Taste the Rainbow!

A colorful plate is probably a healthy plate. This is my rule of thumb most nights at dinner. I try not to get stuck into a "brown meat/ white bread" color scheme. Having a variety of colors to choose from on your plate is the easiest way not to miss out on any of the major food.

Dinner last night: Shish-kabobs and corn! Colorful, easy and delicious!  

Now go eat a rainbow! 

Whole Wheat Spaghetti with Pesto and Citrus Corn Salad

Whole wheat pasta verse the regular stuff. Every once and awhile I choose the "healthier" whole wheat pasta. Whole wheat pasta is less processed and contains less glucose (lower glycemic index) therefore making it a bit of a healthier choice. Enough with the science junk- I'll be honest, I like that regular processed stuff I grew up on. My rule of thumb- enjoy what you're eating! So use regular if that's what your buds are craving! However it just so happened that whole-wheat pasta was on sale (and cheaper) at my local market- thus my choosing it.

Pesto! I learned how to make homemade pesto from my green thumb mother. In our back yard garden, I'd be sent down to the basil patch to pick as much fresh basil as possible.

From the repetition of this exercise,  I subconsciously memorized this simple recipe.

2 cups packed fresh basil leaves

• 2 cloves garlic
• 1/4 cup pine nuts (normally my back pocket chooses the inexpensive walnuts, but I splurged today)
• 2/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil, divided
• 1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
• salt and black pepper, to taste (tasting is the most fun part)

I grew up with a food processor in the kitchen, however in college, there are no such luxuries. Luckily my roommate owns a baby blender. I made do with that.

Simply putting all the ingredients into the blender worked just fine- as long as the olive oil goes in first.

Once everything was all blended to perfection, the salt and pepper was mixed in. Only thing left to do was wait for the pasta to boil.

In the mean time a side citrus corn salad was thrown together.  

• 2 avocados, cut into cubes (or the closest shape to that) 
• 1 can of corn
• 3 medium tomatoes, diced
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/8 cup dried cilantro
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 All ingredients were thrown into a large bowl and gently mixed together.  

It feels a little incomplete to give only one sentence of instructions for a recipe, but I like simple stuff, and it doesn't get much easier than this. 

My second favorite part of this meal is it makes fantastic leftovers (cold)!

Especially when you have it for lunch in the middle of the flooded creek path. (Yep hasn't stopped raining since the Linguine and Clams!) 

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Happy Fourth of July!

Never lock your brain into recipe mode. I reserve the right to change any of my recipe on a moments notice! And that includes adding food coloring to waffle batter to make patriotic flag waffles with my roommates for the Fourth of July!

I topped my flag of with vanilla yogurt and coconut

to make white stripes! (runner's syrup)

All we did was simple designate three bowls of waffle batter to the colors red, white (plain) and blue. Then we poured into the appropriate  places on the waffle press. And vuala, the American flag!