Thai Pesto Pasta

2 days, 2 posts??? Yikes!

Anyways, I made a tasty dinner last night and I thought I'd share it with all of you.

I'd like to think I'm a decent cook, but with 2 kids and a husband, following recipes is just sooo much easier than making things up on the fly. Plus recipes make it easier when I'm writing up that grocery list! Yesterday was different though...all day I was thinking about pasta. And Thai food, how much I miss it and how I can't have some of my favorites because of the coconut milk that is used (Eva is highly sensitive to certain foods in my diet). I didn't particularly feel like making a Thai veggie curry, my usual stand by Thai dish, so my mind started wandering...what could I make with the stuff I have in the house...then it struck me - Thai pesto!

I knew I had Thai curry paste in the house (pantry staple) and my parents have a healthy supply of Thai basil. Thus this recipe was born.

Thai Pesto

• half jar of Thai curry paste (I used Thai Kitchen red curry paste, use more or less based on your preference)
• large handful of Thai basil
• large handful of cilantro
• vegetable oil

Puree all the ingredients together in a food processor with enough vegetable oil to reach your desired consistency. Toss with pasta. I used a curly shaped pasta (not fusilli, but similar), but I think this would be tasty with rice pasta. I also quartered a bunch of cherry tomatoes to put in the pasta, but you can add whatever mix ins you'd like.

The pesto itself smelled very potent, but ended up being relatively mild. I think next time I'll be doubling the basil and cilantro used. All in all, this was a tasty, delicious and easy dinner!

The First Bargain post!

I love a good deal and I love coupons. Think Extreme Couponing, but less psychotic (none of that turning your kids' room into a cereal warehouse business here, dumpster diving for coupons). I have reasonable stockpiles of toothpaste, shampoo/conditioner, cereal, pasta, etc. 


As some of you already know, I have a love for Target. I even went the morning I had Eva (maybe that is why she loves going there with me)! It is easy to save money at Target - they let you combine store coupons with manufacturer's coupons and when you stack that on top of a sale...well, you get the picture.

Here's today's haul...

This trip was split into 2 transactions to minimize out of pocket expenses.

Transaction #1
-3 Dove shampoos at $2.99 each
-1 Dove conditioner at $2.99 each

• Used 1 $3/2 Dove hair care coupon (from the Sunday inserts a few weeks ago) and 1 $1.50/2 coupon (from the Dove website, if I had a second newspaper coupon, this would've been a better deal) for a final price of $7.46 for 4 shampoos/conditioners

-Extra 5 cents off for bringing my own bag :)
-Total after coupons and tax: $7.93, purchasing 4 Dove hair products generated a $5 gift card making an okay sale into a good deal!

I took that $5 gift card to roll into my second transaction (since these generated gift cards have to be used on a future transaction, which I think is silly, but whatever).

Transaction #2
-1 Method kitchen cleaner, lemon verbena scent at $2.99 

• Used $1/1 Target coupon and $1/1 mf (manufacturer) coupon for a final price of 99 cents

-1 Method Mickey Mouse soap at $3.49 

• Used $1/1 Target coupon and $.75/1 mf coupon for a final price of $1.74

-2 boxes of Quaker bars at $2 each 

• Used $1/2 Target coupon and $1/2 mf coupon for a final price of $2, or $1 per box

-1 2-pack of contact lens solution at $3.84 

• Used $1/1 Target coupon for a final price of $2.84 

-Extra 5 cents off for bringing my own bag, even though the cashier did just put everything into the same bag from transaction 1.
-Random side note: the cashier tried telling me that hand soap wasn't a personal care item and that the store coupon wouldn't work...even though hand soap IS a personal care item and the coupon did work in the end. Stand up for yourself!
-Total after coupons, tax and $5 gift card from the first transaction: $3.06

Total out of pocket - $10.99

All in all, a good trip :) Let me know if you have any questions!