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An Overabundance
by Guest Writer, Valerie WhitmoreI've clearly been over-shopping lately. I don't mean spending money on too many shoes (although SOME people might argue I do that as well). I'm talking about groceries
When I do our testing menus each week I make a list of the ingredients I need for the entire list. I remove anything from the list that I know we already have in stock. But sometimes I forget, or I miss something, and we end up with more than we need of a certain ingredient. And looking at CDKitchen's pantry, it looks like I've been pretty bad about this lately.
So this week I decided I had better go back through our inventory and try to use up a few things. One of the ingredients that we had an overabundance of was jarred roasted red peppers. Like, 6 jars. How we ended up with that many jars is beyond me. Once in a while we don't get to a recipe or buy a wrong ingredient - but 6 jars worth of oopsies
Anyway, I set out to include recipes in our testing menu that used these roasted peppers. One of the recipes was used at our Halloween tasting party which you'll see in an upcoming post. Another is a recipe for red pepper hummus which we'll get to later this week. And this recipe: Red Pepper Pesto Sirloin and Pasta.
We don't eat a lot of pasta. Actually, we don't have very carb-laden meals in general. When we do eat pasta I try to use a healthier version like whole wheat or the (supposedly) lower carb products from Dreamfields (I like the texture of this brand better than whole wheat but I'm dubious about their low carb claims).
I made the pesto earlier in the day so I wouldn't be rushed later on. I put the ingredients in my mini-Cuisinart food processor. I really like this thing. It feels kinda cheaply made - unlike the full-sized Cuisinarts - but it's so easy to clean and does a great job for small tasks like this. The only downside is that it doesn't have the tube to add ingredients while it's processing. So for the pesto I had to stop and start while adding the oil but the texture turned out just fine.
The end result was delicious. I had to remind myself that there was a half cup of olive oil in it and taste-testing repeatedly may be damaging to my waistline. Oh, and we needed some for the recipe. Of course.
I didn't grill the steak. Instead I cooked it on a cast iron skillet - which lately has become my favorite way to cook steak. It sears the outside nicely and I can really control the doneness. We like our steaks medium rare but they need to be warm, not cool, in the middle. I've pretty much perfected this with the skillet. I'm less talented with the outdoor grill but I'm working on it
The steak is sliced and the pasta is tossed with the pesto.
I forgot to put the remaining red peppers on for the photo. Oops.
Because the pasta is filling we had some leftovers. Well, not for long. Before bed I found myself digging in and eating more of the pasta. So good. In fact, aside from macaroni and cheese, this is probably my favorite pasta. Ever. Plus, I got to use up some of those roasted red peppers.
When I do our testing menus each week I make a list of the ingredients I need for the entire list. I remove anything from the list that I know we already have in stock. But sometimes I forget, or I miss something, and we end up with more than we need of a certain ingredient. And looking at CDKitchen's pantry, it looks like I've been pretty bad about this lately.
So this week I decided I had better go back through our inventory and try to use up a few things. One of the ingredients that we had an overabundance of was jarred roasted red peppers. Like, 6 jars. How we ended up with that many jars is beyond me. Once in a while we don't get to a recipe or buy a wrong ingredient - but 6 jars worth of oopsies
Anyway, I set out to include recipes in our testing menu that used these roasted peppers. One of the recipes was used at our Halloween tasting party which you'll see in an upcoming post. Another is a recipe for red pepper hummus which we'll get to later this week. And this recipe: Red Pepper Pesto Sirloin and Pasta.
We don't eat a lot of pasta. Actually, we don't have very carb-laden meals in general. When we do eat pasta I try to use a healthier version like whole wheat or the (supposedly) lower carb products from Dreamfields (I like the texture of this brand better than whole wheat but I'm dubious about their low carb claims).
I made the pesto earlier in the day so I wouldn't be rushed later on. I put the ingredients in my mini-Cuisinart food processor. I really like this thing. It feels kinda cheaply made - unlike the full-sized Cuisinarts - but it's so easy to clean and does a great job for small tasks like this. The only downside is that it doesn't have the tube to add ingredients while it's processing. So for the pesto I had to stop and start while adding the oil but the texture turned out just fine.
The end result was delicious. I had to remind myself that there was a half cup of olive oil in it and taste-testing repeatedly may be damaging to my waistline. Oh, and we needed some for the recipe. Of course.
I didn't grill the steak. Instead I cooked it on a cast iron skillet - which lately has become my favorite way to cook steak. It sears the outside nicely and I can really control the doneness. We like our steaks medium rare but they need to be warm, not cool, in the middle. I've pretty much perfected this with the skillet. I'm less talented with the outdoor grill but I'm working on it
The steak is sliced and the pasta is tossed with the pesto.
I forgot to put the remaining red peppers on for the photo. Oops.
Because the pasta is filling we had some leftovers. Well, not for long. Before bed I found myself digging in and eating more of the pasta. So good. In fact, aside from macaroni and cheese, this is probably my favorite pasta. Ever. Plus, I got to use up some of those roasted red peppers.