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December 10, 2007

The calm before the storm

Started off this past weekend with a bang (food wise).

I had a long Lunch at Slanted Door with co-workers:

ED is in rED ginger limeade! rib my favorite item: spring rolls (no pork) green papaya salad imperial rolls- crispy

CONTINUE READING

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December 9, 2007

Turkey, Pesto, Sando

Today’s Lunch:

Turkey Pesto Sandwich with Parmesan Cheese

Take your leftover pesto:

leftover pesto

Spread a LOT of it on two pieces of sourdough toast:

pesto, sourdough

Top each slice with a little bit of parmesan cheese:

pesto sourdough parmesan

Roll up some slices of turkey and put that on top:

pesto sourdough parmesan turkey

Place one slice on top of the other slice:

eat it up

Cut in half (or not) and EAT:

slice it up

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December 8, 2007

Fresh Basil Pesto

Whenever I make pesto, I always try to make a huge batch. Because there’s nothing more disappointing than eating pasta that doesn’t have enough sauce on it!

If you don’t have a food processor, a blender works fine. If you don’t have either- hope your knife skills are excellent!

Ingredients were all from Trader Joes:

  • 2 containers fresh basil
  • 2-3 cloves fresh peeled garlic
  • 1 lemon squeezed
  • a dash of cayenne pepper
  • 1 large handful of pine nuts
  • 4 heaping tablespoons of parmesan cheese
  • fresh ground pepper
  • 1/4 cup of olive oil

Chop up a few cloves of garlic (I used 3 for this batch)

chopping pepper

Now add the basil. Make sure to leave off the stems. You can see I left one on! Woops!

leafy greens

Make sure to scrap down the sides…

scrap down the sides

Now, start adding your olive oil.

I added a little over 1/4 cup of the oil to get the consistency I wanted.

whizzz bang whirl twirl pesto

I tossed in a handful of pine nuts (they’re even better when toasted)

adding pine nuts

I added 1 fresh squeezed lemon to the mix (prevents discoloration)

A dash of cayenne pepper for spice.

Some fresh ground pepper to even out the flavor….

Now put about 4 heaping tablespoons of Parmesan cheese. (Skip this part if you’re vegan)

The cheese is in place of salt.  It adds a LOT of flavor. Mix that all up!

adding pepper, cayenne & parm cheese

Now we have some pesto!

presto! pesto!

When I made dinner the other night, I added some of the pesto to my shrimp (with red pepper & olive oil) to make jazz them up before grilling:

added some pesto on the shrimp

I put those on skewers (4 to a skewer-except 1 had 5!)

read to go on the grill

I grilled them on high heat for about 2-3 minutes per side!

grilled pesto shrimp

I think this weekend I’m going to have a slice of bread toast with pesto on it. Stay tuned.

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December 5, 2007

Dinner Tonight. Project Runway. Project Pesto.

my plate

grilled pesto shrimp

penne with pesto & lemon

roasted asparagus

i love garlic bread. to death.

Pesto Recipe/Garlic Bread Recipe/Grilled Pesto Shrimp Recipe… to follow.

Everything from Trader Joe’s!

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December 2, 2007

Hello, December.

This weekend was chilly.

december 1st

I spent time on my computer with a slice of buttery toast and a cup of coffee.

Yes, it is a Halloween mug. Yes, I know it’s December.

breakfast of champions

I did some landscaping in the backyard:

doing some landscaping mint under water

The weather kept changing on me:

you're my favorite moment the weather was weird today

I soaked in all the beautiful colors of the fallen leaves:

leaves will fall.  and then i get to see my neighbors shitty house. red orange brown yellow so glad we stained you, deck 

I made a very yummy rustic/savory tart with carrots, sweet potatoes, bacon, goat cheese, red onion, rosemary & butternut squash:

carrot porn hmmmmm  added goat cheese

rustic tart eat that up!

I watched Gilmore Girls with Whitney.  I think we got in 6 or 7 episodes!

I made more mushroom soup.

I drank a lot of coffee.

I got my hair colored.

I went to the library & got some cookbooks to admire.

I did some glittering.

We bought our Christmas tree & did some decorating.

Oh! I finally did the dishes:

constantly doing dishes

Now it’s time to watch some Dexter.  I hope you all had a good weekend too!

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December 1, 2007

30 days of Trader Joe’s

30 days of tj's

Phew!  That was a quite a project I got myself into!  I just wanted to thank all of you who stopped by & commented.  You kept me going!  It makes me thrilled to hear from other Trader Joe’s lovers out there!  And thanks to you, I have some new items from Trader Joe’s in my pantry right now!  Thanks for the recommendations!! I’ll let you know how it goes.

For those of you who wondered if I will be continuing this—-FEAR NOT, I will be posting more Trader Joe’s Favorites/Concoctions.  The frequency might not be as great….but for now my goal is to post a few items/favs per week!  So look out!

Thanks once again! Hope you have a wonderful weekend!

-Tracy

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November 30, 2007

Mediterranean Couscous

Favorite Trader Joe’s Item #30: Couscous

cous cous

Cook couscous according to directions.

I doubled the recipe so that we could have leftovers for the next few days.

Let’s begin with the recipe……

Chop 1 red onion:

chopped red onions

Drain & rinse 1 can of garbanzo beans:

garbanzo beans, chokes, onions, tomatoes

Chop up some little tomatoes, sun dried tomatoes (half of the TJ’s jar), two handfuls of basil, 2 lemons & 1 jar of marinated artichokes:

Open 1 package of crumbled feta:

Mix those ingredients with the Cous-Cous.

Make sure to add some Extra-Virgin Olive Oil.

Squeeze the lemons on top & mix. Add salt & pepper to taste.

Serve in a bowl:

Dig in with a fork or spoon:

It’s pretty good with grilled sausage on top:

i added some sausage

Now you have a tasty meal & a few leftovers to last you a few days. The end.