Salsa!

 Salsa! Last week I made some. I had about 20 tomatoes that finally ripened from my summer 'topsy turvy' and I figured I could make like 5-10 jars of salsa out of them. I imagined myself handing out salsa to friends and family at Christmas time.

That was really dumb.

I'll show I you just how much i got out of my 20 tomatoes.

Even so, you should still make salsa.

My ripe tomatoes 

Banana, cherry, and jalapeño peppers (wash)

I def didn't use all these peppers. I think I used 2 jals, 2 bananas, and 1 cherry. But I did used 2 cloves of garlic and a big handful of cilantro 

Awesome trick to take the skin off a tomato: Boil a few tomatoes at a time for 1-2 min max

Have a big bowl of ice water on hand.... 

Plop hot tomatoes down into ice water for a minute or so to cool

Then use fingernail to peel skin off tomato. It comes off super easily! 

See?

Skins vs. Naked Toms? I don't know..

Squish as much of the seeds out of the tomato as possible. Use a bowl and gently press down on toms using 3 fingers 

There might be a little bit of seeds left but that's ok. You want the 'meaty' part of the tomato to be left 

While working, set tomatoes in a colander to allow any excess juices to pour out

Cut up tomatoes into half inch dices. Do you see why my idea of making tons of salsa was really dumb? This is all I was left with!!

Okay so this is a bit of a skip. What I did was I got a big pot, stuck my small fist full of tomato dices in the pot, along with a big jar of crushed tomatoes. If you are making this, I would recommend just buying a large jar of diced tomatoes (or crushed if you prefer a more liquid salsa). Then I added: half an onion, handful of cilantro, 2 jalapeños diced (without seeds), 2 banana peppers, 1 cherry pepper (all diced), teaspoon of sugar, a teaspoon of lime juice and salt and pepper to taste. Simmer on low, and add additional ingredients to fit your taste.

Here's the recipe:

-1 large can of crushed/diced tomatoes

-2 diced jalapeños (without seeds unless you want it nice and spicy)

-2 diced banana peppers (same as above)

-1 cherry pepper (same)

-2 cloves of diced garlic

-a fist full of roughly chopped cilantro

-1 teaspoon of lime juice

-teaspoon of sugar

-salt and pepper to taste

Place all ingredients in a large pot over low heat and mix. Add additional ingredients as you see fit.

Note: Really, you can used whatever peppers to have on hand. If you want to kick it up even more, add cayenne pepper and/or red pepper flakes. 

Soooo, now you have your salsa, what can you do with it besides open up a bag of tortilla chips? Here's a super easy and quick use for your delish condiment.....

Baked Chicken and Salsa

Ingredients:

-2-4 chicken breasts (depending on your family size)

-salsa

-mexican cheese 

-taco/fajita seasoning 

-pepper 

-olive oil

Directions: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Pound out your chicken breasts a bit. Brush some EVOO on your chicken breasts and then sprinkle taco/fajita seasoning and pepper. Place chicken in an 8x8 baking dish and pour salsa over it (enough to cover chicken). Then sprinkle with cheese. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until chicken is thoroughly cooked.

This pairs well with corn! I made this the other night when I was in a hurry because of class and Shawn wasn't home. It was super easy and fast, super low calorie and super delish! 

More blogs to come!!