……Alright, that was a lie. 

Really, this recipe was a fluke, but a wonderful one!  See what happened was, last night when making dinner, I thought I had a MUCH bigger container of basil than I really did.  I realized when I was cleaning my basil that I didn’t, in fact, have anywhere near enough.  So, I pulled out my thinking cap, and here’s what I did:

I took my 2 oz clamshell container of basil (rinsed, then stripped the leaves from the stems), ¼ c. of pine nuts,  1 clove of garlic, ¼ cup of cheese (it’s usually parmesan, I used shredded sharp cheddar cause it’s what I had).  Next up came the replacement for the Basil…what in the world was I going to use??  I looked in my fridge and saw I had a 8.5 oz. container of sun-dried tomatoes in oil (Bella Sun Luci, my favorite if I have to buy them in jars), so I dumped half of them, plus the olive oil (which had infused with that awesome sun-dried tomato flavor) into my food processor.

Pesto!

Then, I pulsed for literally 4 seconds.  It was super fast.

SUNNY SUNDRIED TOMATO PESTO

I enjoyed this on a nice hot bowl of spaghetti squash (that I prepared the same way as I always do), topped with more cheese and some shrimp I’d thawed (and of course, topped with Old Bay, my favorite!!).  Supportive, nutritious, and incredibly delicious!!!!! (Yes, I’m aware that rhymed : )

Sundried Tomato Pesto with Shrimp over Spagetti Squash

…and yeah, the kids were fooled again ;- )

This would be fabulous with chicken, or with maybe marinated tempeh or veggie meatballs as a complete vegetarian option.

In celebration of leanKitchen’s first-ever live read, I bring to you Milkshake’s Milkshake!  And, who the heck is Milkshake??  Milkshake is the mascot for MOO92!  And my friend Deveney over at the station just loves the combo of chocolate and peanut butter (let’s face it-who doesn’t?!) , so this is the perfect ode to the station!

First up, take 2/3 cup cottage cheese (I used a low-fat), 1 scoop chocolate protein powder (I used Prograde chocolate meal replacement), a scoop of peanut butter (natural), a tablespoon of peanuts, a cup of COLD water, and some ice.  Blend.  Enjoy!!

Milkshake's Chocolate Peanut Butter Milkshake

P.S. For those of you doing the Warp Speed, this would work as a substitution for that cottage cheese chocolate peanut butter day 1 breakfast!

That being said, I had created a shake a while back, and have revisited it to be a more precise, delicious shake.

Put in a blender:  1/2 c canned pumpkin, 1 tsp. ground cinnamon, 2 tbsp. pecans, walnuts or almonds, 1/2 c. cottage cheese, 1 scoop vanilla protein powder (I use Prograde) (a little more or less to your taste, depending on how sweet you like it), and 3/4 c. COLD water (again, a little more or less, depending on the thickness you prefer-but regardless of thickness preference, MAKE SURE THE WATER IS COLD!).

Blend, pour into a glass, and enjoy a (seemingly) sinful delicious, supportive treat!

Prograde Pumpkin Pie Shake

Perfect for my fellow Warp Speeders!!!!

Again, to the folks over at Prograde, thanks a bunch!

But I just don’t LIKE water.  It doesn’t taste good, and it’s so BORING!  But when Ben suggested I drink 1/2 my body weight in ounces of water per day, I thought, hmm how can I make this palatable?!

So I took out my ice cube trays, took a lemon, and cut it into little wedge-shaped slices. I squeezed 1 slice into each ice cube receptacle, then dropped the rest of the lemon in.  I added 1 leaf of mint per ice cube, carefully poured water over each ice cube hole, and froze it.

Cool Citrusy h20

It came out with beautifully clean and fresh looking ice cubes- with a lemon slice and mint eventually melting to float in your glass !

This method can be done with lime, cucumbers (hear me out, it’s EXCELLENT!), fruit like berries or melon, and kids love it, too!

P.S. To people who feel the need to send hate mail or post comments because I have the audacity to sometimes use pictures taken with my cell phone rather than my camera: I figure a fuzzy picture is better than no picture.  If I’m at a place where my camera isn’t readily available, or my camera batteries die, I’m going to use my cell phone.  And, if you don’t like it, don’t look : )

First up, you take 3/4 tsp Cayenne, 6 “shakes” of red pepper flakes, 2 tsp. of big, crunchy sea-salts, and 1/2 tsp. of Oregano.  I put this in a bowl, and stuck it in the microwave for 1 1/2 minutes, till they became aromatic. 

Spices

NOTE: DON’T sniff the red pepper/cayenne mixture when it comes out of the microwave.  Not that I know this from personal experience…ahem, NEXT! 

I took a 10 oz bag of frozen edamame (I used the bean, not the entire pod, but you can certainly use those if you prefer) and, in a separate bowl, I microwaved that till all the edamame was bright, vibrant green and hot.  Next, I strained the liquid from the edamame, and while hot, tosses the beans into the spices.  They’ll look like this:

Spiced Edamame

EXCELLENT protein and fibrous carbohydrate source!  And with the herbs and spices-delicious!!!  Guys this took me less then FIVE MINUTES TO PREPARE.

Perfect snack hot or cold, or on the go!

Congratulations to Hallie, and thanks to everyone for the signup!

(Special thanks to Joyce, my official “draw-the-name-from-this-box” winner picker!!)

So tonight I did a quick roasted asparagus- in my microwave.  I rinsed 1 bunch of asparagus, cut the ends diagonally off the bottom, then again to make the spears 1/2 the original size.  Drizzled with olive oil and salt and fresh ground pepper in a microwave safe dish, and microwaved for 6-10 minutes.  Depends on the size/thickness of the asparagus (or whatever the veggie is), and how much of it you have.  When the tips look..I would call it “shriveled” (roasting brings upon loss of moisture, causing the “shriveled” look), and the stalks are tender, you’re good to go!

Here’s what I ended up with:

"Roasted" Asparagus

YUM!

SUPER fast, super delicious, and gives all the look and taste of a roasted veggie without the house unbearably hot OR the hour wait for your vegetables to be done.  Not much better than that! 

P.S. This is super good with my Dijon Slammin’ Salmon!

I just diced 1/2 a burpless cucumber (a good-sized one), 1/4 red onion, diced small, just over 1/2 of a fresh pineapple, diced small, juice from half a lime, some fresh parsley snipped, and fresh ground black pepper and sea salt to taste.  Mix together and enjoy!

Pineapple Cucumber Salsa

This is so incredibly delicious!!!  Looks beautiful, doesn’t it?  Serving this salsa atop some white fish like tilapia, or on my FAVORITE Seared Scallops or  Ginger Lime Salmon, makes for a perfect, supportive meal.

Today, I attempted, and succeeded at, recreating a similar bar.

I took 1 cup of almonds, 3/4 of a cup of dried, unsweetened cherries, juice of 1/2 an orange 1/3 c of chocolate protein powder (Prograde), 1/4 cup of coconut flakes (unsweetened), and a tablespoon of orange zest (you can omit the orange zest if you’d like- it makes it quite orangey) and whisked them around in the food processor till processed.

Process

Proccessed

Line  a bread pan in waxed paper, and press it in:

Pressing the mixure into a pan

Once you get the shape, remove from the pan, slice into bars, and ENJOY!!

Chocolate Cherry Coconut Bars

WIN ME!

If you want it, it’s so easy!

Simply click here to sign up for the newsletter.  That’s it!  You’ll be entered automatically into a random drawing to win this bottle.

Already a leanKitchen newsletter subscriber, but still wanna win??

Shoot me an e-mail at nedah@leanKitchen.com .  If you win, I’ll contact you so you can give me your shipping address.  It’s that easy!

Best of luck!

(The drawing will be held Tuesday, March 9, 2009.  The lucky winner will be notified within 24 hours.)