So I’ve been finding a ton of new recipes that I’ve been wanting to try lately, mainly from the site SkinnyTaste.com. This site is amazing! It has all kinds of yummy looking recipes and they’re all fairly healthy for you. A lot of them are “skinny” versions of other recipes. I decided to try one new recipe each week, and since I can never figure out what to post about on here, I thought I might as well make it a weekly blog series.

The new recipe for this week, however, is not from Skinny Taste. Its just a basic pesto sauce recipe that I picked up from AllRecipes.com (another favorite site). I LOVE pesto, but the jarred pesto is so expensive, so I figure it would be easy enough to make myself. One of the reasons I want to have an herb garden this summer is so I can grow basil to use for pesto, because finding it in the supermarket is hard and probably more expensive. Here’s the recipe, which is a total of 8 servings (enough for a box of pasta). I cut it in half from the 16 servings in the original recipe.

• 1-1/2 cups packed fresh basil leaves
• 2 cloves garlic (I used 3, I’m a garlic fiend)
• 1/4 cup and 2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese (I just used 1/4 cup)
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 2 tablespoons pine nuts (I couldn’t find them, so I did without)
• 1/4 cup fresh parsley (optional) I didn’t have any so left this out

I added all ingredients into my blender and blended until it turned into a paste. It would have been faster with a food processor, but I don’t have one so had to make do with a blender. After blending, I divided them into 8 separate servings in an ice cube tray and put in the freezer. I saw this method on a couple blogs and thought it was a great way to divide them evenly. Unfortunately, the next day (today) they weren’t so easy to pop out. I had to warm them in the microwave for about 15-20 seconds for them to pop out of the tray, but it was easy enough. I heated 4 servings (enough for 2 people/half box of pasta) on low for a few minutes and added 1 tbsp fat free half and half to make it a little creamier. I also added ground pepper, salt, and some dried parsley. It turned out pretty good! I think the pine nuts would have really added more flavor though so I’m going to keep an eye out for those.