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homegrown basil
August 24, 2020

Basil Mania

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Our massive basil plant has officially been put to good use! 

Matt, Riese, and I picked most of it one night last week:

homegrown basil

And then I turned it into pesto! 

I used this recipe for Spinach Basil Pesto which worked out well because I realized I had everything except for the pine nuts that are usually in pesto – thankfully that recipe doesn’t call for any! And we had some spinach to use so I like that it included that, too. I added extra lemon but otherwise followed the recipe and it came out delish.

I decided to use the pesto for my Pesto Baked Salmon, so I defrosted some salmon and threw it in the oven while Matt and Riese worked on corn to have as a side. Riese loves shucking corn. 🙂

toddler shucking corn

We followed the method that Matt’s dad used to grill corn for us a couple weeks ago at their house – we removed the silk (and put it into our compost bin, which is really thriving – we’ve been using the soil on our flower beds!) and left the stalks on but tied them up with some twine. 

The stalks are just there to use as a handle basically! 

cooking corn on the grill

The corn was basted with butter every few minutes and rotated around until it was lightly browned. We ate half of the corn and sliced the other half off the cob and froze it for later because there was way too much for us to eat all at once!

cooking corn on the grill

All together now! Plus some sweet potato – I used my how to microwave a sweet potato method to keep that super easy, and after I sliced them I kept it simple and just put some butter on top.

It was a nice and fresh summery meal!

pesto salmon with grilled corn and sweet potato

To make use of the extra pesto, the next morning Riese helped me throw together a big pesto pasta salad for us to eat on for lunches during the week.

I used some canned white beans, canned olives, canned artichoke hearts, and fresh cucumber, plus pasta and the pesto. 

ingredients for pesto pasta salad

It came out delicious! We still have a little leftover so I’m going to finish it off early this week. I’ll mix it up and add some chicken and mozzarella to the mix, too! 

pesto pasta salad

We still have a little pesto leftover so it got frozen – I just put it in a ziplock bag and flattened it out so it would defrost quickly. We don’t have any ice cube trays or else I would have frozen it in ice cube trays!

Other yumminess highlights from the past week included a dinner out with Matt and Riese at Front Porch in Del Ray – they created a really awesome outdoor dining area by taking over their back parking lot, and you order via your phone. It’s a nice set up! 

Riese doesn’t really remember how to sit still/eat at a restaurant anymore so we had to deploy our phones a bit, but it was still fun. I had the burger + fries – love their burgers. 

burger and fries at back porch del ray

My brother and his wife were in town visiting this weekend which was fun – I got out for a run date with my brother and it was really nice to have some time to catch up just the two of us! 

running with my brother

Steve and his wife Roxanne are expecting their first child around Halloween – we are so excited for them! And Riese is pumped for another cousin. 🙂 

Steve and I ran mid-morning on Sunday and it was really hot and humid and the route was basically all uphill, but I actually felt pretty good since we kept the pace casual. 

running watch picture

Post-run and post-shower brunch with the fam – my eyes were bigger than my stomach so I ended up just having the fruit and the bagel with cream cheese, smoked salmon, egg, and capers and saving the egg and sausage bake for later. 

brunch - smoked salmon, cream cheese, bagel and fruit

We had a yummy brunch on Saturday, too, with my brother and his wife and our mutual friends that live in the area. 

egg casserole with fruit bacon and blueberry casserole

The last food highlight of the weekend was hitting up the farmers’ market on Saturday morning! We hadn’t been in a really long time – it was nice to go back.

I got cantaloupe, a mini watermelon (cute, right?), red pepper, zucchini, pickled beets, and two juicy tomatoes that I’m going to use to make caprese salads with the rest of our basil. 

veggies from the farmer's market

I will leave you with a photo of Zara guarding the basement door – the big excitement this weekend was that Zara caught a mouse (eek!!) in our basement and ever since she’s been quite vigilant keeping an eye on this door that leads to our storage/crawl space area.

I’m hoping it was a one time thing, but we got some catch and release traps set up too just in case!

cat watching basement door

I’m so glad you guys found my Recent Fiction Books I’ve Read post interesting on Friday! I’ll see you back here on Wednesday with a new recipe post.

Until then, I hope you all have a nice Monday!

What’s the best thing you ate this weekend?

Would you rather run in the heat or the freezing cold? I’d definitely take cold – not a hot weather runner at all! 

- anne
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7 comments
  • Ana August 24, 2020 · 12:17PM:
    Cold weather every time! You can always layer up. And Zara must be feeling quite pleased with herself, hah!
    Reply
    • Anne
      August 24, 2020 · 1:52PM:
      Haha she was!
      Reply
  • Nancy August 24, 2020 · 1:41PM:
    You don't need an ice cube tray to freeze pesto cubes - I just use a small scoop and scoop balls onto a piece of wax paper on a tray in the freezer. Once they are frozen, just pile them into a freezer ziplock bag then you can pull out as many as you need to defrost and use. I discovered this method after messing with trying to get them neatly into an ice cube tray - much easier!
    Reply
    • Anne
      August 24, 2020 · 1:52PM:
      That's a good idea, thanks!
      Reply
  • Lisa of Lisa's Yarns
    August 24, 2020 · 4:05PM:
    My basil plant has not done very well. :( I planted it in the pot that our Christmas/winter greenery was planted in but didn't change out the soil. I'm thinking the pine branches that were in that pot made the soil too acidic or something for herbs to grow. Oh well - lesson learned! Pesto is such a great way to use up basil! My other favorite way to use basil is to wrap it around chicken breasts, then wrap prosccuitto around that and bake or grill it. It's sooooo good! I was just talking about running in the cold v heater when I got a prenatal chiro adjustment today. I would rather run in cold weather than hot/humid but not if it's below 0. Anything below 0 (which is weather we have a lot here in the winter in MN) is just too awful to run in. There are people in my old run club who would run even if it was -30. Hard pass on that. I did run in subzero windchills a couple of times and it was so horrible I vowed to never do it again! Way to go Zara! I am paranoid about our cat doing this as we found a dead mouse before we moved into our new house. But we didn't see any signs of a mouse since then. Our cat has been on loan to my MIL since mid-Feb, though! We took her out there before a FL trip as my MIL always cat sits for us (our cat does not like to be around and my MIL loves her). And then covid hit and we decided to leave her out there until the fall to give my MIL some company. She's a widow and covid has been hard on her, so Oscar is kind of her therapy animal. ;) I'm looking forward to having her back, but then she's go back out to grandma's around Thanksgiving in preparation for our 2nd baby's arrival. She was so stressed when we brought Paul home so it's just best if she goes to my MIL's for those early weeks when we are all adjusting!
    Reply
    • Anne
      August 24, 2020 · 4:12PM:
      I would hard pass on -30 degree running too, that's seriously hardcore!!
      Reply
  • Roadrunner August 25, 2020 · 9:30PM:
    Running in the cold, vice heat/humidity, definitely! And nice to see your outings and activities, especially the help from your sous chef with shucking corn and making the salad! Enjoy the final weeks of summer!
    Reply
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anne mauney fannetastic food
Hi, I’m Anne! I'm a Washington D.C. based Registered Dietitian, mother, runner, and lover of travel, adventure, and the great outdoors. I've been blogging since 2009, sharing a mix of lifestyle content, recipes, and fitness tips. Come for the recipes – stay for the fun!
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anne mauney

I’m Anne, a Registered Dietitian and mother. I've been blogging since 2009 and love showing others that eating nutritious foods and staying active can actually be fun rather than overwhelming!

When I’m not writing or cooking for fannetastic food, you can find me running, coaching nutrition clients, or on an adventure with my family. Feel free to reach out - I'd love to hear from you!

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