A Bunch of Food and a REAL Recipe

I have been loving all these avocados! I think I may be down to only two now but I do have a ton of leftover guac in the fridge and have gone through countless avocados in the past week. I obtained four huge ones from the co-op the other day and they were super green inside and had the smallest pits. It was almost scary, I've never seen avocado pits so small, but then I was thankful how much avocado gut I got out of that. For this meal above, I got way out of hand. First of all, I am one who's eyes are always a lot larger than the stomach. My eyes are probably larger than my whole body! I decided to make over a gallon of chili the other night so Ray and I could have some and then I'd freeze the rest in double and individual servings. We had "burritos" but it was only filled with guac and chili. Don't get me wrong, the chili was loaded with veggies and beans and other good stuff, it was just strange having a burrito without rice or a grain. I still ate it all and the soft tortilla was a nice texture to it. There's also guac of course, and I find that the more garlic I add to it, the more I like it. We had some Garden of Eatin organic blue corn chips to accompany the meal. To the left is a small side of Muir Glen organic medium salsa which I just dumped all over everything after I snapped the photo. You also see what I'm talking about now with my eyes being way bigger than my stomach... That bowl of chili (three ladle scoops, may I add) was not touched and I quickly set it aside to put away for the next day. What was I thinking?!

Below is one pound of organic basil, which is equivalent to 12 cups, packed. I have been going crazy with pestos and basil lately and I found this huge basil plant at Trader Joes for $2.99. The plant was half-way as tall as me and there was so much beautiful smelly basil. I didn't buy it since it wasn't organic. I got my kicks just by looking at it for a few minutes. I found the organic basil and for 79 cents less each than that huge-ass plant, I bought three 4.5 ounce containers of organic. I was happy because stupid Whole Foods has 2.5oz of basil for $4. I just couldn't get myself to get that little for so much. My goal with all this basil was to whip up batches of pesto and freeze them for later. I mentioned that in my last post, but I was only able to keep the pestos frozen for one day before eating them all up. I had to make many for them to last, same with the black bean chili.

How could I make pesto and not make Dreena's pesto?! After all, I was just really meant to test this recipe, and I have ended up making it a billion times. I think it's wonderful and so flavorful. I had this pesto immediately for dinner and finished it off the next day for lunch. It's awesome cold.

I decided to make VwaV Classic Pesto again. I liked it as a dip with bread and veggies, so I am going to have it tonight for dinner over pasta for the first time (probably very late, after Ray is done at his orchestra concert which I am not at and instead sitting in my pj's at home, blogging... I had a "rough" day today). Then I made VwaV Classic Pesto but instead of walnuts, I added only pinenuts. It's hard to tell any difference in these pestos just by looking at them but you can sort of tell the pine nut one since it has so much white in it. I am most excited to try that one. Finally, I was sick of following recipes, especially for something that can be done pretty simply, so I made up my own pesto recipe. It has walnuts and pinenuts and some other good stuff too. The one in back is my pesto recipe. The VwaV ones I find are very "oily" so I limit the oil when following the recipe for Classic Pesto. On the other hand, Dreena's pesto recipe only has 1 tablespoon of oil for the whole batch (suitable to top a pound of pasta) and I really prefer that. Plus there's an array of interesting ingredients in her pesto but I'm not allowed to tell. Stay tuned one more year (sorry!). Leslie's Special Pesto Recipe
(it's special because you can use it with pasta, pizza, sandwiches, dip, filling and probably more)
1/4c. walnuts or almonds
1/2c. pinenuts
3 cups packed basil leaves, no stems

2-3 large cloves crushed garlic
1t. sea salt
dash of black pepper
1/3c. olive oil
1/4-1/3c. nutritional yeast flakes
2t. lemon juice

Blend everything except the oil and the nutritional yeast in a blender or food processor. When that all starts to get pureed (or too stiff your blender can't handle it), start to pour the olive oil while blending. Add the nutritional yeast and blend a bit more. Makes about 2 cups.
(note: I love pesto with walnuts, pinenuts and almonds. Use all of them, just one, or in their own combos, these raw nuts really tie the pesto together. Feel free to experiment with variety.)

This is what I had the other night when I was super lazy. Yes, there is spinach in here and I don't care! How crazy all this b.s. about the spinach, I've been eating it up as much as I can get ahold of it). Anway, how easy is this... take out the frozen container that you never even pre-made, take out the jar of marinara sauce that is already pre-made. Take out the bag of pine nuts from the freezer that were just pulled down with the handle from bulk. So easy!!! Boil for a few and combine. I made both of these kinds at once so we would have leftovers, although we barely did. I don't really buy this type of stuff too often and if I do, like in this case, it sits in the freezer for a really long time. I bought these because I had a coupon (well, 2) for the Rising Moon brand and I also noticed they were on a pretty good sale at WFM. They ended up being way less than $2 each (to easily serve two each), and they are normally up to $4 for one. The ravioli's came out just fine and I am happy to report that Ray's taste buds are changing more and more each day. He tried these ravioli's the last time I had them (about a year, year and a half ago) and he didn't care for them. The other day he ate the whole thing up. Same with guac, but not together with the pasta.

I made Dori's No-Bake Cookies the other night and they came out super-chocolately and wonderful. I am thankful for this no-oven recipe, even though it really isn't the same these days. I must have my firefighter friend come over and stand guard while we check out this oven business. These look like cookies I made before but these are much denser and richer. Below is what they looked like when cooled (but not blurry).

Finally I made something from RAW. I don't think I ever bragged about how I got this at Changing Hands for about $8. This is normally a $30-something book, and it looks like no one even read it before me. I have read through almost the whole book now and I had been eyeing the raw whipped cream, hence me not having a dehydrator for other recipes (yet). This recipe shouldn't be called whipped cream. It should be called some sort of sweet nut dip. I tried it with some Newman's O's and a few slices of apple. I prefer the apple since the cookies make the dip not sweet tasting at all. Of course, who would really go through the time to soak nuts, follow a raw cookbook, and then eat something with pre-packaged Newman's O's?! At least they weren't hydrogenated and they were organic. Anyway, if you make this stuff, eat it with raw food and don't be as weird as me! The book shows a photo of the whipped cream and there's no way in hell mine would have looked like that no matter how hard I tried. And I blended for a loooong time!

The only ingredients are: walnuts, cashews, 3 dates and oj. Doesn't this "raw whipped cream" look freakishly like something else that I've made before?! Weird.