Pesto Chicken Salad

Pesto Chicken Salad

Pesto adds a little spark to almost any dish.  Recently I was planning to make chicken salad and noticed that I had a jar of pesto in the fridge I thought I would use it in the salad.  Here's the recipe:

6 boneless skinless chicken thighs poached and diced
1/2 cup pine nuts toasted
1/4 cup basil pesto
1/4 cup mayonnaise
1 stalk of celery diced

When I make chicken salad I like to poach the chicken because it always comes out quite tender.

Dice poached chicken thighs.

Toast pine nuts. 

Add toasted pine nuts and pesto.

Add celery.

Add mayo and mix all together lightly. 

Ready to eat. 

I served this on a bed of Romaine lettuce leaves garnished with tangerine slices.  A croissant finished off the dish.  

Surprised!!! We Love Black Bean Spaghetti

The other day when I was reorganizing my pantry I discovered a bag of black bean spaghetti that must have been an impulse purchase of mine at Whole Foods.  I finally decided to try it, and to our surprise we really, really like it.  I cooked the whole batch al dente.  It's thin and flat a little more like fettucini than spaghetti.  Our first serving was spaghetti mixed with pesto and topped with a tomato sauce and Parmesan cheese. Served warm.

Black Bean Spaghetti.

The beauty of this spaghetti is that it is high in protein, high in fiber and has no sodium.  On top of that it tastes as good or better than ordinary semolina spaghetti.  Having no wheat, it is gluten free.  Dan suggested we make some regular spaghetti sauce and top the spaghetti with that.  I made the sauce with onions, mushrooms, tomato sauce, and ground beef.

Black bean spaghetti.  I like the contrast of color.

Add homemade spaghetti sauce.

Freshly grate some Parmesan cheese.

Ready to eat. 

We also tried the leftover spaghetti as a cold salad.  I mixed in a bit of pesto with the spaghetti and mixed in chopped fresh tomatoes.  Top with freshly grated Parmesan cheese.  Drizzle a bit of balsamic vinegar on top.  Tasty!!!!

Black bean pasta with pesto, tomatoes, and Parmesan cheese.  Serve at room temperature. 

Try it, I think you will like it.  Available at Whole Foods and online at Amazon.

A St. Patrick's Day Sandwich

A "green" sandwich for St. Patrick's Day.

I know it's not quite St. Patrick's Day, but I've been baking "green" desserts with a St. Patrick's Day theme and for supper I decided to make a "green" sandwich for Dan and me. 

I spread pesto on each side of the bread, followed by slices of yogurt cheese. 

Spread pesto on each slice of bread.

Add yogurt cheese to each slice of bread.

I added fresh spinach to each side of the bread.

Add spinach.

On one side I put slices of a ripe avocado.

Add sliced avocado to one side of bread.

Then I put the two slices together to make the sandwiches.  

Put the two slices together to make the sandwich.

I grilled the sandwiches in butter.

Grill in butter.

Ready to eat.  Delish!

This is a new twist on grilled cheese sandwiches that will be good not just on St. Patrick's Day but any day of the year. 

Pesto Cream Cheese Stuffed Crimini Mushrooms

Pesto Cream Cheese Stuffed Mushrooms.

These make for a nice appetizer or finger food for a party. This recipe is from Channel 14's Johnson and Wales Culinary Institute.


Pesto Cream Cheese Stuffed Mushrooms
(Number of Servings depends on how big your mushrooms are)
INGREDIENTS
One 8 oz. package white button or cremini mushrooms (I used cremini.)
2 oz. olive oil
Salt and pepper to season mushrooms (I omitted the salt.)
4 oz. cream cheese, softened
2 oz. prepared pesto
2 oz. grated parmesan cheese
2 oz. prepared bread crumbs (I used Panko bread crumbs.)
PROCEDURE
1. Preheat oven to 375°F. Wash mushrooms and pat dry. Remove stems. Drizzle mushroom caps with olive oil. Season with salt and pepper. Place mushrooms on baking sheet, and bake for 5 minutes to par cook the mushrooms. If any liquid ends up in the caps, pour it off before continuing. Pat dry.

Drizzle mushroom caps with olive oil and sprinkle liberally with fresh ground black pepper.

Mix together cream cheese and pesto.

2. While the mushrooms are par-cooking, mix together the pesto and cream cheese. Fill the caps with a sizeable dollop of the mixture. Top the mushrooms with grated parmesan cheese and breadcrumbs.

Par cooked mushrooms.

Place a dollop of cream cheese mixture in each cap, top with Parmesan cheese and bread crumbs.

3. If preparing ahead for a party, stop here and refrigerate the mushrooms. When ready to serve, bake mushrooms in 375°F oven until browned and bubbly on top (should be 5-8 minutes - less time if prepared straight through without having to account for the chill from the fridge).

Out of the oven and ready to serve.

These are easy and very tasty.

A Sandwich With Some of My Favorite Ingredients

Green Goddess grilled cheese sandwich. (Photo from tastespotting).

Recently I ran across a recipe for a sandwich that includes some of my favorite ingredients: cheese, avocado, spinach, and pesto.  I finally got around to making it for supper last night.  The recipe is from the blog Tastespotting.  I didn't make my own pesto and I substituted yogurt cheese for the mozzarella, but boy was this a good sandwich.

Adding pesto to bread.

Spread pesto on two slices of whole grain bread.

Add cheese.

Add a slice of cheese to one slice of the bread.

Add avocado.

Add spinach.

Add the avocado and the spinach to one side of the sandwich.

Add remaining slice of cheese.

Add the remaining slice of cheese.  Top with the other slice of bread.  And grill in a bit of olive oil until brown on each side.

Grill until browned.

After toasting, cut in half.  Dan and I each had half of the sandwich with a bowl of soup for a delicious supper.

Enjoy!

For the recipe go to the tastespotting blog.  Also check out her great photos of this sandwich.  I'm going to follow her blog.  She has amazing suggestions for healthy sandwiches.

Green Eggs and Ham

“Do you like green
eggs and ham?”“I do not like them,
Sam-I-am.
I do not like green
eggs and ham!” .............

“I do so like
green eggs
and ham!
Thank you!
Thank you,
Sam-I-am!”

This was one of our children's favorite Dr. Seuss poems.  I liked it too.  At one point I think we could all quote it line by line from memory.  Last night I decided to try a new twist to egg salad and ham sandwiches for supper.  I made egg salad using pesto, and it turned out to be a lovely shade of green.  That with a slice of ham made for an interesting sandwich. Throw in a few sweet potato chips, and you have supper that even Theodor Geisel would have enjoyed.

Egg salad made with pesto.

Ham on one side, "green" egg salad on the other. 

A supper of green eggs and ham and a few sweet potato chips.

 

Welcome Spring with Supper-time Eggs

Supper-time Eggs.

Dan and I like scrambled eggs, but we more often have them for supper than for breakfast--I call them our Supper-Time Eggs.  I thought this would make for a spring-like meal to officially usher in Spring. 

I used two whole eggs and two egg yolks.  The extra yolks make for creamier and more flavorful scrambled eggs and give the eggs a brighter yellow color. (Maggie gets the left over egg whites).  I usually add just a bit of milk or cream to the eggs before beating, and  I cook them slowly in the skillet with just a bit of olive oil.  A drizzle of basil pesto is just the right garnish, and a few spears of steamed fresh asparagus on the side suggest that indeed Spring has arrived.  I toasted some whole grain bread in the oven with the broiler setting and topped the toast with cream cheese with chives before serving.  We enjoyed our Supper-time Eggs!