Blueberry Pancake Sundae

A few weeks ago, my daughter and a friend had breakfast at her Grammy's and we got to bring home the leftovers: sausage, blueberry pancakes and wild blueberry sauce. I froze it all and took it out of the freezer yesterday so my husband and daughter could have it for dinner tonight.

Last night I got homemade pesto sauce with sunflower seeds out of the freezer and told my husband to make noodles, use the pesto, and top with diced tomato (the ONE of the three tomatoes my garden produced this year). That was really yummy.

When I got home from work tonight, I took one blueberry pancake, heated it, topped with vanilla bean ice cream (also a gift from the inlaws) and topped THAT with hot blueberry sauce.

Miam!

Bratwurst, sweet potato fries & pesto toast

Tonight was another rush home after day camp kind of day.

I got a loaf of my honey oat bread from the freezer. Once that thawed, I sliced and slathered with butter and coated with a generous layer of yesterday's pesto. I toasted these in the oven while the sweet potato waffle fries cooked.

Then I sprinkled them with the six Italian cheese blend from Target. And toasted some more.

I fried up some bratwursts and we ate the meat on the pesto toast as open-faced sandwiches.

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.

Today's Garden Pesto

I'm sure I've made pesto before and posted it, but the great thing about homemade pesto is when you made similar but different batches. It's just as good in vegan style, omit the cheese.

Combine in food processor:
- 2 cups basil from the garden, packed tightly, plus a couple handfuls
- 1/2 cup cold pressed extra virgin olive oil
- 1/4 cup parsley, from the garden
- 1/2 tomato from the garden
- more than 1/3 cup roasted, unsalted sunflower seeds
- 1/4 cup grated parmesan/Romano
-1/2 teaspoon minced garlic

Yield: 1 cup

Mine will be sauce for tortellini tonight

Pesto chicken, summer salad & honey corn

Today's dinner contains one stick of butter. Only one!

My dad and his wife are coming for dinner to bring my daughter her birthday presents. I had my husband get sine chicken out of the freezer. I thought I had three packs of 2 breasts but when my husband thawed them all, I realized each pack had three whole breasts which = a heckuva lot of chicken.

My husband and daughter picked some lettuce and herbs from the garden.

First course:
SUMMER SALAD
- greens (from the garden)
- French sorrel (from the garden)
- 2 strawberries for each salad
(one sliced, one whole)
- one cucumber, sliced
- choice of dressings: Newman's own raspberry walnut dressing

Homemade biscuits
Honeyed corn
Leftover rhubarb cobbler
Chocolate Berry Earl grey iced tea

PESTO CHICKEN:
- 1/4 cup parsley
- 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
- 1/4 cup roasted sunflower seeds
- about 4 cups basil
(mix in food processor to form a sauce)

Slather chicken breasts with sauce and brown in butter.

Killer turkey sandwiches

I made killer turkey sandwiches for lunch today.

On my homemade multigrain biscuits I lathered the homemade pesto mayonnaise, stacked green leaf lettuce on top, added cucumber and roast turkey. On the "lid," I sliced Jarlsberg cheese and melted it.

Served with a side of Italian vegetables (steam-in-bag from Aldi) and more cucumbers with dippings. Apparently, the cucumbers are a hit with my daughter. She's devouring them today.

I'm trying to make up for some vegetable deficiency while I haven't felt well.

Pesto Mayo (Picnic)

Yesterday while our daughter was in school, my husband (who took the last of his vacation days this week) suggested a picnic dinner.

I had been hungry for a turkey sandwich so this was A-okay with me.

He went to Giant and picked up a half-pound of smoked turkey breast, some green leaf lettuce, multigrain bagels, a bag of Cool Ranch Doritoes and a 2-liter of some funky blue Mountain Dew (not that we took THAT on the picnic.)

Today, we're having more turkey for lunch, but this time we're having them on the scrumptious biscuits I made yesterday a.m. and I added homemade pesto mayo.

In the food processor I mixed:
- 2.5 heaping tablespoons mayo
- about 1 cup fresh basil leaves from my garden
- about 3 tablespoons baby spinach from the garden
- about 3 tablespoons fresh parsley from the garden

photo is my garden.

Wegmans Pesto Ravioli

We had Wegmans pesto ravioli, from the frozen food aisle, for dinner. One bag feeds the family for a light dinner. I usually get florentine ravioli for the extra "vegetable" content. They really do have some green vegetable vitamin equivalent. Reading the label on these pesto raviolis, they also have green vegetable matter.

They were delicious. We had simple red tomato sauce, and added some asiago cheese on top.

Then we sopped up the extra sauce with homemade bread. And in the child's case, some butter.

Pesto (and bread)

It's been 100ish degrees and humid. So, I decided to take advantage of the humidity and make bread. The bread has a final rise of at least twenty minutes, so I put it out and went to the pharmacy.

When I returned, my bread had risen to proportions never before seen by man.

And then I made pesto.

Today's pesto, which may be used as pasta sauce or as a dip for my homemade bread...

Mix in food processor:

• 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 2 cups fresh basil
• 3 tablespoons fresh parsley
• 2 teaspoons fresh oregano
• 1/2 cup pine nuts
• 1/4 cup parmesan cheese, grated (omit if you prefer to have a vegan or lower fat pesto)
• 3 tablespoons garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon fresh ground four color peppercorns
• 1 small tomato from the garden

This would be delicious with broccoli... in the pasta, not in the sauce. But I don't think I have any.