Basil and Cashew Pesto and Pasta

On the eight day of the cleanse, I started with a fruit smoothie for breakfast, and had sunny quinoa and lentils from last night's supper for lunch. For supper, I started with a red leaf lettuce and dandelion greens salad (with grated golden beet - a nice addition!)and then had rice pasta with basil and cashew pesto. Tonight, I had tinkyada brown rice penne, which also cooked up in approximately 14 minutes (another tip for cooking rice pasta is to cook it in a large pot to prevent it from becoming too sticky). Earlier in the day, I had soaked and cooked chickpeas to help speed up supper preparations. While cooking the rice pasta, I also made another stir fry with onion, garlic, green onion, shitake mushrooms, zucchini, carrots, green beans, snow peas, purple and green kale. I also made the basil and cashew pesto to mix with the cooked pasta.
Here is the recipe for the basil and cashew pesto: (see top picture to left)
1 clove garlic, minced, 3 tbsp lemon juice, freshly squeezed, 3/4 tsp dry mustard powder, 3/4 tsp sea salt, 2 tbsp olive oil, 1 tbsp water, 1 cup cashews (preferably raw and unsalted), 2 1/2 cups fresh basil leaves
Add garlic, lemon juice, dry mustard, sea salt, olive oil and water to food processor and blend until smooth. Add cashews and basil leaves and blend to a chunky texture. Add to cooked and drained pasta.

This was a quick and easy meal for an end of the week supper - it was also very flavorful and delicious (see bottom picture to left for finished meal)!