Playing with Pesto and Sweet Scents

Are you planning your St. Patrick's Day menus? While certainly not Irish, Pesto is green. Over the next week I will post 5 ways to use the pesto left -over (planned over) from your pasta bar.

(I had planned on posting this yesterday was my computer was wacko (Very slow and disconnecting) Thank-you, honey for staying up until 12:30 and spending 4 hours to make it very fast again. 0X

I love Pesto. I didn't always. It was not something I grew up having in my home. I started using it as my kidults got older. Although higher in fat than a marinara sauce, it uses healthy fats. Pesto is usually made with fresh basil, but other leafy (spinach) vegetables can also be used. Pesto uses olive oil as it's liquid.

I buy Pesto in a jar at Sam's Club (or Costco) for under $7.00 I can get at least 3 meals from that-plus a pasta bar. If I am not going to Sam's, and I want Pesto, I keep envelopes of Knorr Pesto sauce in my pantry. This does not have the freshness of the jar, but it works well for all my pesto uses. It is like packaged gravy in that you make it yourself using 3/4 cup water and 1/4 cup olive oil. (I have made this just fine with 1/8 cup olive oil and 7/8 water.)

I love the flavour of the pizza recipe I am posting today. This recipe came from Melanie Quinney, Lindsay's SIL. It is so easy.

Pesto Pizza

from Melanie Quinney

pizza crust (I will tell you what I used)

1/3 cup pesto

1/3 cup sour cream (I use light)

cooked chicken-shredded (Shredded is my preference. Do what you want. I used a rotisserie chicken from Sam's-and will get 2 or 3 more meals from it.)

grilled vegetables of choice (I used onion and tomatoes)

Cheese of choice (I used fresh mozzarella)

O.K. First the crust-I first saw this flat bread recipe on "Studio 5". It was shared by http://www.realmomkitchen.com/ . (You can see her original on 2 November, 2009)

Flat Bread Pizza Crust

recipe from http://www.realmomkitchen.com/

Use 1 tube of large size refrigerator biscuits (I used Pillsbury Grands Flaky) - Shape with you hands to a 6 in circle. I shaped it and then set it on a plate to rest while I did the next 1 or 2. Then I returned to stretch it a bit more. Get the whole 6 inches so your thickness will be right. Then...

Put in a dry skillet heated to medium on the stove top. (Yep, no oil :) Cook about 60 sec. per side. Since I turned the oven on for the pizza, I also cooked some in the oven and the results were the same. I used parchment paper on my cookie sheet, and baked them at #50* for 7 mins. I turned them over and baked for 2 more mins.

Results- First of all, instant pizza bases. These can also be made ahead of time. (They will be a bit less tender when done this way, but very convenient.) Mark prefers this to pita bread/english muffins.

Now for the pizza sauce (I think this is taking me much longer to type (I use 1 finger) that it did to make.

Just mix the pesto and sour cream. How easy is that? I have seen a lot of pesto pizza sauces, but never this easy and yummy one.

I grill my veggies in a skillet with just a bit of olive oil, onions first. Then you toss in the drained tomatoes. In the summer we do it on the grill, and cook the pizzas out there, too. (On foil or in an aluminum trow-away pan with holes poked.)

To assemble I put the veggies first, then the shredded chicken and then cheese. Mark was the only kidult here for dinner (Emily was sick.) and he does not eat sour cream, tomatoes or onions. He put BBQ sauce (Sweet Baby Ray's) on his crust, then chicken and cheese. He loved it.

WELCOME NEW FOLLOWERS Its So Very Cheri and raulai

Thank-you for playing. I really appreciate all of my followers and love the comments. Thank-you.

Three more new followers and I will draw for a basket of my favourite things.. Today I am adding to the basket. Today I am adding "scents". I love scents. I use sprays, candles, Scentsys, incense (which all of my kidults hate)... I am putting in a can of my favourite OUST - "clean scent", and 2 Scentsy car candles. Lemon Lavender and Nutmeg Orange.