Pasta and Pesto

My Aunt Judy just gave me, my parents, and my sil the recipe for her homemade pesto (along with all the ingredients to make it--she's wonderful like that).  I made the sauce the other day with my dad and Jon and I had it with pasta for dinner tonight.  It was amazing and so simple to make!

Aunt Judy's Pesto Sauce (makes 1/2 c)
2/3 c packed fresh basil
1/3 c grated Parmesan cheese
1/3 c olive oil
2 T pine nuts
1/2 tsp salt
1 garlic clove, peeled

1. Put all ingredients into a food processor and process until well blended.
2. Refrigerate (and use within a week) OR freeze in ice cube trays, with foil covering tray.  Once it is frozen, pop them out and transfer to a Ziploc bag (frozen cubes can be used for up to three months).

And that's it!  It's super easy to make, is healthy, and delicious.  Is there anything better?

PS Jon and I added some bacon to our pasta and pesto.  We figure, when it doubt, add bacon--it makes life happy :)

Spinach Smoothies--They're Good, I Promise!

 Every summer I (try) to eat a bit healthier than I do during the school year.  It's the time of year where I try new recipes and try to get into better eating habits.  I have become addicted to pinterest and through this site I have found a ton of amazing recipes.  One that my husband and I both enjoy is a spinach smoothie.  It is so easy to make and tastes amazing!  At first I questioned how good a spinach smoothie might taste.  But it is super delicious--and I think of it as three servings of fruits and veggies before 9:00am.  Win-win!

The ingredients are very simple--spinach, pineapple, bananas, yogurt, and water (or ice in my case--we like the smoothie to be very cold so we use ice instead of water).  Find the recipe here and enjoy!

Gone Girl = A Great Read!

I just read an amazing book--the kind of book that you cannot put down (hence the four hours I spent on the couch reading this morning).

I would highly recommend, Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn, as your next summer read.  The plot is simple yet there are so many twists throughout. 

The basics of the story are:

1. Husband and wife have a marriage that is decaying

2. Wife goes missing on 5th wedding anniversary

3. Husband is the main suspect in wife's disappearance

4. Husband has secrets

5. Wife has secrets

6. Neither one is perfect

Soooo good!  Please read this book. . .and, if you do, let me know what you think of it.

On another note, if you do choose to read this book, Real Simple has chosen it as their No Obligation Book Club book for the month of July.  Read the book and then hop on over to their website to see what other people are saying about it.