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Basil Pesto

Michelle — Tue, 10 Mar 2015 14:33:17 +0000

One of my favorite, easy week night meals is this simple basil pesto recipe. I usually serve it with pasta and a roitesserarie chicken. Recently I served it over my zucchini noodles and wow! that was my favorite vegetable noodle dish I have ever eaten! When I make the pesto I add in the cheese after it is blended. I take a few scoops out for myself for a dairy-free version. I then add the parm cheese in for the rest of the family. It is so yummy it doesn’t even need the cheese! The key to good pesto is to boil the garlic first and to dry toast the pine nuts. I hope you love this as much as I do!

Basil contains high amounts of vitamin K! 2 Tbsp will get you 30% of your RDA. It also contains a good amount of vitamins C and A. Basil has antibacterial properties and contains DNA-protecting flavonoids. It is also an anti-inflammatory food.One of my favorite, easy week night meals is this simple basil pesto recipe. I usually serve it with pasta and a roitesserarie chicken. Recently I served it over my zucchini noodles and wow! that was my favorite vegetable noodle dish I have ever eaten! When I make the pesto I add in the cheese after it is blended. I take a few scoops out for myself for a dairy-free version. I then add the parm cheese in for the rest of the family. It is so yummy it doesn’t even need the cheese! The key to good pesto is to boil the garlic first and to dry toast the pine nuts. I hope you love this as much as I do!

Basil Pesto

CourseMain Dish
CuisineItalian

Servings4-6 people

Prep Time20 minutes

Ingredients

4oz organic basil
1/2 cup toasted pine nuts
4cloves garlic(boil for 60 seconds before pressing)
olive oil(to taste, I usually use a few Tbsp)
sea salt(to taste)
1/2cup Parmesan cheese(grated)

Instructions

Boil 4 cloves of garlic for 60 seconds
Toast 1/2 a cup of pine nuts in a dry skillet until lightly browned
Add one 4 oz package of organic basil to the food processor, I remove the big stems
Press boiled garlic into processor, add nuts, a few swirls of olive oil and some sea salt.
Blend until processed, scraping down sides a few times and adding oil to your desired consistency. I like mine kind of thick and not too oily.
Scrape mixture into bowl. For dairy-free your done. Otherwise mix in 1/2 cup of grated parmesan. Serve immediately or cover with a light layer of olive oil and cover. When ready to serve mix, as the top will have turned a little brown.
Serve room temperature over boiled noodles, mix in with noodles to make warm, mix in with vegetable noodles or just serve as a condiment. It is a great spread for sandwiches, a topping for meat, chicken or fish! This picture is zucchini noodles! (don't they look like regular noodles?)

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Vegetable Noodles!

Michelle — Sat, 07 Mar 2015 14:03:40 +0000

I’ve been using a vegetable spiralizer for awhile now to make vegetable noodles. When I switched over to a no grain diet I needed something to put my pesto and home made meat sauce on! I started by using zucchini only as it is the easiest one to use (leave the skin on for the healthy green part, but you can peel to make it look more like real noodles!) I have now branched out into carrots, sweet potato and daikon radish. I have yet to try parsnips, turnips, cucumber, broccoli stems, apples and squash! One of my favorite recipes using daikon radish is pad thai. A great cookbook which I got recently is here and I can’t wait to try out some new recipes!

Some other great ideas:

cold noodle salad made with carrot noodles
broccoli slaw
sweet potato curly fries!
apple dessert made with apple spirals
pretty spiralized beets on top of a salad or roasted (wash spiralizer right away or will stain)

There are a few different kinds out there but this is the one that I love and use regularly. It is inexpensive, comes with three blades and washes very easily!

(Affiliate disclosure)

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Grain-Free Pad Thai

Michelle — Wed, 25 Feb 2015 16:26:47 +0000

Thai food, Chinese food, Japanese food can you say yum? Soy sauce, MSG, wheat…can you say belly ache? at least for me! I love finding unusual recipes that fit all my dietary needs! The newest and latest gadget that I have discovered is called “the spiralizer” you can find it on Amazon here. It takes vegetables and spirals them into thick or thin noodles or ribbons that you can use in place of regular noodles. Plus it is really fun! I normally use zucchini or carrots but I ran across a new cookbook called “Inspiralized” found on Amazon here, she also has a great blog where I was inspired by the pad thai recipe using daikon radish, this is my version….

(Oh please I heard you say ewwww but you are going to be shocked if you try it!)

Grain-Free Pad Thai

Unusual Pad Thai recipe using Daikon Radish as the "noodles"

CourseMain Dish
CuisineAsian

Servings2-3 people

Prep Time15 minute

Cook Time10 minutes

Ingredients

2 peeled daikon radishes(They look like white carrots!)
2 eggs
1/4cup crushed cashews(or peanuts if you eat legumes)
1Tbsp sesame oil
fresh cilantro to taste
For the sauce:
1pressed garlic clove
1Tbsp fish sauce
1Tbsp coconut aminos(or soy sauce)
1Tbsp sweet chili-sauce(I used Annie Chun's sweet and spicy)
salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

Use your spiralizer to spiral the radishes, I used the thin noodle setting. (You could use zucchini or rice noodles)
Blend the sauce ingredients in a bowl and set aside
Scramble the eggs in 1/2 the sesame oil, set aside
Add the rest of the oil and start cooking the radish, add the sauce and stir until the "noodles" are to your liking. They will get softer the longer you cook. I like them slightly crisp.
Add back in the eggs and toss
Plate and add the cashews and cilantro
Enjoy!

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