Growing your own basil can be a simple way to avoid paying $5/bushel at the grocery store. Basil is an easy plant to take care of and is cheaper to buy as a plant. As I’ve mentioned before, there are certain foods I like but sneakily have nuts in them at restaurants. Pesto is a tricky one because while most the time it’s pine nuts, there have been walnuts and brazil nuts in other kinds. Be careful!

Ingredients:
1/2 c olive oil
2 c fresh basil
1/2 c Parmesan or Romano cheese
4 garlic cloves
Salt and pepper

When it comes to pesto, this is about one meal’s worth. Making more at once might be useful because pesto freezes easily and it can be a pain to clean your food processor.

Combine all ingredients in a food processor and process until smooth.
Taste test to make sure the ingredients are the way you like them- some people like more cheese, some people like more garlic, some people like more basil, etc. Pretty simple to make, and if you want to freeze it, you might use an ice cube tray to make it in meal-appropriate portions. After freezing it in the tray overnight, cubes can be put into a Ziploc in the freezer. Olive oil takes longer to freeze than water, make sure cubes are completely frozen before moving them into a Ziploc.