Avocado and Arugula Pesto Pasta

 I took a little break from cooking/baking when Lucia was born but we that didn't mean we took a break from home cooked meals because I froze a bunch of good food when I was still pregnant. I have since started cooking again but this was one of those frozen meals that was very good and super easy to make.

I used a recipe from foodnetwork.com and made a few changes. 

You can find the original here.

The Recipe:

• 1 pound pasta
• 2 medium avocados, halved, peeled, and seeded
• 3 cups baby arugula leaves (3 ounces)
• 1 packed cup fresh basil leaves
• 3 tablespoons fresh lime juice, about 2 large limes
• 2 cloves garlic, peeled and smashed
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper
• 1 cup grated Parmesan
• 1/2 cup pine nuts, toasted (toast in dry saute pan for a few minutes)

The Method:

1. Cook pasta, save about 1 cup of the pasta water before draining. Place in a serving bowl.
2. Place avocados, arugula, basil, lime juice, garlic, half of the pine nuts, salt, and pepper in a food processor and blend until smooth.
3. Pour the pesto over the pasta and toss together (I actually only used half of this recipe with 1 lb of pasta). Add the cheese and toss together until coated, adding a little of the reserved pasta water if the sauce is too thick. 
4. Top with a little more cheese and the rest of the pine nuts. I also added baked chicken pieces and bacon to make it an even heartier dish.  

If you want to freeze for later use, just transfer desired serving sizes of pesto into freezer friendly containers and place in freezer. Just thaw in the fridge the day before you want to use it then follow directions 3 and 4.