I have survived the first week of my kids going back to school. It was a doozy, with school, emotions, volleyball tryouts, guitar lessons, golf, and now I’m tired. I told my youngest this morning, “it’s the last day of school.” She said, “no mom, it’s just Friday.” I love that kid.
Life gets really crazy with kids and it’s kind of easy to lose control of your own life, when you’re working, cleaning, cooking, and driving everyone around. I think we should all put at least an hour on our calendar of personal time per week and commit to it. Get the massage or take an hour at your favorite coffee shop. It doesn’t have to cost money, even a walk by yourself or with a friend is really healing.
Remember if we don’t take care of ourselves and our mental health, we won’t show up as good for our family.
This week was all about developing quick and easy recipes, that are still packed with flavor. To be honest, that’s generally what you’ll get from me…it’s kind of my thing, especially in this busy season of my life.
I’ve been growing basil in the garden and it’s been pretty untouched this season, so I wanted to incorporate that into a recipe.
While, I do love pesto and eggs together, I have two separate recipes and let’s talk pesto first.
Pesto Sauce
This homemade pesto sauce only takes 10 minutes to make and it’s so good. I always use the largest garlic clove I can find, for a nice bite (or you can use two). One thing great about this one, is you can double or triple the recipe and use it for quick dinners during the week, or even on eggs, or pizzas. It stays good in a sealed container for a week in the fridge.
Creamy Pesto Pasta
This week I used my homemade pesto sauce for this Creamy pesto pasta. You can also use store-bought, if you need to save time in this recipe. Heavy Cream and lots of parmesan cheese meet Pesto for a match made in heaven. It sounds heavy, but it’s actually a lot lighter than your typical Alfredo sauce, which contains a lot of butter.
Cooking Tip
Do you save your pasta water? I started using this technique a few years ago and it has completely changed my cooking game. Just ladle out about a cup of boiling water from the pasta into a bowl. Make sure the pasta is almost finished cooking to get the most starchy water, and set it aside.
Adding a few tablespoons of pasta water to a sauce, like the creamy pesto sauce above, can take it from a chunky texture to smooth and velvety. Try it next time you cook pasta sauce and watch the difference!
The Video
The Trending Feta Eggs
So, I’m not one to jump on Tiktok trends and I don’t love fried eggs, but when someone says feta cheese, I’m here for it.
I tested this recipe 3 times before I got it right and let me tell you, it’s super easy to burn feta. Those tiktok videos don’t tell you that. I had a pan sitting in the sink with dish soap in it for a full day before I could even start scrubbing. Make sure to read my expert tips in the recipe post and learn from my mistakes.
Once I got it right, I understood why it’s trending. The salty feta paired with eggs is so good. Plus, I topped it with lots of fresh ingredients, which makes it even better. You can also serve this on a flour tortilla.
That’s it for this week! I’m working on updating a bunch of content + new recipes for the Holidays and I can’t wait to share them with you.
Happy Cooking and talk to you next week.