I love the Shutterbean Blog.  Lots of great recipes and, in addition, Tracy is a great photographer and her design sense is inspiring.  Recently I made a couple of her recipes….

Crispy Smashed Potatoes with arugula pesto were wonderfully crispy on the outside, tender on the inside and extra specially yummy dipped in arugula pesto.

First the pesto.  Lots of arugula and some garlic….

I then realized the recipe called for fresh basil too, which I didn’t see when composing my shopping list (after all, it’s called Arugula Pesto, not Arugula-Basil Pesto), so I added a ton of freeze dried basil I had in my spice cupboard!

Add toasted pecans (the recipe calls for walnuts but I didn’t have any because I don’t like them)…

Then olive oil and lemon juice….

The recipe also calls for nutritional yeast.  Never heard of it before.  It’s apparently popular with vegans as it’s a complete protein and has some vitamins.  I wasn’t feeling in the need for a complete protein, since we were eating burgers with the potatoes, so I didn’t go out of my way to find it.

Then on to the potatoes.  Boil some little potatoes then let them drain and pat them dry…

Take a sturdy measuring cup and smash each potato….

Toss with olive oil, salt and pepper, cook in the oven, flip them, cook them some more and then serve….

Really, really yummy and crispy and wonderful!

The second thing I made of Tracy’s was the Reset Button Salad.  Or some semblance of it.  I got creative.  I was looking for something healthy to take for my lunches and this was perfect.

I grated carrots and cucumber (I forgot to get a red pepper, which I’ve used in this salad before too); chopped up some scallions and celery, sprinkled dried cranberries, crumbled some gorgonzola and cooked up some quinoa:

Then I put arugula on top so it wouldn’t wilt and then realized I didn’t get a picture of the quinoa so I took the arugula out….

Put the arugula back in and put it in the fridge for my lunches during the week.  When I was ready to eat (say, at a picnic in the living room while babysitting the doodlebugs), I sprinkled toasted pecans on top and drizzled with balsamic dressing…

(see that blanket under the table?  I knit that for one of my doodlebugs!)

Totally yummy and delicious with lots of different flavors and textures.  Also got that owl bowl from seeing it on Shutterbean.  They are the perfect size for taking salad to lunch.  Got them at World Market here.  The doodlebugs spent the whole lunch saying, “Hello Owls!  What are YOU doing?”  The answer: “Sitting on a branch, helping Auntie Liz hold her salad.”

By the way, Tracy and I have something in common:  We love, Love, LOVE arugula.  It’s just awesome. She’s got several recipes using it. (Go check out her blog!)