More food creations

I bought myself a present on Friday: a food processor! Super exciting (no sarcasm, I'm dead serious). I think my excitement over this purchase shows that I'm truly a grandma at heart, in case my early bedtimes didn't already do so. I have to brag about my shopping skills too: between a gift certificate and a sale, this $225 Cuisinart cost me a mere $8. Score!

The first first recipe that I was dying to try: Pesto sauce!

More specifically: broccoli rabe, basil and walnut pesto sauce. I've seen a lot of healthy pesto recipes out there that I've wanted to try but couldn't until now--specifically a great one on Mark's Daily Apple. He put his on cod, and I had cod that needed to be cooked. Perfect. I modified by adding the basil and extra lemon. Btw, the good thing about walnuts vs. other nuts is their high omega-3 content and the fact that they have the best ratio of omega-6:omega-3 of all nuts. (We want that ratio to be 2:1 or 4:1, but unfortunately for most it's 10:1 or worse.)

Pesto Recipe:
1 bunch broccoli rabe
couple hearty handfuls of fresh basil leaves
2 garlic cloves
3/4 cup walnuts
2/3 cup olive oil
juice of 1 large lemon
dash of salt
pepper

Directions:
Blanch the broccoli in boiling water for 3-5 min then strain. Add olive oil, garlic and walnuts to food processor and grind away, then add the broc, basil, lemon, s&p and grind until a smooth paste is formed. I ended up adding about 1/4 cup water because I didn't want my sauce so thick.
Finished product:The pesto went on this fish, cod sauteed in a little lemon juice and white wine. Oops, I forgot to take pic of it all together.... Food was too good :)
That pesto recipe makes a ton... Initially we had it as a topping on the cod and sitr-fry veggies. Since then, I've eaten some with nearly every meal. Goes great on scrambled eggs or as a salad dressing.

The next day I attempted the slicing mode to make "noodles" out of yellow squash and zucchini. The secret here is after slicing the veggies, you have to remove as much water from the squash/zucc as possible otherwise it turns mushy rather than noodle-like.

Speaking of noodles, my week ended with more than 13k of swimming and rowing. Unfortunately I didn't make it to the pool on Saturday... had personal stuff come up and yoga was all I could fit in before real life took over. But Sunday I got in ~3,000 yds as well as some aqua jogging. My arms were definitely fatigued, but my interval times weren't suffering (in my terms of what I normally can hit) so all good.

I really can't tell if I love or hate swimming right now. I usually hate the going-to-the-pool part. But I don't mind being in there and can stick to a full workout even when alone--no slacking. The best part is being done. Love that feeling. Usually it's either brekkie or lunch after swim, so even better.

Here's a post-swim salad I whipped up. I have a salad for lunch every day, and they're always slightly different. They consist of any veggies that are in our fridge, leftovers, a quality protein source and always a special twist. Sometimes the special twist is a sweet potato (on bigger workout days), but the twist on the salad below was kelp noodles. Mmm mmm seaweed is good.

I think all together this salad had spinach, chopped chicken breast, broccoli slaw, red cabbage, shredded carrots, radish, avocado, beets, fresh chopped cilantro, leftover sauteed bok choy, the kelp noodles and dressing of raspberry vinegarette/dijon mustard, lemon juice, a little salt, pepper and tumeric.