I LOVE TOMATOES!

I am picking plenty from my garden daily.

Do you have any favorite things to do with tomatoes?

**********************
Tomato Information

Although commonly regarded and categorized as a vegetable, the tomato is really a fruit, a very healthful one. Tomatoes are known for being exceptionally high in lycopene, a carotenoid that has antioxidant properties and may help prevent cancer and heart disease. Eating tomatoes with fat (try to choose a healthy fat source like avocado, olive oil, or nuts) increases your body's ability to absorb the lycopene.

Besides that famous carotenoid, tomatoes are also a rich source of vitamin C, folate (folic acid), riboflavin, and chromium, each with its own extensive list of health benefits.

For the tastiest tomatoes, grow them yourself or buy them from a farmers market or road-side produce stand. That ensures that your tomatoes are fresh from the vine—and healthier, too. Although tomatoes that have been shipped from across the country are still technically tomatoes, the flavor and texture doesn’t even remotely compare to those that are freshly picked. Select tomatoes with a deep rich color and smooth skin and store them on the countertop, where they’ll keep for a few days. Never refrigerate tomatoes as it changes the flavor and texture. Tomatoes that have been refrigerated will be mealy and flat in taste.

Contrary to popular belief, tomatoes don't just come in shades of red. Tomatoes can be pink, yellow, orange, purple, green, and sometimes a mixture of colors! When it comes to selecting tomatoes at a farmers market, ugly is often better. Try a few varieties of heirloom tomatoes. They are often large, lumpy and strange-looking, but their taste is incomparable.

************************************

My favorite tomato ideas:

Fresh Tomatoes and Pasta
Take cherry tomatos, onion, peppers and saute in olive oil. Add some chicken broth, sliced olives (and chicken, too - if you like) serve over ww pasta with some parm. cheese.

Easy Black Bean, Corn and Tomato Salsa

1 15 ou can black beans
1 12 ou can whole kernal corn (or fresh is you have it)
2 small tomatoes, chopped
1 small red onion, diced
1/4 c lime juice
1 t. cumin

Drain and rinse beans and corn. Combine in a medium bowl with tomato and onion. Mix and add lime juice and cumin.

Serve in a wrap or pita or tortilla or even on a salad.

I like tomatoes sliced, and covered with olive oil, black pepper and oregano. After you put all the stuff on them let them sit in the fridge overnight and they absorb all the flavor. Very good, and I'm not a big tomato person.

I love getting romaine lettuce, cut it in quarters leaving the end so it stays together. I then sprinkle parsley patch seasoning, and olive oil, grill it for a few minutes. I slice tomato and put on top, I then sprinkle with balsamic vinegar. It is so good!

How about a gouda cheese and heirloom tomato sandwich on wheat w/real butter? Divine.

I love insalada caprese, one of the world's most simple and perfect dishes, IMO!

Also, BLTs with a big juicy slice of tomato.

Grape tomatoes, sauteed in a little olive oil in a saucepan until the skins just begin to split, season as desired, and serve alongside just about anything.

Ratatouille

tomatoes provencale, just cut in half topped with some strong cheese and breadcrumbs, a little thyme s&p, drizzled with olive oil and broiled.

Stuffed tomatoes - hot, baked or
stuffed tomatoes - cold, with tuna, chicken, shrimp, or crab salad.

tomato salad, sliced and topped with a little mayo and capers

or just a handful of grape tomatoes as a snack

a whole tomato, warm from the garden, eaten like an apple

To me the best things to do with garden tomatoes are the simplest!

Slice them, salt them, eat them. Though of course they are delicious a hundred other ways, fresh from the garden and raw is my very favorite way to eat home grown tomatoes. But I also make homemade pizza margherita with home grown basil, sliced tomatoes, and a little mozzarella on pita bread.

i vote for grilled cheese & a fat slice of heirloom tomato with some fresh basil. yum!

sliced with some kosher salt on it.

or on top of a buffalo burger.

I have a soup recipe for roasted tomato soup - so easy and dee-lish! It's for 8 servings, each being 134 calories, 3.2 carbs, and 13.6 grams of fat (from olive oil but I think onions could be sauteed in a little broth or water if you wanted)

12 large (about 4 pounds) tomatoes, stemmed and quartered
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil, divided
1/4 cup good-quality balsamic vinegar
12 large garlic cloves, peeled
Salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 cup chopped yellow onions


Preheat the oven to 500 degrees F.

Prepare the tomatoes. In a large bowl, mix the tomatoes, 1/4 cup of the oil, the vinegar, garlic, salt, and pepper, to taste. Spread the tomatoes out on a non-reactive baking sheet. Roast the tomatoes in the oven until very dark in spots, 35 to 40 minutes. Remove and allow to cool a bit.


In a large saucepan over medium heat, combine remaining 1/4 cup oil, the onions, and a pinch of salt. Cook until the onions are very soft, 8 to 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the 2 cups basil leaves and saute with the onions for about 1 minute.

Add the roasted tomatoes and water to the saucepan. Bring the mixture to a simmer and cook for 10 minutes. Season with salt and pepper, to taste. Puree the tomato mixture in a blender. Start the motor at a slow speed and increase gradually. Alternatively you can use an immersion blender right in the pot. The mixture should be very smooth. You should have about 8 cups. You can prepare the soup to this point and refrigerate it. When ready to serve, pour the soup into a medium saucepan and bring it to a slow simmer over medium heat.

Serve the soup & enjoy!!

my garden's exploding too, so i always have a container in the fridge with tomato chunks, cucumber chunks, red & orange pepper chunks, big red onion chunks, and all of it lightly dressed with a low-fat balsamic dressing ~ it's even better after sitting a day.

have a ginormous bowl of it with lunch and dinner LOL

I have Sweet 100's cherry tomatos ripening by the millions..not hundreds! I only planted ONE plant and it is seven feet high, and about five feet wide. They taste like candy and with a little fat free ranch dressing..well..YUMMO!

I like tomatos just about any way you can think of..except I don't think anyone has tried chocolate covered ones yet.

New recipe I really love...got it from Trader Joe's

Tomato/Corn/Black Bean and Quinoa Salad (makes lots)

2 tsp lime zest
2 tbsp lime juice
2 tbsp olive oil (works out to about 1 tsp per serving so no panic)
1 tsp splenda or sugar
1-2 cups prepared quinoa OR whole wheat couscous
1 pint cherry tomatos halved
1 cup corn (I roasted two cobs on the BBQ and cut em off) or frozen or recipe called for TJ's Roasted Corn..but I couldn't find any difference
1 can black beans drained and rinsed
1/4 cup fresh cilantro finely chopped
4-6 green onions chopped (depends on how much you like onion)

Whisk together the lime zest and juice, olive oil and sugar. Add quinoa or couscous (I prefer the quinoa) and mix well. Fold in rest of ingredients. Add pepper to taste. I don't use salt, and find this is so flavourful you don't need it! Honest this is so good, I have to measure carefully or I could eat two cups of it at once!

Also LOVE ratatouille. Or halve tomatos, brush with mixture of olive oil and garlic, top with a little parmesan and bake in the oven.

I'm not all that into veggies and one of my all time fave fruit...i'm allergic to. (Mango) =( I like tomatoes though. =D I want to start getting into other veggies. The only way I would eat them is with a salad I believe or in some prepared dish.

Fried green tomatoes are excellent... but rather bad since they're fried!

Slice the tomatoes about 1/2 inch thick. Salt and pepper them and let them sit for 15 minutes. Dip each slice in flour, then a mixture of egg and milk, then in bread crumbs. Heat up a pan and put in a little oil and butter. Once the butter melts, lay the tomato slices in and fry until light brown on the bottom (3-5 minutes), then flip and brown the other side.

For a much healthier version, you can bake them!

Slice the tomatoes and salt and pepper them as before. Dip each slice in milk (buttermilk is supposed to be excellent for this recipe, but never tried it) then breadcrumbs and arrange them in rows on a foil-covered tray. Bake them at 350 for 35 minutes. Optionally, you can sprinkle brown sugar on them before dipping in breadcrumbs or put small dots of butter on top of them after they are coated.

OoooOo I luvvv Maters *Drools* I like to eat them plane lol always have It trips my hubbie out when he woudl see me bust out one and start eating it like and apple lol

Funny. I just made FGToms this afternoon. Because DD cannot have gluten and I didn't want a lot of calories, here is what I did:
Slice tomatoes thickly and dip in plain egg; then into cornmeal with a little garlic powder, onion powder, and salt and pepper. Spray a fry pan with oil and get hot (the oil - not you). Then, place toms on pan and cook on each side for about 5 minutes. Top each tom with 1/2 T. parmesan and let cook a bit longer. FOr 4 fat slices, there were 204 calories and 8 g. of fat. These were so delicious and filling. I felt like I'd just eaten a steak and didn't need anything else to go with them.