Remember when we had too many tomatoes? Sadly, it looks like our tomato stash is dying down. Our basil plants are still going strong, and when I saw this recipe for Roasted Tomato Basil Pesto from OhSheGlows, I knew that I had to make it. I went out and gathered a bunch of tomatoes and whipped up Angela’s recipe.
I followed all of her directions, except I omitted the almonds since we didn’t have any on hand. I also roasted the garlic during the last 15 minutes of cooking time. I also didn’t use roma tomatoes, I just used this gigantic bowl of tomatoes that I had just harvested from our garden.
Three simple ingredients that pack TONS of flavor!
The finished product: Roasted Tomato Basil Pesto
We used a *few* more tomatoes than in the original recipe, hence the rusty color! I was a little bit underwhelmed by the flavor- perhaps I didn’t roast my tomatoes long enough? I started searching for ways to incorporate the pesto into our weekly meals.
On Sunday night we topped some tilapia fillets with the pesto, but the winning combination happened when I whipped some of the pesto into our weekly frittata.
Check it out! This frittata was made with 3 eggs, 3 egg whites, 3 TBSP tomato basil pesto, about 1/3c. of cooked spinach, some chives, salt and pepper. I sprinkled mozzarella on top for a final garnish and voila!
Anyone else remember the “breakfast beverage” called Five Alive? My parents never bought it, but I remember slurping down the juicy goodness at friends’ houses after a sleepover (or rather a talk-the-whole-night-over).
Cait from Beyond Bananas and Chelsey from Clean Eating Chelsey recently posted this “5 Things” survey, and I thought I’d share my 5’s with YOU!
Holly’s 5’s
Last 5 People I talked to on the phone (my personal phone, not @ work):
Hi friends! Hope you’re recovering from a wonderful weekend! Daniel and I had the chance to spend the weekend with my awesome 13 year old brother! Even though Matt and I are 10 years apart, (with two awesome sisters sandwiched in between), we still have a blast when we hang out.
Matthew is an awesome boy- he’s charming, has a good sense of humor and he has Selective Mutism. Selective mutism is an anxiety-based disorder in which a person who is able to talk is unable to speak in given situations. It often is linked with social anxiety or extreme shyness. That being said, Matt doesn’t talk a whole lot. Matthew also tends to avoid eye contact, and he often has a very “closed” posture when people talk to him (this occurs more with strangers, not as much with family and friends.) We still talk to him and ask him questions, but he rarely responds with anything more than a nod “yes” or “no”. Sometimes, when we are doing activities together, he’ll open up and talk with us in short bits.
Matt has recently been seeing a specialist who has given our family some great tools to help Matthew communicate. He has a “star chart”, and each day he completes a task, he gets to put a star on the chart. 100 stars equals a reward. It was so fun to sit down with him at the end of the day to see how well he had done interacting with us that day! As an example, Matthew gets a star for choosing something at a store/restaurant. We swung into a drug store after a day of being outside, and Matthew chose a drink from the cooler and he earned a star for making his own selection!
We always try to do something active when Matt is with us because we enjoy being out and about, and it often leads to him opening up and sharing a bit of his life with us!
This weekend, we decided to take advantage of the BEAUTIFUL fall weather and do one of Matt’s favorite activities: Pedal Boating at Jacobson Park.
I thought the boats only held two people (turns out they hold three), so Silas and I went to hang out in the lake while the boys got a leg workout.
Silas really wanted to play with the ducks…
After Silas and I visited the dog park, we swung back and hung out on the playground with the guys and took some photos:
Matt had requested that we have burgers for dinner, and it turns out that Matt is quite the griller! We were out of charcoal, so the men built a fire (in the grill) using sticks and twigs.
The most special part of the weekend happened about 5 minutes before Matthew left our house to go home. You see, even though Matt has been around for 13 years, I’ve NEVER heard him say my name. He doesn’t really use people’s names at all. He’ll mention the names of the animals (Silas, Mowgli), but I’ve never heard him say a persons name. Right before Matthew left, Daniel and I challenged him to say our names. Just “Daniel” and “Holly”. We were prepared to give him $9 (the equivalent of about 90 stars- it takes him about two weeks to earn that many). Matthew recently purchased a PSP thingy and didn’t have any games yet. He told us that he wanted to buy a game, but that he had to earn $5-10 more to get it.
Daniel and I offered him $9 to say both of our names. At first, Matt didn’t seem to keen on the idea. After a few minutes by himself, Daniel and I went over and asked if he was ready, and Matt nodded yes.
I pointed to Daniel and said “This is"… “Daniel” said Matt. I pointed to myself and said “And this is”… “Holly” said Matt.
He said my name. I’m so proud of him and how he’s growing into a fantastic young man. I love my brother and I pray that God continues to help him to open up and to transform into the man that he was created to be!
My dear, NEWLYWED cousin Elizabeth and her charming husband, Pedro joined us for dinner last night. My Friday was pretty full, check it out:
Clean House (no picture, no one wants to see a vacuum full of hair)
Run (see the typo?)
Take Silas to the Vet
Meet mom to pick up the little bro who is spending the weekend with us!
Cook dinner.
Sounds easy enough, right? Not so much. I was meeting my mom (40 minutes from my house) at 5 to pick up Matthew, and Elizabeth and Pedro were coming over at 6:30. Daniel didn’t get off of work until 6, so I needed a dinner that could cook itself.
Southwestern Crockpot Chicken
A little bit spicy, super easy and super delicious with lots of veggies to bulk up the meal! Served along homemade tortilla chips or brown rice, this crockpot meal is sure to please!
Cut tortillas into wedges (I cut them into 6 triangles per tortilla)
Spritz cooking sheet with oil, lay out your chips in an even layer. Spritz chips with oil, sprinkle on some salt
Bake 10-15 minutes, or until chips are lightly browned. Chips will crisp up as they cool!
(Optional: Add lemon/lime juice to chips before baking OR sprinkle with shredded cheese half-way through the cook time OR sprinkle with garlic salt and cayenne for a little kick!)
Take a look at our spread!
We even ended the evening together by toasting some marshmallows over our grill, a pretty nice way to spend a lovely fall night!
Our garden is overflowing with tomatoes! Two weeks ago, I made a homemade tomato sauce that we tried to eat on everything. This week, I made a Southwestern Crockpot Chicken meal (Recipe will be put up on Monday!) I’m still scratching my head trying to think of what to do with all these beauties:
So, I have super-talented friends. I’d love to start a series highligting their talents, and miss Emily is our first “guest”!
My friend, Emily (from St. Louis) has started making ADORABLE scarves. Check out her blog to see some of her designs (photo credit goes to Emily), and visit her Etsy site- http://www.etsy.com/shop/egracebelcher. The scarves are made from recycled t-shirts, so they are super “green” and super cute!
If you want to be featured on Superstar Friends- just send an e-mail to thecoopfam1 (at) gmail (dot) com!
I just got home from a “Piloxing” class at the fitness center, and I am RAVENOUS! Running 14 minutes to and from the gym, with a 50 minute fitness class sandwiched in between will give a girl an appetite!
I have a brief hour before I have to go to work, so I whipped up a delicious, protein filled pancake!
