Tortellini with pesto and garden salad

The pesto I made earlier (see today's previous post) went over cheese tortellini for a quick dinner. Two heaping teaspoons were plenty for the one bag of tortellini, so we'll be making pesto garlic toast for dinner tomorrow and freezing some more sauce.

The salads we served were all greens from our garden, red leaf, green leaf, spinach and sorrel. Green pepper from the garden. Carrots and cucumbers from the store. Dehydrated peas from Forks Mediterranean Deli. I had Newman's Own Sesame Ginger dressing. Child has vegan Goddess Dressing. Husband had Annie's Cowgirl Ranch.

To keep the meal vegan, watch your dressings and I recommend a tofu-spinach ravioli for the tortellini.

Daddy's Turkey Ranch Salad

Today we're going to the theatre to see our first live performance as a family. We're going to see James & The Giant Peach. We read the book. We watched the movie. And today the play! It's very exciting.

After the play, my friend Gayle is joining us for chicken paprika. My husband prepared lunch while I prepped dinner to be heated later...

He reheated the leftover peanut butter noodles. He cut the fresh mango. Then, he engineered this salad of red leaf lettuce, carrot peels, bits of turkey breast and bites of wisconsin cheddar. He added Annie's Organic Cowgirl Ranch dressing and served as his "Turkey Ranch Salad."

I never use regular ranch dressing because it usually has MSG. Organic ranch dressings do not. And since my child adores ranch, I figure it's better to go organic on this one.

The child devours the mango, as she usually does, and so does the tortoise. 

Winter Salad

Another slacker dinner day... Though this one worked out impressively delicious. I made my "winter salads" with red wine Wish Bone spritzer dressing (one of my rare coupon purchases, because the concept is amazing), raisins, red leaf lettuce and carrots peeled into ribbons.

Meanwhile, my husband made the last two boxes of Annie's Organic Mac N Cheese (the one in the purple box). Wegmans had a case of it on sale for $10 not too long ago, during another of our poor months. Twelve boxes for $10. Consider the cheap-o stuff costs 35 to 50 cents, getting the organic for less than a $1/box was an incredible find. Everyone needs a few convenience foods for hard times or bad moods, and this is one of mine. I favor boxed or convenience foods from the organic or health food aisles for one factor; I can read the ingredient label. If you haven't noticed, I try to feed my kid real foods and I strive to serve nothing that I can't pronounce the ingredients.