Pesto - Raw Food you may already eat

Yesterday was Meatless Monday, and I guess today is Italiano Tuesday.

I love pesto. Did you know it is often made raw, and can be made with any number of ingredients? I first fell in love with pesto as a child, but didn't know what was in it. Later, I started asking restaurants where I found it particularly delicious, what is in this stuff? And soon I realized it can be as simple as 3 little ingredients, olive oil, nuts, and basil. It can also have cheese in it like Parmigiana or Romano, but I don't think cheese would qualify as raw. I'll have to look that up. Anyway, I left it out of this recipe, as I figured it's easier to just shake some on and know the measurements since I keep track of exactly what I eat on at least 3 days a week. If you choose to add cheese, I'd add about 1/2 an ounce, taste, and see if you want more.

Today I made some with Thai Basil from my neighbor's garden, (Thanks Amy!) and some pistachios that needed to be used up. We have a tiny food processor, so here's the slightly more complex recipe I used:

Ingredients:
1 cup of Thai basil (just the leaves, flowers and stems excluded) 

1/2 cup of green pistachios

3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1 tablespoon Spicy Pasta Olive Oil 

The Spicy Olive Oil is a seasoned oil from The Dipping Well, a locally owned store that just opened down the street from us near 26th Ave and Baseline I believe. It basically has roasted peppers, basil, and sea salt infusing the oil, so you could add the above to some olive oil if you're not in the Phoenix, AZ area.

Instructions:

Pulse a bit to begin mixing, adding olive oil between pulses, and then using a spatula, push ingredients down and pulse until it is the consistency you want. You may need to push it down a few times to get all the leaves and nuts well chopped and blended. I chose to use less olive oil than most recipes I've found, because I am watching my weight and pesto is a high fat food. All good fats, but still, something to be aware of. 

For lunch I had some on flaked salmon with wilted spinach and arugula and a pear. BtW, we got some amazing pears from a neighbor recently. DELICIOUS! If I had my aquaponics system up and running, I could have had everything grown at home or from neighbors. But we canned some of those pears, and today I gave a can to the wonderful lady who gives me as much basil as my heart desires. Why spend money on food, when you can share your excess with neighbors! I call it being neighborly, but I suppose in a way, it's a form of Freeganism. I am not freegan myself, but I try to incorporate as many sustainable practices in my life as I can. Step by step, I've been learning and adding more. 

Who knew Thai Basil would be so good in pesto! It has a more floral scent and taste than Italian Basil, but is very good. Everyone who has tried it today has enjoyed it. And I didn't end up putting any cheese on my meal, which means I can have some on my chicken spaghetti later for dinner. Hooray! 

Market on the Move - Rescuing food that would be lost

Today I am roasting and preserving peppers that I got from Market on the Move (also called MoM) check out their link for one near you: https://www.the3000club.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=57&Itemid=59

MoM rescues food that is left at the border and not allowed to cross. For 10 dollars they'll give you a box of up to 60 pounds of food. Basically they give you one large or 2 small boxes to fill up, and then you can eat it, preserve it, or share it with friends and neighbors. I'm thinking about hosting one in our neighborhood cuz they're usually not around here. In a way it's Freeganism. It's food that is not going bad but which for some strange political reason is being abandoned, and the great part is that anyone who wants to pitch in a few bucks can get some. Sometimes friends partner up so it's only 5 bucks each for 30 pounds of produce each. Or you can join their club for 100 dollars which puts you on an email list to tell you when and where to meet up, and you get a box every time they come around instead of pitching in 10 bucks every time which actually adds up to more. Either way, it seems like there is a way almost anyone could benefit from this.

I partnered up with zenjen and Ineda from This is HOW, and together we bought about 120 pounds to divvy up. I gave some of mine to some neighbors of theirs down the street to build comradery and had a great talk with them. The rest I took home. Some of it I didn't preserve soon enough so ended up in our compost but most of it we ate in salads and various healthy and delicious meals like eggplant and zucchini lasanga. I used the roasted peppers in a salad dressing of roasted peppers in olive oil mixed with a pear balsamic. Smokey and DELICIOUS!

Patch hates eggplants and zucchini, so some of the eggplant did go bad. I wasn't sure how to preserve it and didn't look up how in time. But next time I get my hands on eggplant I'll know what to do and handle it better. Still, what we did eat was delicious. The last of the zucchini I have plans for. I'm going to ask Carlie to make some of this delicious looking zucchini risotto I found on All Recipes http://allrecipes.com/recipe/zucchini-risotto/ and the rest of it will be made into little zucchini bread muffins which will be given to neighbors, frozen for later, or gobbled up by Carlie and I pretty quickly I'm guessing!

We didn't go to MoM yesterday to resupply, so I'm going to have to be creative to afford the fruits and veggies we eat this week. We've been trying to eat more produce in general, and organic whenever possible. But there are some farmers markets open around here today I believe, so we may make a trip over there for some fun fresh ingredients. Farmers markets and growing our own vegetables are the way to get the best fresh, flavorful, organic produce, but Market on the Move is best for the budget. Between the 3 methods, we've been getting along well.

Right now the peppers are done roasting and they smell delicious. I'm waiting for them to cool off and then I'll put on some gloves and slice them open (not sure how hot they are, but my hands were burning a little just from rubbing oil on them so I am guessing they're pretty high up on the scoefield scale. If you haven't roasted peppers before, it's really easy!

Preheat your oven to 500F, Wash the peppers off to get any pesticides off or if you grew them organically just a good rinsing to make sure the dirt is all off, rub 2 teaspoons of oil on them, Lay them out on a baking tray, place the baking tray in the oven and keep and eye on them. I found it took about 5 minutes each side. They puffed up really nice in the oven, and they smell so good our mouths are watering! Maybe we'll put some in the salad dressing for tonight

Do not use olive oil it has too low of a burn point and will get really smokey. I forgot that info this time and phew! I'm glad the smoke alarm didn't go off when I opened the oven. It does smell delicious tho, and they still roasted so if you don't have another oil handy I guess it works in a pinch. Next time I'm going to try peanut or walnut oil cuz we have those and I bet it would be delicious. Only down side to peanut oil is you can't give them away to people with allergies, but no one in our house has such allergies so we'd be OK.

I think we'll use market on the move again even tho it's a good bet none of the produce is organic. It just helps spread the money further and I guess it's better to eat non organic produce than none at all! If you have any tips or tricks for rescuing food that would otherwise be lost, please comment below!