Homemade Pesto and Shrimp Skewers

Homemade pesto is the best.

Store bought brands are loaded with unnecessary extra oil, and honestly, they don’t taste NEARLY this good.

I decided to use some of my pesto for grilled shrimp and it was delicious.

Here’s what you need (adapted from Skinny Taste)…

1 cup of packed basil leaves

2 cloves of garlic

¼ cup of pine nuts

¼ cup of parmigiano reggiano cheese

¼ cup of extra virgin olive oil

Salt and pepper to taste

¾ lb of peeled and deveined shrimp

Here’s what you do…

1. Add basil to your food processor, blend. Then add garlic, blend. Then pine nuts, blend. Then cheese, blend. Then olive oil, blend. Difficult, huh?

2. Add salt and pepper to your taste and mix in.

3. In a small bowl, add 3-4 good spoonfuls of pesto to raw shrimp. You want enough so it coats the shrimp well. Cover the bowl, and let the shrimp marinate in the fridge for at least an hour, but longer if possible.

4. You can do your shrimp either on the grill or in a pan. I chose the grill, but if you want to use a pan, simply coat the pan lightly with oil and place the shrimp in over high heat for about 3-4 minutes per side.

5. If you are using the grill, skewer 5 shrimp on metal or wooden skewers (if you're using wood ones, make sure you soak them in water before placing them on the grill).

6. Grill for 3-4 minutes on each side, or until the shrimp are pink.

7. Enjoy! We served ours over a bed of whole wheat angel hair pasta mixed with the leftover pesto. It was so good.

Pesto is good for all sorts of things (mix with a little mayo for a delicious spread for your sandwich), so this is a great recipe to double and then save the extra. 

Hope everyone is having a great week! 

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Whole Wheat Blueberry Bread

Sometimes, a girl's gotta bake.

I love blueberries...as long as they are IN something. Blueberry muffins, blueberries in a salad, great. Blueberries alone? Not so much.

This bread is fantastic because it's not overly sweet, which I like. Plus, it's whole wheat, which means it's completely healthy for you :)

Here's what you need (from How Sweet Eats)...

2 1/2 cups of whole wheat pastry flour*
1 cup of all purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp of baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
2 eggs
2/3 cup of brown sugar
1/4 cup of granulated sugar
2 tsp of vanilla
2/3 cup of milk
1/2 cup of unsalted butter, melted
1 1/2 cups of fresh blueberries, coated lightly in cornstarch

*I found whole wheat pastry flour at Whole Foods, but regular whole wheat flour works fine, your bread will just be a bit more dense.

What you need for the "streusel"...

1/2 cup of brown sugar
1/2 cup of all purpose flour
1/4 tsp of cinnamon
pinch of salt
1/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 tbsp milk

Here's what you do....
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Combine pastry flour, all purpose flour, baking soda and powder, cinnamon in salt in a bowl and set aside.

3. In a separate bowl, whisk together eggs, both sugars, vanilla and milk.
4. Slowly add to your dry ingredients, stirring to combine.
5. Add butter. Your mixture will NOT be like a a cake batter - it's going to be relatively loose. Don't panic! Use your hands to bring it together as best you can.

6. Finally, gently stir in your blueberries.
7. Pat into a 9x5 bread pan.

8. To make your streusel, combine all ingredients in a bowl and bring together with your hands or a spoon. Both times I have made this my streusel turns out more like an icing (I think it's supposed to be more powdery), which is fine. Just spread it on top of your bread - it will give it a nice, sweet crunch.
9. Bake bread for an hour, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

10. Enjoy!

I plan to snack on this all weekend! Hope you all have a great one :)

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Detox Kale Salad and Dressing

Okay, so it's not really a detox salad because I don't know what goes into a detox salad. However, I tend to eat kale when I feel like I NEED to detox...hence, the name.

I don't know what it is, but I've convinced myself that when I go away on vacation, calories cease to exist. That's a real thing, right? Anyway, I always come home and feel...bleh. To make myself feel better, I take a few days and eat super healthy things, like this salad.

Kale is magical for a lot of reasons. Aside from having lots of health benefits (google it), kale is unlike regular salad in that you can just let it sit in the fridge for a few days, and instead of wilting, it gets better - even with dressing on it!

Here's what you need (adapted from Real Girl's Kitchen)...

1 bunch of kale
About 12-15 cherry tomatoes, cut into fourths
1 shallot
A handful of blueberries
About 1 tbsp of olive oil
1/4 cup of champagne vinegar
2-3 cloves of minced garlic
1 tbsp honey
1 tbsp dijon mustard
1 tsp salt

Here's what you do...

1. Rip the leaves of the kale away from their stems and rip into small pieces. Place in a bowl.

2. Pour the olive oil over the kale and gently massage it in for a minute or two. It sounds really strange, but it softens the leaves, which makes it easier to eat.
3. In a separate bowl, whisk together vinegar, garlic, 1 tsp of the shallot, salt, honey, and mustard.
4. Add tomatoes, the rest of the shallot (sliced) and the blueberries to your kale. Then, pour your dressing over it. Toss the salad, and refrigerate until ready to eat.

5. Enjoy!

I have a feeling Justin is going to freak when he sees this accompanying our dinner tonight. Wish me luck! :)

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Italian Stuffed Shells

These stuffed shells are delicious, filling, and not nearly as bad for you as many italian dishes.

Again, I have my lovely friend and neighbor, Beth, to thank for some fantastic pictures and an awesome time working together in the kitchen.

This particular recipe is vegetarian (made with spinach), but you could easily substitute the spinach for some italian sausage if you wanted!

Here's what you need (from Eat Live Run)...

12 oz. box of jumbo shells*
1 15 oz. container of ricotta cheese (we used part skim)
1 cup of italian blend grated cheese
3/4 cup of grated parmesan
12 oz. of cottage cheese (we used reduced fat)
1 tsp of salt
1/4 tsp of pepper
dash of nutmeg
Your favorite marinara (we used my homemade one)
Grated mozzarella (we used 2%)
10 oz. package of frozen spinach, defrosted and wrung out

*We had a ridiculously hard time finding shells - the only brand we found was Barilla, but maybe you'll have more luck!

Here's what you do...

1. Preheat oven to 375.
2. In a large bowl, combine ricotta, italian blend, parmesan, cottage cheese, salt, pepper and nutmeg. Mix well.

3. Meanwhile, boil some water, add your shells, drain and then allow to cool.
4. Spoon your cheese mixture into each shell and lay, seam side up, in a casserole dish. We made them pretty full!

5. Evenly pour marinara over top, then sprinkle the mozzarella cheese on top.

6. Bake for 30 minutes, serve, and enjoy!!

We had so much fun making these, and they tasted absolutely delicious. I only ate 4, and was completely full. Also, these would save well, so if you know you have a crazy week, definitely make these on a Sunday and you'll have plenty for the rest of the week.

Cheese is so good.

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Chilled Cucumber Soup

Make this soup tonight. You can thank me later.

Chilled cucumber soup, to me, is the ultimate summer recipe. It's refreshing and it's simple - you don't even have to turn on your stove or oven. Just your blender!

I cannot take 100% of the credit for this soup or the pictures. My lovely friend and neighbor, Beth, and I had a grocery store adventure on Friday, and this was 1 of 3 fantastic results (the rest are coming soon). She takes some awesome pictures!

Action shot!

Don't let the long list of ingredients throw you - you literally dump everything in a bowl and then blend it.

Here's what you need (adapted from Emeril)...

3 cucumbers
1 yellow bell pepper
2 green onions, chopped
1 jalapeño, minced*
1/2 tbsp fresh chopped mint
1/2 tbsp fresh chopped dill
1 tbsp fresh chopped chives
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 tsp of "Essence"*
1/2 tsp of salt
1/4 tsp of cayenne
1 1/2 cups of plain yogurt
1 cup of reduced fat sour cream
1 1/2 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp white vinegar

*Leave out the jalapeño if you don't like spicy. Use a more spicy pepper if you DO like spicy!

*Essence recipe:

1 tbsp each of paprika, salt and garlic powder
1/2 tbsp each of black pepper, dry thyme, oregano, cayenne, and onion powder

Mix together well. Save the extra in a ziplock bag - great for seasoning!

Here's what you do...

1. Peel and seed your cucumbers. The best way to do this is by cutting them in half and using a spoon. Then, depending on how strong your blender is, chop into little pieces.

2. After chopping all your ingredients, you literally dump everything into a bowl and stir it.

3. Pour, in batches, into your blender, and blend until smooth. I think we ended up doing about 3 batches.

4. Refrigerate (try to do so for at least 2 hours) until ready to serve.
5. Enjoy!

I LOVED this soup. Low calorie, easy and delicious - it's the perfect combination.

Have a wonderful start to your week!

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Italian Egg Scrambler

I know, I know. I should be posting something 4th of July related, but I did that for you last week with the bbq chicken. 

I love scrambled eggs. In college, there was an egg station in the morning, and by the time I graduated, the egg making man knew exactly what I ordered (eggs scrambled with green pepper, onion, tomato, bacon and cheddar).

It never occurred to me to post this on here because I make it so frequently, however, Justin observed this morning that some people might not know how fantastic italian flavors are in scrambled eggs.

Here's what you need (serves 2)...

4 eggs
1 tbsp milk (I used fat free)
1 tbsp of fresh chopped italian parsley
1 tsp of italian seasoning
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1/2 a yellow onion, diced
1-2 tbsp of fresh parmesan cheese
Small pad of butter*

*You could also use olive oil to save calories, but I'm NOT a fan of what olive oil does to eggs - they taste mushy to me.

Here's what you do...

1. In a pan, melt the butter and sauté the onion and garlic for about 5 minutes (until soft).
2. In the meantime, scramble your eggs with the milk and italian seasoning.
3. Pour eggs over onion and garlic, and bring together. I like my eggs dry, so I cook it for awhile, but if you don't, cook them for as long as you want!
4. Right before serving, stir in the parsley and cheese.
5. Enjoy!

I hope everyone has a wonderful 4th! Stay safe :)

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