Green Food: No, Not That Kind Of Green!

I'm slightly annoyed that now, whenever you hear the word "green" visions of Al Gore, plastic recycling numbers, those fabric grocery bags you have to pay for, whales in fishing nets and Avatar come to mind, instead of the COLOR green. I have no problems with eco-friendliness. I think its great. But what happened to my favorite color's name? It's in the process of getting it's identity back after an eco-friendly identity theft.

None of my green persuasion was on purpose. It was more like an episode of Chopped. (If you haven't seen, this is how I would pose on Chopped. They have yet to respond to my plea to let me be on the show, even though I am not a professional. Hmmm, strange.) Anyways, I was left staring at my pantry and frig, like usual, trying to figure out a way to make a decent dinner. Time was a tickin'. I had frozen peas, left over from the jaunt with Giada. Okay, that can be soup. I also saw a loaf of ciabatta, cool, bread and soup always good. Leftover pesto, from the Pesto Presto post (sheesh, try to say that 1 times fast), perfect to pep up that bread. We needed more, especially now that the hubs has officially walked through the door announcing, "Hear ye, hear ye! I am as hungry as an ogre today!" (Ogres are cool now because of Shrek and green! *squeal of glee realizing how perfectly this is all working out!*). So I hear "ogre" (not really) and I think meat. I had 4 lonely brats (bratwurst not naughty children, although that would be perfect for an ogre, right? It's so dumb that I'm laughing right now) sitting in the meat drawer. Fine, it's meat, whatever. And of course a salad, for the veggie component. The salad was so lame I'm not even going to show you.

Here's the triple threat of green goodness of last night's dinner. In no particular order:

Green Herbaceous Buttermilk Dressing

Vibrant Green Pea Soup

The fancy way...which ended up being a giant amuse bouche for moi and Tiny. (thanks Top Chef)

But this is how Mama really eats her food. Pink bowl, wad of bread.

Crusty Pesto Ciabatta Fingers (for dipping, of course)

Mmmm...Quizno's this is how you toast it.

 This dinner took no time, and without the ogre meat issue, it would be a nice vegetarian meal. So here's the nitty on the gritty:

*Recipe for Herbaceous Buttermilk Dressing AND video on how to make it click here. I believe I knock over the entire thing of dressing or something in the bloopers reel.

Recipe for Vibrant Green Pea Soup:

Makes enough for 2 very large bowls or 4 little ones

Prep/cook time: 15 min.

1 shallot

1 tsp. olive oil

1 10oz. bag organic frozen peas

1/4 c. half and half

1 1/2 c. chicken or vegetable broth (or more if it looks too thick)

Salt and pepper

Saute the shallot in olive oil until just golden in color. Add peas and broth. Let cook for 5-7 min. just so it's warmed through. Turn off heat. Add half and half. In a blender or with handheld mixer, whiz it until smooth. To make a smoother soup, pass it through a fine mesh sieve. (I didn't do that)

Crusty Ciabatta Pesto Fingers

Serves 4

Prep/cook time: 10 minutes

1 loaf of ciabatta bread, thawed (if yours was frozen like mine)

3 tbls. basil pesto (click here for the recipe)

Olive oil

Preheat oven on Hi broiler. Cut bread in half, lengthwise and use just one half. Smear bread generously with pesto, drizzle with olive oil and put on the bottom rack of oven. I always have my pizza stones in there, so I set it on that. Keep a super close eye on it. Burns so fast!  When crusty and brown, remove and slice while hot, then cuss while you do it. I personally like it dipped in my soup...an edible spoon of sorts.

P.S. Foodie Friends, you guys rocked it out with the responses to yesterday's post! My word! I was giddy with excitement. I will be reconfiguring our list and posting it in a few days. Thanks again!