Pesto Pasta w/ Sun-Dried Tomatoes and Baked Asparagus

I couldn’t get too far into the Seasonal Eats: Spring Edition without some asparagus.  It’s one of my favorite springtime staples!  Sun-dried tomatoes don’t last too long either and I refuse to waste food, so finding a recipe that called for both became essential (we used sun-dried tomatoes with our meatballs the other day, remember?).  I’m loving this new series and I hope you are, too!  It’s been really fun hunting around, looking for yummy new recipes.  I’ve added a bunch of new ones to my permanent rotation.

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Pesto Pasta with Sun Dried Tomatoes and Baked Asparagus (from Damn Delicious)

• 8 oz. medium shells
• 1 lb. asparagus, ends trimmed
• 1/3 c. julienned sun-dried tomatoes in oil
• 1/2 c. basil pesto
• 1/3 c. diced mozzarella cheese
• salt & pepper
• 2. T. olive oil
• 1 egg

Preheat the oven to 425*F and bring a large stockpot of water to a boil.  Place the asparagus in a single row on a baking sheet, drizzle in olive oil, salt, and pepper, then toss them around to coat.  Bake the asparagus for around 8-10 minutes, or until it’s tender but still crispy.  Cook the shells according to the instructions.

While the asparagus are baking, prepare the sun-dried tomato and basil in a large mixing bowl.

When the asparagus have finished baking, let them cool down. Then, cut them into 1″ pieces.

I added shells into the pesto mix as soon as they were finished cooking, along with the 1/3 c. of diced cheese.  This way the cheese would get all melty and delicious.

 

Then, mix everything together into a glorious medley.

I ate mine with a fried egg on top because that’s what Chungah suggested in her post.  Always listen to Chungah because her food really is damn, delicious.

No, really.  It is.

Roasted Beet Salad

I’ve been a fan of the beets for as long as I can remember…

COME ON, Killer Tofu was one of the greatest hits of my childhood.

But seriously, beets.

My favorite way to prepare beets is to roast them (here is my go-to recipe).  This time, though, when the beets came out of the oven I tossed them in balsamic vinegar instead of of apple cider vinegar and knew they belonged on a bed of arugula and spinach.

I added in a bit of crumbled goat cheese, toasted pecans, and my favorite balsamic dressing.  Seriously easy, meatless, and delicious!

My Favorite Balsamic Dressing:

• 3 T. balsamic
• 1-2 cloves garlic, pressed
• 1 T. Dijon mustard
• scant 1/3 c. extra virgin olive oil
• salt, pepper to taste

Whisk together the balsamic, garlic, and Dijon mustard together.  Slowly whisk in the olive oil, then salt and pepper to taste.

3 Healthy Options From My Week

It’s time for another round-up of healthy options from my week!  These posts are as much for me to remember my good ideas as they are for you to feel inspired to try your own clean meals.  Despite the cooler temps this week, I definitely fell off the fitness wagon.  Hard.  Possibly broke a limb and was dragged behind the wagon – that’s how bad it was.  When you are being dragged behind the fitness wagon by your broken ankle, I strongly recommend taking a look behind you and trying to spot something positive back there.  The good news for me is that I’ve stayed pretty focused on eating clean. Now if only I could figure out a way to have a good fitness AND food week at the same time…

Anyway, here are 3 healthy options from my week:

1.

I love Panera, but I love control over what goes into my body more.  Solution?  DIY duh.  I of course made up my own thing based on what I had on hand but the thing that makes it “copcat” for me is the hummus instead of dressing.  I mean, who knew?  I may have had this salad every day this week – grilled chicken with Essence of Emeril seasoning, feta, sunflower seeds, chopped red peppers, and cilantro-jalapeno hummus from the Greek Gourmet.  It’s like a farmer’s market in my mouth.  As far as I’m concerned, I may never use dressing again.  This particular hummus is all I need.

2.

I found this recipe over on Just A Taste and have made them several times now.  I haven’t been disappointed!  The asparagus don’t get mushy or soft like they normally do because of the light breading.  They are so easy to make, too!  I subbed plain Greek yogurt in for the mayo in both the breading and the garlic aioli.  Seriously, how did I not know about these a hundred years ago?

3.

This one was kind of a happy accident.  I had about 2 cups of shredded chicken left over from various meal prepping during the week and I also had some sun-dried tomato “mayo” that I had made as a condiment for burgers LAST week (1/4 c. plain Greek yogurt + 1/4 c. sun-dried tomatoes in oil, chopped + 4 large basil leaves + 1 t. lemon juice + salt/pepper).

At the last minute, I threw the 2 together with some feta and lettuce on one of these wraps from La Tortilla Factory:

“Each wrap contains 20g of whole grains and 200mg of Omega 3 fatty acids with 8g of fiber and only 1.5g of fat {via}”

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What are some of your go-to healthy options for the week?

What toppings are on your favorite salad?

 

Weekend Round-Up

It was a really busy weekend around these parts!! Amazing what you can get accomplished when your internet goes out and a tech can’t come in until Monday.

On Saturday, we headed over to East Liberty to the farmer’s market:

I had gotten an email talking about all the yummy local product expected in over the weekend, so I was pretty excited.  I ended up getting some carrots, a tomato, asparagus, green onions, rhubarb, red potatoes, beets, some green leaf lettuce starts and some jalapeno pepper plants all for $16!!

Around 11:00, my family arrived to spend some quality time with the puppies.  Everyone is so active now, I promise to write a whelping update this week to show you how much they’ve grown!

Mid-afternoon, we headed to Little Miss E (my cousin’s daughter)’s 4th birthday pirate party.  We had little brother CO in tow, and luckily he and my brother were able to hang out amongst all the littler kids.  They have only hung out a few times because they live so far away, but I was really happy to see how well they get along!  They had a lot of fun decapitating a pirate pinata after the kids ravaged it of its candy.

On the way home, we spotted a pop-up carnival and I suggested we make a quick stop.  Since there were three of us, we decided that we would go on three of the big rides and then leave.  Good enough for us!

Then, we headed over to the baseball field to pick up almost-not-little brother CJ. We got there just in time to see him pitch the last inning.  He is a baseball extraordinaire, in fact he’s the league’s best catcher and as of right now he’s leading the state in home runs.  Apparently all the pitching practice in the driveway has been paying off because he struck out all three people that were up to bat that last inning!

Sunday was pretty low-key.  We finished up some projects around the house that have been lingering, like finally installing the overhead light in the living room.  Now, we just have to touch up the plaster and pick out a new paint color!

The doodles got their first taste of grownie food!  This picture doesn’t even do the mess that was made any justice.

Dinner was organic pierogies with sour cream and green onions from the market.

Kale Chips

Kale chips are probably the easiest thing in the world to make.

When you get your kale home, rip the leaves away from the thick stalks.  Massage them with olive oil, salt and pepper.

I bake mine at 325 F for around 20 minutes (just until the kale crisps up).  If you leave kale chips in too long, the kale tastes charred.

Experiment a little!  Fresh kale is like $.89/lb. at the store.