s5 restaurant

it's restaurant week right now in my county (if you're in the hoco area check out all the participating restaurants at the tourist website here). everything looks amazing, but on a college budget, those prices are far out of my range, so instead, i get to play w/ M&D's money and cook us all a meal worthy of a restaurant :)

i've had kale hanging around in my freezer since i don't know when. i try to grab a handful and throw it into my smoothies in the morning, but sometimes i don't want to be green with envy. it's still hot (but thankfully the storms last night brought some relief, the mid-80s feel downright comfortable!) so actually cooking was not something i was interested in. so that brings us to kale pesto!

i grabbed the recipe from sprouted kitchen and also nabbed her idea for the salad. i didn't even blanch the kale. i just let it defrost in my fridge and then zapped it in the microwave for about 15 seconds. i'm just getting that lazy! i toasted my walnuts in the mini convection we have and toss and serve. yum! i may prefer kale pesto over basil pesto, but i'd have to try them side by side (maybe it's the toasted walnut thing).

i wasn't sure how D would like the kale pesto. in his own words, "i don't like sauces" so i needed to find something else for the meal. grabbed some smoked salmon from costco and toasted some sliced ciabatta to have little salmon bites. welcome to the family restaurant. happy eating!