Pesto Power

Isn't it weird how something that you find so tasty- in this case pesto made from fresh basil from your garden, freshly opened pine nuts from Costco and olive oil from your cupboard, can be so unappealing to other members of your family. I think at least my youngest dd would enjoy pesto, if she would really give it a try (she has the most open taste buds in my little family- my broader family- and I don't mean as in personal size- loves many different foods. Not so much my immediate-living-in-my-house family AND they're the ones I mostly have to eat with! boo hoo for moi. Oh well! I'm making some stuff for my OWN enjoyment anyway. Last night, I made their pasta plain- served with delicious bbq chicken, btw.

So, last night, for my own personal enjoyment apparently, I made Classic Pesto from the Cooking Light Complete Cookbook. I bought a number of basil plants previously from a local gardening center and they were in full bloom beside my house, so I thought I'd better use them before they got too overgrown. (side note: my parents are true gardeners- and I grew up with all kinds of fresh vegetables and shorter-growing-season fruits. I feel guilty that this green thumb was not passed down to me and that I'm too lazy to try gardening to any real extent. I want to do better! *sob*)

Anyway, enough of that, the pesto last night was so delicious! Probably the freshness of the basil helped. Following this CL recipe, it's 1 point for 1 tbsp. I had it on a cup of rotini pasta with cut up (grown in Ontario, but not by me) tomatoes. mmmmmmmm... well worth every single point! (*The pesto pictured above was not mine, btw. I didn't have time to take a pic, rushing to get ready for our evening out. The CL one doesn't have that extra oil look and mine was a little darker because I used some purple leaves of basil, too.)

This recipe is also freezable, so I put tbsp servings in an ice cube try to be transferred to a freezer bag later. Now I can use my single serving pesto whenever I feel like a little and I don't have to listen to my family complaining. (I'm hoping for my girls' sake that they will eventually like it, cause I feel sorry for them in their pesto-deprived state. The dh- I've given up on. lol.)

p.s. The drive-in was a lot of fun! We saw Kung Foo Panda and Get Smart. I packed some low point snacks (and some high point ones, too) and used my flex. We'll definitely be going back. :)