Chicken with Spinach and Pine Nut Pesto

I just got back from Spring Break! I spent the week with Cameron and my roomies in sunny Cozumel. Sooo now that I'm back, I'm back to cooking.

Tonight Ryan is taking the G-MAT so Annie, Lis, and I are going to welcome her home and celebrate her finally finishing! We decorated the house with streamers, balloons, and even a pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey game. We got her cupcakes and champagne and I'm excited for her to get back so we can celebrate!

I cooked dinner tonight. A really good chicken with a spinach and pine nut pesto... I learned from this recipe that a food processor is key!

Chicken with Spinach and Pine Nut Pesto

Ingredients:

• 2 boneless chicken breasts
• 2 cups lightly packed baby spinach leaves (about 2 ounces)
• 1/4 cup pine nuts, toasted
• 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 1 to 2 teaspoons grated lemon peel
• 1/3 cup plus 2 teaspoons olive oil
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• Garlic Salt (optional)
• 1/3 cup freshly grated Parmesan

Directions:

Heat a grill pan on medium high heat. Lightly oil the grill pan. Sprinkle the chicken with salt, pepper, and garlic salt. Grill the chicken until cooked through, about 5 minutes per side.

For a pan seared chicken, heat a skillet on medium-high and light oil the pan. Sear chicken until there is no pink showing. 

This is where I had my first road block. I decided to cook the thickest chicken breast I've ever seen. I should have butterflied the chicken, because it was so thick and would cook more evenly, but I didn't... So I ended up having to cut the chicken into little pieces so I wouldn't die from salmonella. 

 Combine the spinach, pine nuts, lemon juice, and lemon peel in a processor. Lightly pulse. With the machine running, gradually add 1/3 cup of the oil, blending until the mixture is creamy. Add salt and pulse. Put half of the pesto into ice cube trays and store in the freezer for future use.

Transfer the rest of the spinach mixture to a medium bowl. Stir in the Parmesan. Season the pesto with salt and pepper, to taste.

Making the pesto was where I hit my second, third, and fourth road blocks. The first was that I did not have a food processor, so I thought I would improvise and everything would be the same. So I pulled out my Magic Bullet and poured all the ingredients for the pesto in...

But only the bottom part was pureed, and as hard as I tried, I could not get the rest to blend together. My second idea was to add it to a blender. Sooo I pulled out our blender with little to no change. After that my last idea was to whip the pesto with my hand mixer. 

This method worked better than all of my other ideas, but most of the pines nuts stayed whole. The next time I make this... I will have a food processor. 

Even though The pesto wasn't pureed, it was still delicious!

Spread the pesto over each piece of chicken and serve.