Easy like Sunday morning...or Wednesday night

I've been trying to use up everything in my kitchen before I leave for 5 weeks and I decided to make one last meal. My criteria were: needed to be easy and I wanted to have leftovers for the next day.
Let me brag for a minute...I discovered Martha Stewart's "Everyday Food" as a magazine, but didn't know about the cookbook, Great Food Fast until Sara showed me her copy during my visit to San Angelo, TX. I literally wanted to try every page and bought it as soon as I returned to Las Cruces. If you are looking for a great cookbook, this is pretty much a WINNER.
Anyway, all that to say, Martha Stewart has a Everyday Food application for the iPod/iPhone. It's under $3 I think, and it worth it!!
I found my winning recipe, Fettucine with Spinach Pesto on the Everyday Food app, which is super handy. You can email recipes, save grocery lists, save recipes....love it!!
I've never made pesto, but it's safe to say that this will be making another appearance. The spinach pesto was incredibly easy and so tasty. I personally LOVE anything with spinach and love pasta. You could completely swap the fettucine for any other pasta...I would probably go with penne, linguine or bowtie.
I wanted this to be a little more filling, so I grilled boneless, skinless chicken breast, sliced it and put it on top. This is a great summer meal, with or without the chicken!

Fettucine with Spinach Pesto

Ingredients

Serves 4

• 12 ounces fettuccine
• Coarse salt and ground pepper
• 1 package (10 ounces) frozen chopped spinach, thawed
• 1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese, plus more for serving (optional)
• 2 tablespoons pine nuts, plus more for serving (optional)
• 1 garlic clove
• 1 teaspoon grated zest plus 2 tablespoons juice from 1 lemon
• 1/4 cup olive oil

Directions

1. Cook pasta in a large pot of boiling salted water until al dente, according to package instructions. Reserve 1/2 cup pasta water; immediately drain pasta, and return to pot.
2. While pasta is cooking, place spinach, Parmesan, nuts, garlic, and lemon zest and juice in a food processor. Process until a paste forms. With motor running, add oil and 1/4 cup cold water; process until smooth and creamy, about 1 minute. Season with salt and pepper. Add to pasta; toss, adding reserved pasta water a little at a time until sauce is thinned slightly and coats fettuccine (you may not need all the water). Serve, sprinkled with additional Parmesan and nuts, if desired.

Now...no meal is complete without dessert. At least not at my house. You will never leave here without something sweet. Again, I was looking to use up my remaining groceries and found this incredible Caramel Banana Cake from one of my favorite websites EVER, the Kitchn. Winner.

Note...I used a 13 x 9 pan and I substituted whole wheat pastry flour for white flour and it turned out perfect. So, since this has whole wheat, that automatically makes it healthy and you can feel free to have 2 pieces instead of just 1. Or, you could have a piece for breakfast. But not that I would know anything about that.

If you really want to elevate this from great to winner...top with cream cheese frosting.

Caramel Banana Cake
2 9-inch layers

3/4 cup butter
1 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar
3 eggs
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups milk
1 1/2 cups mashed bananas
1 1/2 cups caramel sauce

Heat oven to 325 F. Grease two 9" cake pans.

Cream the butter and sugar until fluffy then add the eggs and beat until silky and lightened. Sift the flour with the baking soda and salt. Whisk the milk and mashed bananas in a separate measuring cup and add to the eggs and butter, alternating with the flour. Beat just until smooth.

Pour batter into the prepared pans. Pour half the caramel sauce into each pan, and swirl with a knife. The pans will be quite full. Put in the oven carefully and bake for about 60 minutes, or until the centers are set and a knife comes out clean.

Cool completely before serving.

For the cream cheese icing:
1/4 cup butter, softened
1 (8 ounce) package light cream cheese, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon rum (optional)
3 cups confectioners' sugar

For the icing: In a large bowl, whip the butter and cream cheese together until very smooth, with no lumps remaining. Beat in 1 teaspoon vanilla and 1 tablespoon rum, if using. Add the confectioners sugar, beat on low speed until combined, then on high until frosting is smooth.