Tomatoes, Tomatoes...

I love garden tomatoes! I planted heirloom tomatoes this year and I've been getting lots of tomatoes from my garden and still not tired of them yet...so yummy. I've been trying to get creative and come up with different ways to use them...of course the easy way is sandwiches and we've been eating plenty of that, plus also pasta with tomatoes is great too, I'm planning to make some homemade spaghetti sauce also, like I did last year, there is lots of ideas and ways to use tomatoes and I'm having fun cooking and making food and meals with them...here is two more ways I've used my tomatoes lately...Mmmm fresh salsa, I never use to like salsa much until I craved it when I was pregnant with my baby girl, now I still enjoy it and I tried making it for the first time, my hubby and I both do not like really spicy foods, but love the flavor of this salsa I made with:
Fresh Tomatoes, Onions, fresh Cilantro, Garlic Clove, and Salt.

Colton liked it too...

Notice how some chips were lost in the salsa...lol.

Some years ago my husband and I were visiting my grandparents and my grandma made a tomato gravy and my husband has talked about it ever since, I don't remember how she made it and I could call and ask her, but I decided to see if I could figure it out on my own and I did, it turned out so perfectly delicious, especially over my homemade cornbread with the freshly-ground cornmeal my husband grinds for me. This is must be southern style food, because I've had some strange looks when I mention cornbread and gravy for breakfast, but it's one of my husband's favorite meals. :-)

I made a gravy base and added fresh chopped tomatoes, a sprinkle of dried basil, McCays "chicken style" seasoning, nutritional yeast, garlic powder, onion salt, and salt.

Cornbread Recipe:

2 cups all-purpose flour (I've also added soy flour and less white flour to make it more healthy)

2 tsp sea salt

2 TBS baking powder

2 TBS sugar

2 cups cornmeal

2 well-beaten eggs

1/2 cup oil

2 cups of milk (I usually use soy or almond milk)

Mix dry ingredients and wet ingredients separately and than mix all together.

Spread in baking pan.

Bake 425 degrees for 25 minutes.

~Crystal Dawn....Homemaker and Mommy~