Easy Avocado Pesto

My phone tracks all the steps I take. I go out of my way to make sure I get near if not, very much over, 10,000 steps per day. I cannot say if this is me wanting to be healthy, or if I am just severely, minor OCD. Either way, I take a lot of steps. If i don't take a lot of steps, I go for long bike rides. I love it. I love fresh air, I love the speedy racing heart, I love feeling that fresh sweat drip down your back or forehead. That being said, I love this so much I rarely ever take a day off. This morning my phone sent me a reminder - "It is very important to allow your body to rest. Give yourself some time off." *GULPS* Like for real though? Inner me thinks. I only went on a 10 mile bike ride YESTERDAY MORNING so now I am feeling like I have already had 5 days off because that was YESTERDAY MORNING. It was also my husbands "Sunday" (mid-week weekends, weird, I know) he agreed with my phone. So, here it is my day off. 

I went to a vegan cafe a few weeks ago and got their "pesto pasta". The description of the dish sounded amazing, mung bean noodles, sauteed oyster mushrooms, zucchini noodles, cashew Parmesan "cheese", with pesto laying on a bed of spinach. Yum! Right? Don't get me wrong, the dish was incredibly delicious, but, it was about 85% zoodles, 5 tiny mushrooms on top, a little tiny speck of pesto and a few noodles. Delicious, but after the meal I was not satisfied and probably could have ate a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and chips and hummus. But, due to this experience, I got this burning desire for more pesto! 

Today we got a brand new blender, I would tell you the story of our last one, but it might be long so lets just sum it up REAL QUICK - sale, bought, first smoothie - amazing - second smoothie - smoke blowing everywhere, moral of the story we spend $55 - $60 on one DELICIOUS smoothie - Sad deal. Anyway, we got a new one today! Yay! Went with the ninja and a 2 year guarantee! WOOHOO! So, here we are pesto desires and a brand new blender, I decided I was going to make a large pasta bowl, that would be so filling (so filling I could only eat half!) and delicious with an incredible AVOCADO PESTO! YUM! It doesn't get better. 

(Quick side note, I try not to do this often. These story spills, so I apologize, was going to say in advance, but what I really mean here is after the fact! I hate when I open a pinterest recipe and have to scroll for an hour to get to the recipe I clicked the damn link for. So sorry everyone! This recipe just has a lot of back story as to why I justified putting 1/2 cup of olive oil in something, and I ate it and I enjoyed it, and it is my day off and I will still love myself. Okay, thanks and goodbye. P.S. this recipe is bomb on spaghetti. You need it in your life for a cheat day.)

Here it is: Avocado pesto, enjoy on a yummy grilled or fresh veggie sandwich, to dress and delicious salad, on a baked cauliflower steak, with mushrooms, with mushrooms and whole wheat pasta on a bed of fresh spinach (descriptive, yet accurate, this is what I had). 

Ingredients:

• 2 ripe avocados
• 3 cloves garlic
• 1 large bunch of fresh basil
• 3/4 cup (baking) walnuts
• 1 teaspoon of salt/sea salt
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• ground pepper to taste

If your anything like me, you are going to need a bunch of mushrooms to saute and whole wheat spaghetti to be boiling while you prepare all these ingredients in the blender. 

What you do:

• Combine all ingredients in blender, pulse at first, then blend until smooth.