Tomato Harvest

I picked a bunch of my ripe yellow pear-shaped cherry tomatoes and received a bag full of garden tomatoes (heirloom and roma) from the bf's Mom and Dad.

What to do...

What to do...

I like tomatoes fine, but sometimes when they are everywhere and coming from everywhere, it gets difficult being creative. I LOVE the thought of roasted tomatoes and had this fantastic idea that I would make a roasted tomato sauce of some sort... either straight tomato with herbs and garnishes or a rose sauce.

At lunchtime today I decided to go ahead and throw the tomatoes in the oven, and wow did the house smell good. I started off with sauce in mind and upon looking in the cupboard and finding NO PASTA!!??!!!??? I decided to try to make a soup.

I quartered the red tomatoes and left the yellow ones whole and tossed them with salt, pepper, olive oil and a little thyme (no fresh basil on hand, otherwise I would have used that) and roasted them for about an hour in a 350 degree oven. The juices came out, some evaporated and what came out of the oven at the end was a delicious mix of the sweetest roast tomatoes I ever tasted.

I threw the tomatoes into a sieve and pushed them through. I then put the smooth roasted tomato goodness into a saucepan and added a bit of half and half and some water (I prefer the creaminess of the half and half and the sodium free quality of the water) to thin it out and make it a cream soup. I added some more seasoning including a dash of white wine vinegar, which really did bring out some more of those flavours and balance out that sweetness. Oh my. I heated it up a bit more and it was just awesome. Like a bisque.

Plump, juicy breasts.

Lately I have been thinking lots about the tomatoes that I grew in my backyard this summer. Yellow pear-shaped cherry tomatoes. At the moment, they are ripening quickly, and I have not been able to stop thinking about fresh salsa.


So I made some.

In my quest to keep myself and my family eating healthy, I have been trying hard to create as many new dishes that I can using chicken breasts and other lean meats - and when I feel motivated, I have been trying to cook new vegetables in new ways each day.

I have issues with chicken breasts. I have issues with foods that lack flavour, would be a better way to put it. I don't feel like I can justify paying full price for them because they really mean that little to me. However, I understand that they are a good way for us omnivores to get some protein, and if I can apply some of my creative cookery juice to it, I might have some success. And I have!!

I made a Mexican inspired spice rub for these whole chicken breasts on the bone, and look how lovely and juicy and succulent and flavourful they look!

During the summer months I crave alot of Mexican flavours, Meditteranean flavours and really just anything fresh and delicious and easy to make at the same time. I need flavourful food, which isn't too spicy to accomodate two children, and I love it when I find success!

I shredded some of this chicken and made a filling for some delicious enchiladas, which everyone said were the best ever... so I did something right!! The rest, I just ate cold... they were that delicious! The chicken breasts are easy to prepare... just go into your spice cupboard and pick out any combination of what you think will taste good! I rubbed these with a blend of a bit of salt, pepper, chili powder, paprika and dried oregano. I put them on the bbq and cooked them until the perfect doneness, and then let them cool. I started them on the meaty side on high until it was well sealed and marked, as you can see above... then I flipped them over, turned the bbq to low and put the lid over it. In around 15 minutes, you have perfect, juicy, amazing, flavourful chicken.

Below is my finished dish with the enchiladas and fresh salsa.

The fresh salsa consists of chopped tomatoes (yellow cherry tomatoes from the garden and fresh alberta grown roma tomatoes on the vine), a handful of chopped cilantro, three whole green onions chopped, one whole jalapeno deseeded and chopped... then I just season with a splash of extra virgin olive oil to loosen it up and some salt and pepper and a tiny pinch of dried oregano.

I will post the enchiladas recipe another time when I have more pictures of the separate components, stay tuned!

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