Mmm...eucalyptus and lavender

This recipe today is summertime cooking at its finest. Meaning it’s easy. And quick. And uses fresh garden ingredients.

Baby’s three favorite foods include pasta:

Blueberry pancakes:

And candle wax.

Uh,  let’s stick with pasta. Six ingredients, less than 20 minutes- you got this.

-1 box rotini (I used whole grain- any kind of pasta will work)

-1 pint (~2 cups) cherry tomatoes, halved

-1/2 cup torn fresh basil

-6 oz fresh mozzarella, cut into ½” chunks

-3 tablespoons balsamic reduction

-2 tablespoons olive oil

-Salt and pepper to taste

Boil pasta according to package directions. Rinse under cool water. Add remaining ingredients. Stir to evenly coat. This is a super versatile recipe and I’ve made many variations- add fresh spinach, grilled chicken, additional vegetables- whatever you’d like!

Makes six servings. Per serving: 391 calories, 55 g carbs, 11 g fat, 14.5 g protein.

When a close second will do

You would think that a 15 month old really wouldn’t have much on his agenda. Eat? Sleep? Poop? Ok yeah all those are essentials, but we have got one busy boy on our hands. Lately he’s all about his tools, particularly his wrench. Specifically his Phillips wrench. He gets busy fixing things like…

…the carpet...

…his Audi

…the dog.

I feel like I’ve been super busy too. So busy that I keep forgetting to stop by the store and pick up my fave peanut butter. Remember how just the other week I was all like “oh all it has is peanuts in the ingredients list and it’s magical and delicious and cures anything that could possibly be wrong with you!” No?

So I have dang peanuts at home, why not just make my own peanut butter?

AND- I also have some dang almonds- so why not combine the two to make a hybrid?

Homemade Nut Butter

-2 cups raw unsalted nuts (I used 1 cup peanuts and 1 cup almonds)

-1/3 cup oil (I used olive)

-Pinch of salt

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Spread nuts out on a rimmed baking sheet. Toast in the oven for 5-7 minutes. Stir around and put ‘em back in for a few minutes. You want them to get a bit browned and fragrant. Let the nuts cool. Working in batches, combine nuts with oil in a food processor. I found that I had to do a half cup of nuts and a few teaspoons of oil at a time (my food processor is on the small side). When finished, stir in salt. Scrape butter in a sealable container and keep refrigerated. This will last up to 2 weeks in the fridge, and I found that the oil doesn’t separate, which is cool.

 Does it taste as good as my Smuckers? No. But it's still pretty tasty, and easy. Ya know- good for more time to be spent being busy. 

Oh my, oh my...

...happy fourth-of-July. In spite of me wanting to wring the necks of everyone on our block who thought it was cool be setting off fireworks at 10:30, it was a great weekend.

WHAT. 10:30 is super late for me now.

We spent part of Saturday and all day Sunday boating and beaching with friends and family. I might have gotten a 7^th degree sunburn on my entire back. Spray sunscreen is such a tease. It’s all like “oh just use me- I’m soooo easy! I’ll do a decent job protecting you” and then no, every time I get a horrible sunburn.

Raided my dad’s garden for some pea pods and lettuce and onions.

Busy weekend means that mama don’t feel like cooking much. Slow cooker chicken tacos to the rescue. This is a recipe that I’ve probably posted before, but it’s something I haven’t made in awhile, so why not repeat.

-1 package boneless skinless chicken breasts (~1-1.5 lbs)

-2 large (10+ oz) jars of your favorite salsa. I used basic medium spicy tomato salsa

-1/4 teaspoon chili powder

-1/4 teaspoon salt

-1/4 teaspoon pepper

-1/4 teaspoon minced garlic

Place chicken in the bottom of a slow cooker. Add seasonings on top of chicken. Pour salsa over chicken. Cook on low for 7-8 hours. Shred when ready to serve. This makes enough shredded chicken for about 8 good-size tacos.

I chose to serve fresh corn, chopped (garden) onion, chopped (garden) cilantro, and chopped (garden) lettuce, along with crumbled queso fresco cheese. Feel free to add whatever salsas or toppings you like.

You could easily use this meat for quesadillas, enchiladas, sandwiches- so many possibilities. This meat freezes & thaws really well too.

Patriotic Popsicles

Holy shamoley I can hardly believe it’s already time for the 4^th of July weekend. I woke up this morning to see this gal in our backyard. It was all sweet and serene, 'til she took a giant dump. Argh.

In honor of summer, and the 4th, let's have some flag popsicles, mmk?

All you need are three ingredients.

Flag Popsicles

-1/2 cup blueberries, rinsed and dried

~5 strawberries, rinsed and dried

-6 oz vanilla or coconut nonfat Greek yogurt

-1 sealable sandwich bag with a seriously teeny hole snipped at the bottom corner

-4 pack popsicle mold (though you could just make these in a Dixie cup and add a wooden popsicle stick, or even just a metal spoon)

Using a fork, mash the blueberries until pureed. It is ok if there are some chunks. Spoon ~1/2” worth into the bottoms of each popsicle mold. Freeze for an hour.

Pour yogurt into sandwich bag, while holding the snipped end closed. I found it easiest to “pipe” in the yogurt because spooning it in left me with yogurt all on the sides of the mold, and you want a nice smear-free mold. Pipe ~1/2” yogurt into the mold.

Mash strawberries until fairly pureed. It is still ok if there are some chunks. Spoon a thin (~1/4”) layer of mashed strawberry on top of yogurt. Freeze for an hour. Repeat as many times as needed until you’ve either run out of strawberry mash or yogurt or your molds are full.

To dislodge popsicles, run under hot tap water for a few seconds.

Per popsicle: approximately 60 calories, 4 grams protein.

Can you count to 3?

How’s about you cookin’ up a 3 ingredient dinner? Sound like the right amount of work for a Wednesday night? All you need is chicken, provolone cheese, and pesto.

Juuuuust in case you’re not up to speed with pesto, it’s pretty much just ground up herb, usually basil. But you could take any herb and make a pesto- just process with some olive oil, toasted pine nuts, garlic, and Parmesan. Or be like me and buy a jar of the premade pesto. You’ll find it on the top shelf in the Italian aisle. I promised a 3 ingredient recipe, after all.

6 boneless skinless chicken breasts (about 24 oz total chicken), either pounded or cut into ½” thick pieces

1 4-6 oz jar pesto

6-7 round slices provolone cheese

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Coat the bottom of a glass baking dish with olive oil cooking spray. Arrange chicken in pan, and spoon pesto over each piece. Spread as evenly as you can. Top each breast with a  slice of cheese. Bake 30-35 minutes, or until internal temp registers at least 165 degrees and cheese is slightly browned and bubbling.

That’s it. Makes 6 servings. Per serving: 390 calories, 34 g protein, 2 grams carbs, 25 g fat (mostly heart healthy)

I served this with some fancy Farmer's Market whole grain pasta, cherry tomatoes, and more basil.

 Once you've had a newborn, you'll never view pesto in the same way...

Someone figured out the doggy door...

...happy Thursday!

Go ahead and call me Juliana Margulies...

...'cause I am the good wife.

I am feeling pretty high on my horse today, fresh off a most excellent weekend.

For Father’s Day I pulled out most of the stops for a fun ‘n’ food filled weekend for hubs and I.

First up was the Twins/Cubs game. My husband is originally from Chicago and the Cubs were totally his team for forever. It was fun to see him at the game and catch a glimpse of the 8-year old boy inside of him who still loves the Cubbies.

Next up we headed down to the Millennium Hotel, within walking distance of the ballpark. Checked in, went up to our room, opened the door….aaaaaaand OH MY GOSH THERE ARE STILL PEOPLE IN THIS ROOM.

Fortunately they weren’t home. Got a new (vacant) room and opened up the bottle of wiiiiiiine.

We walked over to dinner at Butcher and the Boar, where neither of us had been. The wait for an inside table was hours, but we could seat ourselves in their cool back patio area. Done deal. I ordered a cheddarwurst sandwich and my husband got some kind of spicy sausage on a bun loaded with peppers and melty cheese. Maybe it was in part because I was super hungry, but this meal was totally delish, and the skyline views and beautiful weather just made it all-around perfect.

Don’t worry about all the cholesterol that I downed. The red wine’ll fix it.

After dinner, my husband was a good sport and took a picture of my lame-o self trying to look cute and artsy in front of a brick wall.

We headed over to Lunds & Byerly’s to get some take-home desserts, and play with pop. At least one of us found our name.

Don’t worry about me buying the calorie bomb “Killer Brownie.” The red wine’ll fix it.

Like true adults, we vegged out and watched golf on cable.

If it helps me justify that, we don’t get cable at home.

You’re still judging.

In the morning we got super awesome room service, compliments of the hotel after the room mix up.

Here’s me trying to look cute & fresh despite having a roasted baby potato crammed in my pie hole.

We then went for a jog over to the sculpture garden, then showered and headed just 2 miles away to the Minneapolis Farmer’s Market.

All the cheeses. All the oils. All the produce. All the lemonade and limeade.

Don’t worry about all the sugar in that lemonade. The red wine’ll…um…forget it.

And fresh picked strawberries. Look at those bright gems..

We picked up Baby Guy and headed over to my in-laws’ lake home where we capped the day off with swimming and floating.

Perfect weekend, perfect Father's Day.

Stay tuned ‘cause this week I’m going to do some actual cooking and do more than just post pics of me thinking I’m being interesting. How’s that for a draw?