Tuesday Food Day

Arugula Pesto

This may sound totally unappealing to most of you, but I promise it was good and really low in fat the way I made it.  I wish you could see more of the cous cous in the above picture.  Had I realized I was going to post about the actual pesto I would have taken better pictures of the steps I took!!!  I get grumpy and hungry come supper time around here (so does the hubster) leaving little wiggle room for the "perfect pic" of the meal I have created!!!  Anyway, above, I put the Israeli Cous Cous (larger grains than typical cous cous), that  I tossed with the pesto, on top of a bed of arugula-like arugula much??  As you may remember from last week's post, I put roasted zucchini and fresh tomatoes and feta on top.  Yumm!!!!

A LOT of Basil

3-4 garlic cloves

2-3 handfuls of arugula

chicken broth

Parmesan Cheese-(grated from 365 form Whole Foods is a fave)

olive oil

S+P as needed

I put all of these above ingredients in the blender and ran until pesto consistency.  I added chicken broth as needed but you could also use water if trying to stay low fat or olive oil to make it even better.  In my recipe I just use a very small amount of EVOO but I think the more you use the better it tastes sometimes!!

I have made this same recipe, but substitute the arugula with spinach and that is even better in my opinion!!!  You could totally add pine nuts or walnuts but I don't A) because I never have them on hand and B) trying to stay lower in fat.  Perfect to put on a pizza, toss with cous cous, make spaghetti, top off bruschetta or put a dollop on shrimp/chicken/fish..

On a completely unrelated note, I made pancakes this weekend from a mix I picked up at Trader Joe's.

  The mix calls for milk, eggs and oil.  I had no oil, except for olive oil.  I also had no applesauce to substitute in for the oil.  So, I put my cooking cap on and rifled around the fridge and found some low fat sour cream.  I thought, well, people make biscuits and cakes with sour cream sometimes, why not try it in pancake mix?  So, I did and also added vanilla extract and raw sugar.  Let me tell you they were delicious and low fat to boot!!!!  Just an FYI if you ever get in a pinch, try sour cream.  I bet greek yogurt would have worked as well.