Creamy Pesto Potato Salad

I had some red potatoes that I needed to use up. I also still have some garlic scape pesto in the freezer to use up. So I decided to make a creamy pesto potato salad over the weekend. I remembered seeing a good looking recipe on A Good Appetite last summer, so I went searching for that. I found it and had all the ingredients, so I made it up quickly over the weekend. This was very tasty! I thought it might seem a little bland, with so few ingredients, but it wasn't at all. The garlic scape pesto just gives it so much flavor.

Picture to come soon.

Creamy Pesto Potato Salad

2 lbs waxy potatoes, washed & cut into 1/2-inch cubes
2 - 3 T Garlic Scape Pesto
1/2 c sour cream
1/2 c mayonnaise
salt & pepper to taste

Boil the potatoes in salted water until fork tender about 7 - 10 minutes. Drain.

Mix the pesto, sour cream & mayonnaise together. Season with salt & a generous amount of pepper. Mix in with warm potatoes.

Serve warm or chilled.

Veggie Quinoa Salad with Pesto Dressing

I saw this salad posted on Food in Jars earlier this week and decided to switch up my original meal plans to make it since I already had everything on hand and it just sounded delicious. We had it for dinner last night and it was so, so, so good! A perfect warm weather, meatless dinner! We all loved it! I will definitely be making this a regular meal on our table! It'd be a great salad to take to a potluck, too, since it can be served slightly warm/room temp or chilled.

Vegetable-Stuffed Quinoa Salad with Pesto Dressing

2 cups quinoa (cooked in 4 cups water)
1 bundle asparagus, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 red pepper, chopped (I used a green one since that's what I had)
1/2 red onion, roughly chopped (I added some chopped chives from my garden instead)
1/2 english cucumber, cut into bite-sized pieces
1 bunch flat-leaf parsley, chopped
1 can garbanzo beans, rinsed and drained
6 ounces feta, crumbled
4 ounces of pesto
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
olive oil (some for roasting asparagus and some for the dressing)
salt
pepper
Toasted almonds (optional)

Cook the two cups of quinoa by combining it with four cups of water. Bring to a boil and reduce temperature. Simmer for 15-20 minutes, until it is tender. When it is finished cooking, spread it out on a cookie sheet to cool.

Spread the asparagus out on a small cookie sheet. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Roast at 425 degrees for 10-15 minutes.

Combine chopped red pepper, onion, cucumber, parsley and drained garbanzo beans in a large bowl.

Whisk the pesto, vinegar and a drizzle of olive oil together until runny. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Add quinoa to the chopped vegetables. Gently stir to combine. Add the crumbled feta and dressing and fold in. Top with toasted almonds and serve. Can be made up to 24 hours in advance.

Pesto Cheesy Chicken Rolls

Another catch-up post. I made these a few weeks ago and we're having them again this week. These are super easy, especially with only three ingredients, and super tasty and a great way to use up some homemade pesto! I got the recipe from AllRecipes. We all love them! I made them as written below the first time. This week, I'm going to use up some irish white cheddar cheese with some garlic scape pesto. Yum!

I'll update later with a picture.

Pesto Cheesy Chicken Rolls

4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves - pounded to 1/4 inch thickness
1 cup prepared basil pesto
4 thick slices mozzarella cheese

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

Spread 2 to 3 tablespoons of the pesto sauce onto each flattened chicken breast. Place one slice of cheese over the pesto. Roll up tightly, and secure with toothpicks. Place in a lightly greased baking dish.

Bake uncovered for 45 to 50 minutes in the preheated oven, until chicken is nicely browned and juices run clear.

Garlic Scape Pesto

I've picked up a couple bunches of garlic scapes at one of the farmers markets that I go to and knew I wanted to make pesto with some of them. A few days after I bought the first bunch, Kat at A Good Appetite posted a recipe for garlic scape pesto - how perfect is that! So I made up a batch of it today - yum! This stuff is GOOD!! I brushed some of it on the chicken I grilled for our dinner tonight and then I froze the rest of it in cubes. This will be awesome to have on hand to put on chicken and lamb.


Garlic Scape Pesto

2 c garlic scapes, flower removed & green stems chopped
2/3 c slivered almonds (I used walnuts)
1 1/2 c olive oil
1/2 c grated Parmesan
1 t salt
pepper

Put the scapes & nuts into a food processor & pulse until as smooth as you can get it. With the food processor running drizzle in the olive oil (It'll seem like a lot) & process until smooth. Stir or process in the cheese (I processed it in to get it more incorporated.) Stir in salt & pepper. Store in the fridge for one week or freeze.

About 3 cups.

Chicken Chili with Pesto

We had chicken chili with pesto for dinner last night. I found the recipe on Two Crowded Kitchens, which is my SIL Mary's friend's blog. This was soooo good! I didn't add the chilies because I didn't really want to make it spicy since I wanted Carson to be able to eat it. It'd probably be very tasty with the chilies added, but we loved it the way I made it, too. This was another super easy, very quick recipe to throw together. It'd be a great week-night meal to throw together since it doesn't really take too long to cook. This is something I'll definitely make again sometime!

Chicken Chili with Pesto

2 tsp. oil
3/4 c. chopped onion
2 c. boneless cooked chopped chicken breast
1 1/2 c chopped carrot
3/4 c. chopped red pepper
3/4 c. thinly sliced celery
1/4 c. chopped green chilies (left these out)
3/4 tsp. dried oregano
1/2 tsp. cumin
1/4 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. black pepper
1 16oz can cannellini beans, rinsed and drained
1 14 1/2 oz can chicken broth
3 Tab. jarred pesto (I used homemade, frozen)

Heat oil in a Dutch overn over medium heat. Add onion, carrot, red pepper, and celery and saute for 4-5 minutes. Add chicken and the next 6 ingredients (chiles through broth). Bring to a boil. Cover. Reduce heat and simmer for 25 minutes. Stir in pesto.

Chicken with Spinach Pesto

Last night, we tried out a Giada DeLaurentiis recipe for Chicken with Spinach and Pine Nut Pesto. I've had it on my list of recipes to try forever and can't believe it took me so long to make. It is such an easy recipe. It comes together so fast and it'd be a great work-night meal. I absolutely loved it! I've never had spinach pesto, and I really liked it. Kevin didn't care for the pesto at all. We ended up just having some whole wheat angel hair pasta with it, so Kevin ate his chicken and pasta plain, while I had pesto on both my chicken and my pasta. So yummy! I had plenty leftover to freeze in cubes, too. So it'll be an even quicker work-night meal in the future. The spinach, garlic, and pasta were the only organic ingredients.


Grilled Chicken with Spinach and Pine Nut Pesto

2 boneless chicken breasts (I used tenderloins and grilled up a ton of them to have for this meal, plus two others during the week)
2 cups lightly packed baby spinach leaves
1/4 cup pine nuts, toasted
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 to 2 teaspoons grated lemon peel
1/3 cup plus 2 teaspoons olive oil
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/3 cup freshly grated Parmesan (I don't think I used this much)
(I also added two small cloves of garlic)

Heat a grill pan on medium high heat. Lightly oil the grill pan. Sprinkle the chicken with salt and pepper. Grill the chicken until cooked through, about 5 minutes per side.

Combine the spinach, pine nuts, lemon juice, and lemon peel in a processor. Lightly pulse. With the machine running, gradually add 1/3 cup of the oil, blending until the mixture is creamy. Add salt and pulse. Put half of the pesto into ice cube trays and store in the freezer for future use.

Transfer the rest of the spinach mixture to a medium bowl. Stir in the Parmesan. Season the pesto with salt and pepper, to taste.

Spread the pesto over each piece of chicken and serve.

Creamy Parsley & Pistachio Fettuccine

Tonight I tried out a new recipe from my new Rachael Ray cookbook - The Big Orange Book - for creamy parsley and pistachio fettuccine. It was very tasty and I'll definitely make this one again. It'll be a quick work-night meal since I have lots of the parsley-pistachio pesto in the freezer... though I did make it fresh tonight since I am still trying to use up tons of parsley that continues to thrive in the garden. Kevin enjoyed this, too... and didn't even complain about spinach noodles! :) According to the cookbook, this is supposed to make you want to make out... we weren't really affected by it in that way, though. I'll update with a pic later.


Creamy Parsley and Pistachio Fettuccine

salt
1 pound fettuccine pasta (I used spinach fettuccine)
1 lemon
3/4 cup heavy cream (I just used 2% milk)
1 packed cup fresh flat-leaf parsley
1/4 cup shelled natural pistachios, lightly toasted
1/3 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
1 large garlic clove, grated or minced
3 Tablespoons EVOO
black pepper
(I added about 2 cups of chopped grilled chicken that I had in the freezer)

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Salt it, add the pasta, and cook to al dente.

Zest the lemon and combine it with the cream in a small sauce pan. Heat over medium-low until hot but not boiling.

Place the parsley, nuts, cheese, and garlic into a food processor. Squeeze the zested lemon into the bowl. Turn the processor on and stream in the EVOO with the motor running to make a pesto.

Drain the pasta.

Place the pesto in the bottom of a large pasta bowl and season with salt and pepper. Stir the hot cream into the pesto, then add the hot pasta and toss to combine (I also added my grilled chicken). Adjust the salt and pepper.

Penne with Spring Pea-sto

This recipe is from Rachael Ray's 30-Minute Meals show on the Food Network. And believe it or not, it really did only take 30 minutes to make! :) I used basil from my garden to make the pesto. I also thawed some frozen grilled chicken I had in the freezer and tossed that in to make it a complete one dish meal. It was a great light dinner for a warm summer night. Both Kevin and I thought this was very tasty and we'll definitely be having this again. Next time I will do some prep ahead, though, to make it an even faster meal on a work night... mainly just have homemade pesto on hand or make it the night before. Then I can just put the pot of water on to boil and get some things accomplished rather than making the pesto while the pasta cooks. Also, it made a huge batch - an entire pound of pasta - so we have a couple lunches built right in. I love meals that do double duty.

Penne with Spring Pea-sto

Salt
1 pound whole-wheat penne pasta (for once I didn't have whole wheat penne on hand, so I just used normal penne)
1 package frozen peas, defrosted
1/4 cup lightly toasted pine nuts
1 cup packed basil leaves
6 to 8 sprigs fresh tarragon, leaves stripped (I left this out and put in a few more leaves of basil since I didn't grow tarragon in my garden)
1 teaspoon lemon zest (I also left this out b/c I didn't have any lemons)
1/2 cup grated Parmigiano, a couple of handfuls, plus more for serving (freshly grated was awesome, but the Kraft stuff would work, too)
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil, eyeball it
Freshly ground black pepper

Bring a large pot of water up to a boil then season water with salt and cook penne to al dente. Heads up: you will need to reserve 1 or 2 ladles of starchy cooking water, 1/2 to 3/4 cup, before draining the pasta.

Place 1/2 of the peas in the bottom of a large serving dish. Place the rest of the peas in a food processor with the pine nuts, basil, tarragon leaves, lemon zest, cheese and olive oil. Add a little salt and pepper then process the pesto into rough paste, adjust seasonings.

Pour starchy water over peas in bowl then add pesto. Pour hot, drained pasta over the pesto and toss vigorously to coat and combine. Adjust seasoning and serve, passing extra cheese at the table.