70. Make 10 meals in the Crockpot.

Ok, so maybe this doesn't count as a "meal" per se, but I was super excited to find out I could make yummy chicken stock right from my crockpot!

I used Gina's method and it worked perfectly!  8 hours later, I had the best homemade stock and some shredded chicken I used to make homemade enchiladas.

Before.

After.

Plus it made the apartment smell heavenly.  Kinda like those days where it's all snowy outside and you can curl up and read a book all day...just like that.

71. Make 80 new recipes.

With the leftover basil from my tomato bruschetta - I decided to make homemade pesto.

First - I should let you know two things. 

1. I have not gone food shopping for about 2 months and had to shop at the little grocery store around the corner from our apartment.

2. That place is mad expensive.

Because of this, I had to tweek the traditional pesto recipe slightly.  I bought and used walnuts instead of pine nuts.  (I was not about to spend $9 for 3 ounces of pine nuts.)

After that everything was pretty much the same.

Next time, I am going to toast the walnuts before adding them to the processor.  I like the smokey-ness it brings out.  I am also going to use a sharper Parmesan cheese.  The cheese I had was a bit milder than I would have liked. 

Sorry for the lack of pictures - I was too hungry!

I served it over whole wheat penne with extra Parmesan on the top - yum!

71. Make 80 new recipes.

With the official start of summer - I decided to take on the challenge of making one of J's favorite foods - Tomato Bruschetta.

I always crack up because J HATES tomatoes yet gobbles up bruschetta like they are the last food on earth.

But I digress...

I couldn't find a recipe which I liked and which included all the foods I already had at home- so I modified a few. I used:

3 large tomatoes
1 cup chopped basil
1/2 a large onion
3 cloves minced garlic
4 tbs Olive Oil
1 1/2 tbs Balsamic Vinegar
8-9 1 inch thick pieces of French Baguette (toasted)
Salt and Pepper

I combined all the ingredients (minus the bread!) and let them set in a bowl for about 30 minutes to let their flavors meld. I topped the toasted pieces of bread with this - and we were ready to ring in summer. J gave it two thumbs up!

The only thing I would change is the amount of olive oil and balsamic vinegar - I used way too much of both.  I ended up having to staring the mixture out of the liquid at the end. no bueno.

88. Go fruit picking and make a recipe from the fruit picked.

Over Memorial day Weekend - J and I were in PA visiting family.  While there, we picked an abundant amount of very ripe raspberries from J's Dad's bushes. 

Admittedly, more raspberries would have made it into our baskets had the sweet summer taste not gotten the best of us.  When we returned home - I knew we would need to use the berries ASAP, because there is nothing I hate more than wasted produce (and alligators...but that's a whole different story).

I adapted a favorite summer recipe of my mom's and substituted in strawberries for raspberries.

1 1/4 cup water

3/4 cup sugar

2 tbs. cornstarch

1 3oz. pack raspberry Jello

1 pre-made graham cracker crust

1 1/2 cups of berries

Cook the water, sugar, and cornstarch in a pan until it turns thick.  Take the pan off heat and add the mixture to a bowl.  Add the jello and stir to dissolve.  Add the raspberries and put the bowl in the fridge.  When the jello starts to firm, remove the bowl from the fridge and pour the mixture into the pre-made pie crust. Place in fridge for a few hours or overnight to firm up.  Serve with whipped cream.

Unfortunately - I forgot to pick up a pre-made crust - so the homemade route needed to suffice. Luckily, between finding a recipe on the Internet and the leftover butter and sugar I had - this was no biggie.

Grinding up the crackers!

Ready to combo for the crust action!

Baked and ready for some berries!

After adding the cooled berry mixture and refrigerating overnight -

Perfection!

I can't wait to try this recipe again with peaches peach jello!  If you don't forget the pre-made crust - it's the perfect no bake summer dish!

Mmm raspberry close up!