Parmesan Garlic Broccoli Butter

A couple of years ago I found a Rachael Ray recipe for Green Goblin Bread that had a green butter made by adding spinach. Perfect for Halloween and my family really enjoyed it. We don't hide veggies from our kids but I love getting that extra boost of nutrition any way we can so I am always looking to add extra vegetables into our meals. So this week as I was deciding what to do with the veggies I had on hand, I decided to try this same butter concept but with broccoli.
I am going to share the exact recipe that I made...it seriously made a lot of butter so I would recommend cutting it in half. But if you decide to go full-bore, I will also share a couple of different ways we used the butter in this week's meals.

I started by chopping up 2 small heads of broccoli (the one pictured plus a slightly smaller one) and put the pieces into the food processor. Now I did this with raw broccoli which left the butter both smelling and tasting pretty strongly of broccoli. If you want a more subtle taste, maybe try steaming the broccoli first. Pulse up your broccoli until it is in teeny tiny bits:

From there I just added the rest of the ingredients on top of the broccoli - 2 sticks of butter (softened), 2 cloves of garlic (put them in raw but you could roast them first if you prefer that flavor), 1/2 cup grated Parmesan. Give it a good whirl until everything is nicely blended. Then you are ready to use it or cover and store it in the refrigerator.

Want some ideas how to use this? Here's what we had it on (all these pictures are before they were cooked, so hard to snap that after picture when trying to get dinner on the table for 4 hungry guys!):

Spread on homemade french bread slices and warmed in the oven

Cut up some potatoes for homestyle fries, melted the butter and tossed the potatoes in the butter before cooking at 425 degrees for 25-30 minutes (this was my favorite!)

Hobo fish packets...if you do this, spread the butter on the fish first. It all melted and left a glob of broccolit bits on top of the zucchini.



I am sure you can come up with a dozen more creative ways to use this butter. If you try it out, let me know how it turns out! Enjoy~

What we had for dinner

Pepper Lover's Pizza
This has become a definite favorite of ours. Pesto, peppers and french bread all make it irresistible! I got this out of a spin-off magazine from Taste of Home called Simple and Delicious. It truly lives up to the name of the magazine being both simple and delicious:)

Ingredients:
1 each yellow, orange, and red pepper, julienned
1 medium onion, halved and sliced
1/2 tsp Italian seasoning (I usually just use a mix of oregano, basil and seasoning salt)
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 cup (4 oz) shredded mozzarella cheese (I use double, half for mixing with the peppers and half for topping the bread with before putting it in the oven)
1 loaf unsliced Italian bread
1/3 cup prepared pesto

Directions:
* In a large skillet, saute the peppers onion and Italian seasoning in oil until tender.

*Remove from the heat; toss with cheese.

*Cut bread in half lengthwise; place on a baking sheet. Spread cut sides of bread with pesto.

*Top with pepper mixture and remaining cheese (if desired). Broil 4-6 in. from the heat for 5-8 minutes or until cheese is melted.

 This great as an appetizer, cut into 10 or so slices. Or if you are like my husband and I, we cut each side into halves and have at it:)