Garlic Scape Pesto with Quinoa Pasta

Yes yes... its been almost 2 months since my last post. I think I might have gotten burned out on cooking (easy to do w/ a small kitchen, no dishwasher, and at times little patience). After sending a CSA recipe (which included the week's food offerings) to Miss Christine Waggener, she sent back a quick, easy, and delicious recipe for garlic scape pesto. Before I got sick, I didn't even know what a flippin' scape was, so that has been a tasty, educational experience. 

I opted to not include the Parmesan cheese, even though Woodman's does carry a tofu version. Also, I did not have the 1 cup of scapes the recipe calls for, so I did with what I had - and it was really amazing. I liked that I didn't have to go out and buy a bunch of stuff to make it, prep was simple, and it made my apartment smell (as Christine notes below) like baking lasagna.

I had been wanting to try quinoa pasta. I really am not a big fan of the quinoa flour (it has a rather strong smell which seems to stick around after baking w/ it). Brown rice gets to be a little old after awhile, so I am happy to report that the quinoa pasta I bought at the coop was really delicious and easier to make than some of the other gf pastas.

So... here you go.

Garlic Scape Pesto:

Preheat oven to 400

about 1 cup of chopped garlic scapes

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

olive oil

salt and pepper

tomato sauce (plain or jarred pasta sauce)

mozzarella cheese (1/4 - 1/2 cup optional) you could substitute tofu or dairy free cheese for this) - you can omit this if necessary

Optional: a little bit of thyme, oregano, basil, whatever else you would put in Italian food.

Throw the garlic scape, walnuts, parm cheese, salt and pepper into a food processor and process until smooth-ish. add the olive oil in a stream while its being processed (maybe about 1 - 2 tablespoons.

Take it out and put it in a small casserole dish. mix about 1/2 cup of tomato sauce and the mozz cheese or tofu. you can add more or less to get the consistency that you want.

Bake it for about 40-50 minutes. take it out half-way through and mix it up. You want the garlic to cook thoroughly otherwise it will taste like a whole crapload of raw garlic.

The olive oil will sizzle and bubble a little in the oven so leave some room between the top of the dish and the pesto. Don't need to cover it though.

But no seriously, its pretty good, just put it on pasta like a sauce or rice or in a sandwich wrap. It makes a lot but you can freeze it for later. it smells like lasagna when its cooking.

If its still too garlicy you can add more tomato sauce later...

Grilling out, stomach ache, taking a step back...

Good afternoon fellow musers –

Yesterday started out pretty much as any other day – breakfast consisted of 2 eggs, scrambled with flax seed, some curry spice, mushrooms and red pepper. Delicious. Made a double batch, so I could take some w/ me to work (really hard to find food around work that I can actually eat, and but I don’t want to eat out in the first place).

I felt pretty normal…

Right after eating breakfast, that all-too-familiar stomach clenching feeling began. Nothing tastes good. Water is the worst. I feel both jittery and weak. Maybe not enough sugar, or carbs? Went on a mission to find something quick I could actually eat in downtown FdL. A great walk, but wasn’t really feeling all that wonderful.

Left FdL still feeing cruddy.

Christine called – perhaps grilling out? Absoultely. Hadn’t seen her in forever. So, I stopped by the coop. Picked up a different kind of sweet potato than usual (Garnet) , as well as two varieties of Applegate Farm’s sausages I hadn’t tried before – Sweet Italian and Fire Roasted Red Pepper. My usual is Chicken and Apple (sweet, delicious, amazing). All are certified organic.

Had a wonderful time w/ Christine and her Mom. Stomach still crabby…

Woke up feeling better but not great. I hate this feeling. This is just a taste of how I was feeling before I was diagnosed w/ dairy and gluten issues. In big-picture terms, it’s the typical American diet that I can’t do anymore – processed foods, refined sugar, gluten, dairy, gmo soy, not enough water, and very little greens and veggies.

Part of this relapse is my limited ability to cook what I want. Bad excuse? Probably. But true. I really enjoy juicing veggies, as I can’t really stand the taste of most of them. Great way to get all the nutrients I need though.

So… hoping, praying, whatever, that my cleaning binge this morning/noon will provoke the cabinet company my landlord is ordering the base cabinets from to get them to Madison. This is not exactly helping my mood…

Enough whining. Food. So the Applegate Farms brats are phenomenal. I enjoyed the brats Christine grilled up last night, but my faves are still the Chicken Apple. We enjoyed the sweet potato with curry powder and onions in a grilled foil bag. A second foil bag held mushrooms, zucchini and red pepper – so delicious! I think might try zucchini direct grilled a little more, but we live and learn.

Website for Applegate Farms – www.applegatefarms.com

Depending on my stomach, I might try Chicago/Philly Christine’s grilled asparagus recipe. Will definitely post.

Ciao for Now.

Micha

Willy Street Co-op

Quick musing.

If you have ever had something from the Willy Street Coop Grocery, as in deli or bakery – did you know that you can request the recipe? Its super awesome. Just go up to the customer service counter, tell them what you are looking for. They will ask you to write down your name, email address, and the name of the recipe you are looking for. If you forget the name, either walk back to the deli and ask, or they can call back. If the request is approved (I’m 2 for 2 at the moment) they will email it to you.

So far I’ve gotten their Chipotle Potato Salad (AMAZING) and Coconut Basmati Rice.

Ciao For Now.