The easiest, yummiest way to eat your greens.

Have you heard of pesto?

If not, you're in for a treat!

Pesto is an italian sauce made from blending basil leaves with garlic, olive oil, pine nuts and parmesan cheese.

It's seriously so easy, you just plop the ingredients in a blender/food processor and mix until combined. That's it!

It's a great alternative to red sauce on pasta and pizza and kids usually LOVE it, despite it's Green-ness. Here's my 2 year old eating it by the spoonful!

Pesto is a kid favorite!

My favorite summer meal = pesto spread on baguette slices topped with garden fresh tomatoes.

Pesto Bread! Baguette slices, topped with fresh tomatoes and fresh mozzarella cheese.

Basil is high in antioxidants and phytonutrients that help prevent chronic diseases (like cancer, heart disease, etc). It's basically like eating spinach, but with more flavor!

You can use any type of nut in pesto. I tend to use inexpensive almonds.

While traditional pesto is made from basil and pine nuts, this can get expensive. Here's what I use to make it more affordable:

• broccoli, spinach or parsley for some of the basil

• canola oil instead of olive oil

• almonds or sunflower seeds instead of pine nuts (pine nuts are so expensive)

• parmesan cheese is essential, but you can use nutritional yeast if you can't have dairy

• NEVER use dried basil, it just doesn't work.

Next time you are at the farmer's market, pick up some basil for pesto. I've never met a person who doesn't love my pesto bread (pesto sauce, spread on a baguette and topped with tomato).

farmers market basil!

Here are my 3 favorite recipes for pesto.

Basic Pesto Recipe:

https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/2653-basil-pesto

New York Times basic basil pesto recipe - I sometimes use almonds and canola oil to save $$

Spinach and sunflower seed pesto recipe:

https://www.budgetbytes.com/budget-friendly-pesto/

Budget Bytes Pesto

Broccoli Pesto Recipe

https://www.mjandhungryman.com/nut-free-broccoli-white-bean-pesto/

MJ and Hungryman Broccoli Pesto Pasta

Enjoy your pesto making!

Let me know if you try it!