lycopene

Roast these for optimal nutrition!

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A cornucopia of tomatoes!

 

Hello friends! These are the “dog days” of summer, aren’t they? At least they are in Indiana. According to dictionary.com, dog days are “the sultry part of the summer, supposed to occur during the period that Sirius, the dog star, rises at the same time as the sun: now often reckoned from July 3 to August 11. A period marked by lethargy, inactivity, or indolence.” Well since most of the children are back in school, I’d say the inactivity part has passed, but the heat certainly causes me to feel a bit lethargic!

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However, I have no time for lethargy because my garden is producing in full abundance right now. It is certainly not lethargic either! I have more tomatoes, peppers and onions than I know what to do with, and I am very determined not to waste one thing that comes from my garden.

So, I’ve gotten creative at different ways to utilize all of my fruits and veggies, because there are only so many sliced tomatoes you can eat before you get tired of them. I started thinking about making my own tomato sauce. However, I wanted to roast them because I thought it would add a depth of flavor that non-roasted tomato sauce would not have. I began to look around for recipes and combined a few to create my own version of roasted tomato sauce.

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But here is another benefit to roasting the tomatoes to make a sauce besides taste, they are MORE NUTRITIOUS than an unroasted tomato! I’m totally serious! I didn’t know that, I only knew I liked the taste better. When tomatoes are roasted or cooked in a sauce, it helps to break down the plant cell walls, allowing us to better absorb the antioxidant lycopene. This nutrient helps safeguard our cells from environmental damage, may protect us from certain cancers, and is heart-friendly. Tomatoes do lose about 10% of their vitamin C from the cooking process, however the benefits of the increased absorption of lycopene far outweigh the loss of vitamin C. Some vegetables like peppers and broccoli are healthier when eaten raw, because cooking causes them to lose essential nutrients. This is not the case with tomatoes, as they are best for you when eaten roasted or cooked.

Now that you know how good roasted tomatoes are for you, I’m going to share my roasted tomato sauce recipe with you. It is SO AMAZING, if I do say so myself. I’m eating it right now over an Italian sausage with a piece of Colby Jack cheese melted on it. The sauce is creamy and it’s flavor can best be described as spunky! Please enjoy!

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My trusty sous chef, Danielle! 🙂

 

Valerie’s Roasted Tomato Sauce

  • 30 tomatoes, halved
  • 1 cup extra virgin olive oil (EVOO)
  • 1/2 cup chopped onions
  • 2 tablespoons minced garlic
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon pepper
  • 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
  • 2 tablespoons basil, chopped
  • 1 tablespoon oregano, chopped
  • 1 tablespoon rosemary, chopped
  • 1/2 cup balsamic vinegar

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Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Take the halved tomatoes, core them, remove the seeds, and place them on 2 large sheet pans halved side up. Coring and removing the seeds is optional, and makes a more concentrated sauce. If you’re short on time, just halve the tomatoes and place them on the sheet tray. Make sure you add a half hour more to the cooking time because the tomatoes with the seeds and cores will have A LOT more juice to them, and therefore will need to cook a half hour longer. I sprayed my trays with organic olive oil cooking spray so the tomatoes wouldn’t stick, which would aid in my clean up.

Next, get a big bowl and add the rest of the ingredients to it. Microwave the bowl for 2 minutes and pour the contents equally over the tomatoes. Use your hands to make sure the oil mixture gets all over the tomatoes.

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Bake the tomatoes for 2 hours (2 1/2 hours if you didn’t remove the seeds and cores). Rotate the pans halfway through the baking process. Then, turn the oven up to 400 degrees and roast them for another 30 minutes. They will turn kind of blackened but that is PERFECT. You won’t believe how wonderful your house will smell while you’re doing this.

Now you have two options, you can either use a food mill and pulverize the tomatoes that way, or use a blender or food processor to beat up the tomatoes. I started using my food mill, but I felt it was leaving too many tasty bits unused, so I switched to using my trusty Vitamix. What I did was pour all the tomatoes into my blender, and blend on medium for about 20 seconds. Then, I poured the blended tomatoes into a pot, and cooked the roasted tomato sauce until thickened, about 15 minutes. I tasted it, added a 1/2 cup of red wine, and another 1/2 teaspoon each of salt and pepper.

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Here’s a cool thing, the trays will have all kinds of bits on them and you may think, “oh my goodness, clean-up will be a huge ordeal!” but fear not, dear readers, I have a great and easy clean-up method that adds to the flavor of the sauce too. Take a cup of water and microwave it for 2 minutes, pour it onto the sheet pan, and wait a minute. Then, take a spatula, scrape off the bits, and pour the water/tasty bits into the sauce. It definitely adds flavor and makes clean-up easier too! That’s a win-win, my friends!

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This sauce is so versatile, you can use it on pasta, to make Italian sausage sandwiches, as a sauce for steaks, or the way I used it the other night, over my healthy chicken Italiano. I took chicken thighs, salted and peppered them, and cooked them on the stove in a little EVOO. After they were cooked through, I added a piece of prosciutto and provolone cheese to the top and cooked for another minute until the cheese melted. Then, I poured the sauce over the top and served with fresh green beans- DELIZIOSO!

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You can also turn this sauce into a Mexican sauce by adding chili powder, cumin, and jalapenos, and use it on enchiladas or in a taco sauce. Another variation is that you could add croutons, and turn it into a tomato soup. This sauce is so amazing, the sky’s the limit with it. You should definitely make this sauce, and if you make something super cool with it, let me know! Remember, cooked or roasted tomatoes are healthier than uncooked tomatoes, and far more delicious too! Eating like this will help you live a life of vitality- with Valerie! 🙂

A little bit of this, a little bit of that….

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So the song goes, but did you know that a bit of this and a bit of that can make a wonderful meal? Read on, my dear readers, and you will see. 

  
Here’s how it all started, a few days ago I made gluten free pasta with meat sauce. We ate all the sauce but you know how there always seems to be more noodles than sauce left? That’s how it is around here at least. So anyway, I put a bag of penne noodles in my fridge and figured I would use them for something later. Then, I made meatloaf the next day. Meatloaf is something you can only eat for a day or two and, ugh, you can’t even look at it anymore. However, it was really good and I didn’t want to waste it so I stuck that in the fridge with the noodles, and didn’t think about it until two days ago.  I didn’t feel like cooking a new meal, and I was once again pondering the noodles and meatloaf in my fridge.

  
I make an Italian style meatloaf, as I wrote about in my blog post, “It’s an American meal staple, but did you know it’s healthy?!”. So that was my inspiration as I thought, “meatloaf, pasta, baked ziti!” Well it wasn’t quite that quick, but I though about making some kind of baked pasta dish using the meatloaf as kind of a meatball, so I started looking around on the Internet for ideas. 

Oh I also didn’t tell you that I hadn’t been to the grocery store since I moved, actually I hadn’t been to the store since a few weeks before we moved because I was trying to have less food to move. Therefore I was limited to what I could make. I saw a lasagna recipe using meatloaf but since I didn’t have ricotta cheese I decided to turn it into a baked pasta dish. It is quick, easy and delicious, take a look!

  
Leftover Baked Pasta

  • 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
  • 1 onion chopped
  • 3 garlic cloves, minced
  • 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
  • 1 14 ounce can chopped tomatoes 
  • 1 14 ounce can tomato purée
  • Salt and pepper to taste
  • 4 one inch slices leftover meatloaf
  • 4 cups cooked pasta- any kind
  • 1 8 ounce bag of shredded mozzerella cheese
  • Salt and pepper to taste

  
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Heat your EVOO in a pan on the stove and chop your onions and garlic. Add the onions and sauté until softened, then add the garlic and red pepper flakes for about a minute. Next, pour the tomatoes and tomato purée into the pan and let that warm up for a minute or two. Salt and pepper to taste.

  

Chop your meatloaf slices or pull them apart with your fingers and add them to the pan for about 3 minutes. Stir the pasta and 1/3 of the cheese in until they are combined with the sauce and meatloaf. Then, pour all of that into a baking pan. I sprayed the pan with a bit of organic olive oil cooking spray first though so the baked pasta wouldn’t stick. 

  

Add the rest of the cheese to the top and bake for 15 minutes or until slightly browned. If you’re so inclined, sprinkle Parmesan cheese on before serving. I made a salad, poured the wine and that was it! 

It really tasted yummy and it was pretty amazing that I made that out of leftovers. In addition, the ground beef has plenty of protein and iron, the tomatoes have lycopene and other antioxidants, and the cheese has calcium and other vitamins so you’re eating something that’s good for you too. 

  
So try it next time you’ve got meatloaf sitting around, I’m sure you like it. Eating meals like this will help you live a life of vitality- with Valerie! 

One of the healthiest things you can eat!

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Hello, friends! Well I have an abundance of tomatoes and peppers in my garden right now, and I’m always trying to think of ways to use the bounty of my garden before it goes bad. One of my absolute favorite ways to use my tomatoes and peppers is to make salsa. I make a delicious and easy salsa that my family raves about. In fact, they fight over it when I make it and it certainly doesn’t last very long in my house. The other day Jacqueline’s boyfriend texted me to ask if I had made any salsa and if so, could he come over and have some. He has eaten an entire bowl of my salsa at one sitting quite a few times! I have made it for years, and in doing so I’ve tweaked my recipe and now I think it’s perfect, but you can be the judge of that.

I have discussed the health benefits of tomatoes and peppers numerous times this summer but let’s review this. 

  
Tomatoes have fiber, potassium, choline, folic acid, vitamin C, lycopene and beta-caratine all of which help prevent heart disease, cancer, and high blood pressure. They lower blood glucose levels, improve overall skin texture, help with depression, etc etc etc. 

  
Peppers are full of vitamin C, capsaicin, B6, Folate, and carotenoids, which help with weight loss, controlling cholesterol, fighting against inflammatory disorders like arthritis, and lowering your risk for breast cancer and heart disease. The benefits are enormous!

  
Salsa also contains onions which have vitamin C and B6, folate, potassium, iron, and flavonoids quercetin and allyl disulphide.  They’re anti-allergic, anti-histaminic, anti-inflammatory and antioxidant all rolled into one! 
Now are you convinced that salsa is good for you? Here’s the bonus- it also TASTES GOOD! It is one of my favorite things to eat and it’s so versatile. You can put it on tacos, eggs, chicken, and steak. You’re really only limited by your imagination. Without further ado, here we go!

Valerie’s kick butt salsa

  • 7-8 tomatoes chopped
  • 1/2 onion chopped
  • 4 jalapeño peppers
  • 1/3 cup cilantro chopped
  • 2 tablespoons minced garlic
  • Juice of 1/2 lime
  • 4 teaspoons white vinegar
  • 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon pepper

  

First chop the tomatoes, peppers, onions and cilantro. Add them to a large bowl. If you want a mild salsa remove the seeds and ribs from the jalapeños, but I left them in because we like a medium salsa. 

  

Add the garlic to the bowl with the tomatoes, peppers, onions and cilantro. Squeeze half a lime into the bowl. Add the garlic, vinegar and olive oil. Finally, add the salt and pepper and mix to combine all the ingredients. Taste and add more salt and pepper as needed.

I like a rough chopped salsa, but if you life a smoother salsa you can always give it a quick mix in the blender to smooth it out a bit. 

  
That’s all there is to it! It’s healthy, easy and delicious! I’m eating it right now actually and it really is very tasty. If you try it, let me know how you like it. Eating food like this will help you live a healthy life, and a life of vitality-with Valerie!

One of my fave healthy dishes!

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Hello friends!! Summer is busting out all over, at least in my garden and at my local farmer’s market. I have so many peppers and tomatoes I almost cannot keep up with picking everything. My herbs are exploding too, especially my basil. One of my basil plants is over three feet tall! 

  
So I’m trying to think of as many recipes as I can to utilize all of my gorgeous veggies (I know tomatoes cucumbers, peppers and avocados among others are members of the fruit family, but since I use them like vegetables, for the purposes of this post I am considering them veggies) and herbs. Inspiration always comes from the mouths of (my) babes for me. Jacqueline has mentioned gazpacho a few times this summer, and I thought that it would be a good idea to make it again. I haven’t made it in years, so as usual I turn to my handy dandy Vitamix blender to help me out in this endeavor. 

  
 The reason I like gazpacho, salsa and other tomatoey foods is because they taste SO GOOD. Additionally though, tomatoes are SO GOOD for you too. They are on the top of any list of super foods, have cancer fighting properties and are full of caratenoids- alpha and beta carotene, lutein and lycopene. Lycopene has the highest antioxidant activity of all the carotenoids and tomatoes are LOADED with them. Tomatoes also contain three high powered antioxidants- beta carotene (works as vitamin A in the body), vitamin E and vitamin C. Most of us only get half the vitamin A we need, and a third don’t get enough vitamin C. Tomatoes also have loads of potassium (a cup of tomato juice has 534 mg and 1/2 cup of tomato sauce has 454 mg). They are part of the famed Mediterranean diet which leads to lower death rates from heart disease and cancer. A cool fact is that when tomatoes are eaten together with healthy fats like avocado and olive oil, the body’s asorption of phytochemicals increases by 2-15 times. I love that because I’m usually combining tomatoes with one or both of those healthy fats. 

  
I love gazpacho in the summer, or anytime of the year actually I just really love it. It’s full of delicious flavor and it’s super healthy for you. Not just the tomatoes, but it contains lots of other veggies and heart healthy extra virgin olive oil too. It’s also really easy and it’s very low in calories. 12 ounces of gazpacho contains 106 calories, 637 mg of potassium, 3.3 g of fiber, 4 g of protein, 28% of your RDA for vitamin A and 81% of vitamin C. Very healthy, right?!!  My recipe is super easy and tastes so delicious that I can’t wait to share it with you now.

  
Valerie’s Gazpacho

  • 5 large tomatoes 
  • 1 large cucumber
  • 1/2 large onion
  • 1 medium bell pepper
  • 2 jalapeños
  • 1/3 cup cilantro
  • 2 tablespoons EVOO
  • 1 tablespoon minced garlic
  • 1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
  • 1/2 teaspoon pepper
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon chili powder(I used Aleppo pepper which is a moderately heated, fruity spice used in Mediterranean foods)

Here’s the easy part. First rough chop all the vegetables and put them in the blender, then add the rest of the ingredients. Start with the blender on low and slowly turn it up to medium. Blend on medium for 30 seconds. And that’s it!

  
I garnish the gazpacho with chopped cucumbers, cilantro, and thin slices of avocado for Jacqueline. 

  
In addition, I added 3 crumbled up tortilla chips to mine because I like the crunch. Salt and pepper to taste of course. 

  
I promise you this is easy and delicious. It is so refreshing and surprisingly filling. Don’t forget that it’s very good for you too! Try it, you’ll like it! It will help you live a life of vitality- with Valerie! 🙂