to make a smoothie. I also added some mint to give it an even more refreshing flavor! It was so good that I now make it a few times a week so I can enjoy the deliciousness!

Serves 2 fans

The Players:

10-12 strawberries de-stemmed

10 mint leaves

1 pink grapefruit peeled and seeded.

1/2 cup of ice

The Game Plan:

Squeeze most of the juice out of the grapefruit and discard the veins if desired. Place it all in a blender. Add the strawberries, mint, and ice. 

Blend it up till it is like a smoothie like consistency. 
 

Enjoy!

Roasted red pepper pizza sauce

Since we love pizza so much, we have been grilling it a lot this spring. My favorite type of pizza is margarita but I thought it would be fun to change it around a bit. Since every topping is pretty basic, but so good I decided to keep the toppings the same but change the sauce around! Roasted red pepper seemed like it would be a flavorful addition and OMG it was awesome! As I have said in a previous post, this will make your pizza taste so much better than the jarred stuff! Hope you enjoy it as much as we did.

Tops about 1 pizza dough worth or two small to medium pizzas


The Players:

• 1 roasted red pepper (estimate about one from the jar or you could roast you own!)
• 2-3 cloves garlic minced
• 1 tsp of olive oil
• 2 tomatoes
• A little less than 1/4 tsp salt (this is to flavor the sauce)
• Pepper to taste

The Game Plan:

Set a pot of water to boil with some salt. Once the water is boiling, add the tomatoes in for about 3-4 minutes or until the skin starts to blister. Drain water and set the tomatoes aside to cool.

Meanwhile place a pot on medium heat with olive oil. Place garlic inside and let cook for a few minutes until it is fragrant.

Peel the tomato skin off and discard.

Break the tomatoes apart and try to remove some seeds and veins. Then place them into the food processor with the garlic and roasted red pepper. Blend until smooth and season with salt and pepper (once the sauce boils, it will become a lot saltier, so do not over salt the sauce, you can always season it more later if you need to). The sauce will be very watery and smooth.

Place the sauce into a pot and place it on medium low heat.

Let the water boil off about 10-12 minutes. It is ready once it is thick and not watery.

Saffron Risotto

This post was inspired the person who probably keeps up with my blog the most, my brother in law, Amit. He also has a blog of his own that is all about his travels and yes it includes food too http://aabtzu.wordpress.com/!  He made a Sunday supper for his family which included Saffron Risotto and Osso Buco and he said everyone really enjoyed it. I love risotto and usually make mushroom risotto but this time decided to change it up a little bit (that was specifically for Aryana) ;)  I also added some roasted chicken pieces and green peas to risotto to mine, which tasted delicious in it!

The Players:

• 2 tbs butter
• 1 medium onion chopped
• 2 pinches of saffron threads
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 1.5 cups of arborio rice
• 1/3 cup white wine
• 5 sprigs of thyme
• 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese grated
• 6 cups of vegetable broth*

The Game Plan:

Place stock in a pot on medium high heat and let it come to a constant boil. Once it comes to a boil, keep it at least simmering. Place a dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add the saffron threads and let heat up while stirring it a few times for a minute or two until the threads are fragrant. 

Add the butter in and let melt.

Then add the onions, thyme leaves and a few pinches of salt. Let onions cook over medium heat and stir occasionally for about 5 minutes. 

Add the rice and let toast for about 2 minutes, stirring occasionally. 

Add the wine and stir everything while wine evaporates. 

At this point your stock should be very hot.

 Ladle in about a 1/2 to 1 cup of stock into the pot while stirring. 

The liquid will become absorbed and at this point you can place another ladle full in the pot. Continue doing this until the rice is to your liking (about 6 cups should be perfect). Once done add the parmesan, taste and add more salt to taste. I also added fresh cracked black pepper. I love fresh black pepper!

*Once you get to the part of adding the broth, do not leave your risotto unattended. You want to be stirring it so the rice does not stick and so the risotto becomes nice and creamy.