[Vegan MOFO] Mama Mia Monday - Pesto Salad

A few weeks back on a day trip to Sacramento I had an awesome pesto salad for lunch at The Plum. It was creamy, herby, tasty....really good! I thought to recreate it at home.

I wanted to make pesto - get this with a mortar and pestle, real old school. I could not find organic basil in a decent quantity around town, so instead of getting frustrated I moved on to plan B. Plan B consisted of buying Simply Organic's Sweet Basil Pesto, making the sauce following the packages instructions (adding nooch) and then letting it sit in the fridge till dinner time.

I spiral cut a bunch of zucchini, tossed it with some Tuscan kale + olive oil, added cherry tomatoes and the pesto sauce. For a nutty boost I added a nice sprinkle of pine nuts on top.  First off the Tuscan kale I bought from Trader Joe's was really rough and bitter. It just made the salad hard to eat. The pesto sauce was not pesto-y enough...At least we had garlic bread to save the meal! Again - I tried...

[Vegan MOFO Day 1] Mama Mia Monday - Zucchini Pasta

Family fact: My Grandma Cookies (that is what we called her due to her cookie jar) made my grandpa pasta everyday. Everyday it was some sort of pasta dish - I assume she switched it up. When we were over there I remember my grandma bringing a plate or bowl of pasta to my grandpa at the table.

Pasta holds a special place in my heart. First thing - I am a Sicilian girl - I love pasta, I have organs made of noodles, marinara blood and olive oil for life fluid in my brain! My mom - busy working mom would make pasta for us, not the way grandma did but using jar sauce, ground meat and a loaf of bakery bread...In high school when I went vegetarian she started making me my own little pot of sauce so I could eat it meat free. Sometimes there would be a salad on the side - with ranch dressing. I find the idea of ranch + tomato based Italian sauces so tasty when others think it is gross. Whatever! I made pasta for Matt and I about 2 years into our relationship, I bought quinoa pasta and made olive oil chocolate chip cookies for dessert. That night I discovered I am deathly allergic to quinoa and what a good guy Matt is, when he spent the night cleaning up my barf from the bedroom to the bathroom.

I do buy jars of sauces, doctor up loaves of bread from the store with a garlic-nooch-olive oil spread and do not eat pasta every day....BUT I make my own noodles - kind of...

Enter the spiralizer. After finding out Matt can tolerate zucchini this summer (it is green after all) I went zucchini crazy! My mom gave me an Amazon gift card for my birthday and I read reviews and watched videos and decided on getting the GEFU Spirelli Spiral Cutter. I liked the size, the design and the ease of it.

I wanted to get my zucchini pasta on in full force but knowing Matt I knew he would not dig that. So I have been doing 1/2 whole wheat pasta noodles and 1/2 spiralized zucchini. After draining the cooked pasta, I toss in the spiral zucchini and toss in the marinara sauce, so everything is at the same temperature.This is a good way to get greens into your pasta, cut down on wheat and/or try something new. People often think pasta dishes have to be heavy - you can lighten things up this way and still have all the great classic taste!