Summer Nights

Because I was feeling so good and went to the store, I decided to make a healthy “real food” dinner for Emma and I last night. Al fresh ingredients, nothing from a box or premixed.

I started with Farfalle with Mushrooms & Spinach. Super easy and very tasty. A bonus was that as I was finishing it Emma looked over to the pan and said that it was very pretty and looked good. The only modifications I made to the recipe was that I didn’t have any onions (we had about 6 huge onions in the pantry a week ago but I guess Steve found a use for all of them after all.) and I added a few chopped up sundried tomatoes for added flavor and color. I think this would make a nice lunch entrée or light dinner on its own if I added some grilled chicken breast strips.

For a main dish I made Baked Pesto Chicken.

Also super easy and really delicious. Next time I make this I may just make rice or egg noodles as a side dish and use the pesto-y juice as a sauce.

We rounded out our healthy summer meal with a helping from the HUGE bowl of fruit salad I had cut up earlier in the day. I also had a carton of big juicy blackberries but Em and I munched on those while I was cooking and there aren’t a lot of them left now.

A bonus to this is that I now have just enough leftovers to take to work with me today for lunch. I may cut up some of the chicken and toss it in with the pasta for a salad and take a small container of fruit for a sweet treat  instead of raiding the work candy bowl. (Who am I kidding, we have Snickers in there, I will be raiding it!)

I ended the night with a visit from my friends to watch the final audition round of So You Think You Can Dance and a pitcher of Beergaritas. I don’t use a published recipe for my Beergaritas so I’ll just tell you how I make them. It seems that everyone makes them a little different. I sometimes have to change up my recipe depending on what I have on hand. Last night I used this formula.

• 1 can (12 oz.) Frozen Limeade
• Fill can with Cuervo Gold Tequila
• 12 oz. 7up soda – the 7up I had was flat so I used Mountain Dew. Made it very sweet but yummy. I’ve also used Sprite, Ginger Ale or plain Club Soda.
• 1 beer – in my experience brand or style doesn’t really matter. Last night it was a Bud Light. Corona of course makes a great beergarita. I wouldn’t use any heavy beer like Guiness though.

Still everything together and add ice. If you are being all fancy you can get out the nice glasses and salt the rims and add a real lime. I will tell you that after a few of these many people do think they can dance so drink responsibly!