Pesto 2 Ways!

**TODAY is the LAST DAY to enter Mary's Basics lip balm giveaway**Winners will be announced Monday!

I have not fallen off the blogger planet but my meals lately have not been very creative.  We are on Day 8 of the detox and our daily food intake consists of veggie-fruit-protein shakes, salads with homemade dressing, a little roasted veggies and lots of raw veggies.  I LOVE the homemade Apple-Cider Vinaigrette!

Before we started on our 21 day journey I made pesto with our abundance of basil in the garden so I'll share my non-detox recipe (from my Earth Day post).  But I mentioned 2 ways, right?  I still had a bunch of basil left over so I made detox-friendly basil and it is delicious!!!

Pesto with whole wheat pasta

Earth Day Basil Pesto

2 cups fresh basil leaves, packed
½ cup flat-leaf Italian parsley, packed (optional)
¼ cup grated Parmesan cheese
½ cup olive oil
¼ cup pine nuts or walnuts
2 garlic cloves, minced
salt and cracked black pepper to taste

1. Place ingredients in a food processor, starting with half of the ingredients if the processor bowl is small, stopping occasionally to scrape down sides of container. Blend until pesto forms a thick, smooth paste.

2. Store in refrigerator in a tightly closed container for up to a week, or freeze for a few months. 

YUM!!!

Detox-Friendly Simple Pesto

3 cups fresh Basil

1 cup olive oil

2-3 cloves of garlic

sea salt and pepper to taste

I used a blender for this recipe since it was handy. (I think I've used my blender every day for at least a 2 months)

Blend all ingredients until smooth.

We really like garlic in our house (although my stomach might disagree).  Since I have so much delicious pesto on hand I might use it for Meatless on Monday.  Stay tuned...I'll be modifying an older recipe so it's detox-friendly!