Tomatoes

I was lamenting the fact that my tomatoes are taking their own sweet time ripening.  My garden has TONS of tomatoes, but they are in varying stages of ripeness, and the ripe ones start to get overripe before I have enough to can.  Anyway, I dried some a little while ago (in slices), but yesterday I decided to do a little bit of experimenting.  First, I sliced the tomatoes thinly and dehydrated them at 135 degrees until they were crispy (it took about 15 hours for most of them).  Next I stuck them in my vitamix on low speed until they were all chopped up.  Since I use my crockpot so often, my plan is to just throw them in with a little extra water in place of diced tomatoes.  The little tiny jar on the left was quite a few tomatoes...I'm guessing about 10 big dehydrator trays full!  I love that it takes up so little space in my already crowded pantry.  The jar on the right is actually tomato sauce that I made "tomato leather" out of, dried it until it was crispy, and chopped it in the vitamix.  It started out as about 2 cups of sauce, and is now probably only 1/2 cup or so!

Tomatoes!

So, even though I've been complaining about the lack of tomatoes to can, I'm actually not sure that I'll be canning them anyway!  I may have found my new tomato preservation method.  MUCH easier than canning, less time consuming (well, as far as active time), and less storage space.  What's not to love?! 

Overnight Oatmeal

The boys L-O-V-E oatmeal.  It is the most requested breakfast in our house, hands down.  I got a really good deal on some steel cut oats a while ago so between that and the 25 lb bag of rolled oats from WinCo, we're pretty stocked up. 

About a year ago, I decided to try to figure out a way to cook the steel cut oats in the crockpot.  They take a long time to cook, but the boys think they're pretty yummy (I am not really an oatmeal fan), so I figured it was worth a shot.  Let it be known that I am NOT a morning person, so overnight oatmeal was kind of a necessity! 

Overnight Oatmeal
2 c. steel cut oats (you can also use any other whole grain...I frequently do 1 c oats along with 1 c of rice, barley, or some other combination that equals 2 c total)
8 c. water
cinnamon
honey or some other sweetener (obviously optional, but my kids love honey)
I've also added mashed up bananas, applesauce, craisins/raisins/dried fruit, etc. but plain is their favorite because then they add insane amounts of frozen blueberries to it in the morning.

First, grease your crockpot.  It can get a little messy and stuck on around the edges.  Mix all the ingredients.  Cook on low 8 hours.  That's it!  Wake up to already-cooked-breakfast, and blindly scoop it into the kids' bowls while making a nice cup of green tea.  (Archer ate 4 bowls, Preston ate 3 bowls, and Bryton ate 2 bowls of oatmeal/rice with blueberries this morning.  I'm pretty sure that is their favorite combination!)

Now as soon as I finish cleaning up the kitchen we are headed OUTSIDE to work in the garden and clean up from the final phase of the backyard project that is almost done!  The weather forecast for today?!  72 degrees and SUNNY!

Raw Sprouted Hummus

We eat a TON of lentils around here.  They are so yummy, good for you...and you can't beat the price.  (I love WinCo bulk food section!)  I started sprouting a bunch of lentils earlier this week (we're having some for dinner tonight) but I sprouted more than we need for just one meal.  We usually just eat them plain, on salads, sandwiches, etc., but this afternoon I made a yummy hummus out of them!  I'm sure this would work just as well with any other sprouted legume, but since I have a gigantic colander of lentil sprouts sitting on my counter, obviously that's what I used. 

3 c. sprouted lentils
2 cloves garlic
1/4 large onion (or so...I just had part of an onion sitting in the fridge and used it...I think more onion would be better but was too lazy to cut up another one!)
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 lemon, juiced
Fresh parsley (just threw this in because I have an abundance of parsley, I'm not sure it really added anything to it)
1-1.5 tsp cumin
salt & pepper to taste...I think I probably used about 1/4 tsp salt and 1/8 tsp pepper.
olive oil for blending

Toss everything but olive oil in blender (vita-mix!).  Turn it on low speed and add olive oil until it blends freely.  I HATE using the plunger on the vita-mix so I always do everything possible to avoid it.  You could definitely cut down on the olive oil and use a plunger though. 

Yum! 

I have been really focusing on eating more raw foods lately, but I get kind of sick of the standard green smoothie & salad rut that I seem to fall into.  I have also been experimenting with raw (blended) soups, but I don't think the weather is nice enough yet for me to truly enjoy a soup that isn't hot!

Easter Candy

I've been in a bit of a blog slump lately.  Not exactly sure why...could have something to do with the snow we got the other day, or the child who has decided that I can't be out of his sight EVER.  It's been all I can do to throw dinner in the crockpot (and dinner lately has just been soup because I can't seem to do anything other than dump all the ingredients in) and attempt to keep the dog hair to a minimum.  

But last week I almost had time to do something "extra."  I say almost because I started it while I thought the younger 2 boys were sleeping, and Preston was helping me.  We started making Cadbury Creme Eggs (which is - disgustingly, I know - one of my favorites!) and peanut butter cups.  Within about 5 minutes of starting, all 3 boys were "helping" me and it kind of went downhill from there.  I will say that this is not exactly a kid-friendly project if you have 3 boys, ages 5 and under, who are very hands-on.  Unless you want them to end up looking like mine did.  

They still tasted good though!

I didn't have an egg mold for the creme eggs, which probably would've made it a little easier.  Instead I dipped them into the chocolate (while attempting to fend off little boys...which didn't work!).

DIY Easter candy: Peanut Butter Cups & Cadbury Creme Eggs

I'm planning to make another batch of each of these for the boys' Easter baskets!  I think I'm going to make the creme eggs into "pops" next time though, and maybe I'll come up with something else to make too.  We're also planning attempt #2 of dying Easter eggs with natural dyes...last year we tried spinach, blueberries, turmeric, and raspberries.  This year I think I'll try beets for sure, but I haven't decided on anything else yet.

What We Eat

We were "at-home" vegetarians for about 3 years, but in the last couple of months we have started to incorporate a little meat into our diets due to the rebellion of the males who live here (and obviously I'm significantly outnumbered!).  People constantly ask me what we eat because the typical diet revolves so much around the standard meat-and-potatoes.  Vegetarianism seems to be especially rare in more rural areas such as North Idaho, maybe due to the amount of hunting?  Anyway, I've never really liked meat, especially red meat, so it was actually fun for me to explore a different way of eating when we made the switch.  Even now, we eat the majority of our meals vegetarian, and if we're having red meat, I try to make it easy for me to avoid the meat because it just doesn't do nice things to my digestive system (I will spare you the details!).

So, for lack of anything more interesting to blog about (it snowed this past weekend and even though it melted, it still feels like WINTER here, blah...), here is what's on the menu this week at our house!  Notice two things...First, pretty much everything can be made in the crockpot.  I have realized that late afternoon is NOT the time for me to prepare a meal in our house.  The boys don't like to cooperate with that, so I now take the time in the morning to prepare the meal when they are slightly more independent.  This makes for much less interesting meals, BUT it helps us avoid the dinner-time-panic.  Secondly, while I don't really plan it in advance, we always have some sort of a veggie on the side if the dinner isn't chock-full of veggies already.  Along with fresh veggies, I keep a full supply of frozen veggies and home canned green beans!  My boys love steamed broccoli & canned green beans more than anything so we have those A LOT.  Also, the last couple of months, the Aerogarden has been providing us with a couple of salads per week!  Yum.

The bonus of cooking this way: there is virtually no temptation to eat out, because it's all planned ahead and mostly cooked ahead.  The prep-time is minimal.  And it's cheap (except for the fish that we try to eat at least a couple of times per month)!  It's not uncommon for our grocery bill to be around $200/month, not counting another $300 or so per year for stocking up on bulk foods.  I'm hoping this will actually go down since we're expanding our garden this year, but we'll see!

Breakfasts are: granola/yogurt, smoothies, eggs, oatmeal, pancakes (any combination...John is in charge of assembling breakfast in the morning).  Our lunches during the week are generally leftovers, PB&J sandwiches, quesadillas, wraps, etc.  Pretty uneventful.

Monday: We had Black Bean Soup with homemade bread and canned green beans. 
Tuesday: Tonight, already in the crockpot, we are having Vegetarian Curry with quinoa.  I made a couple of substitutions, but that is the basic recipe that I used.  It looks really yummy already!  (This is my absolute FAVORITE crockpot website.  I've made probably 90% of the vegetarian meals from there, and most of them have been good!)
Wednesday: Leftover curry with quinoa.
Thursday: Salsa Lentils with rice (I make a big batch of rice and use it for leftovers)
Friday: Taco Salad, using the leftover lentils, and probably some taco meat for the boys if there aren't enough leftover lentils.
Saturday: Lunch - Split Pea Soup from the freezer (PB&J for the boys since they don't like Split Pea Soup), Dinner - Spaghetti
Sunday: Lunch - Grilled cheese sandwiches & tomato soup, Dinner - Salmon & rice (leftover rice)

There you have it.  Not gourmet by any means, but they are meals that we all like (except the split pea soup), that are healthy, which is a pretty big accomplishment with my picky eaters.  I used to just plan 1 week of meals at a time, but the past few months I've been doing 4 weeks.  It is so helpful to me to plan ahead (and stock up on bulk purchases at Winco!).  I only make it to Winco maybe 3-4 times a year since it's a bit of a drive, so I stock up on dried foods when I go (rice, lentils, beans, quinoa, flour, oatmeal, etc.), and this way I can figure out how much we really need.  The cashiers probably dread it when I go into their line...they have to type in a million bulk food numbers!

Bacteria

A few months ago, I blogged about the yogurt culture that I bought from Cultures for Health.  Unfortunately I let it die, and got lazy and started buying yogurt again.  I thought about buying another culture, but I was still randomly having the yogurt turn out runny (I'm pretty sure it was due to the cold-ish temperatures in my kitchen) and it was frustrating me a little, so I started looking into yogurt makers.

I really don't like "extra" kitchen appliances.  Especially ones that sit out on the counter.  I'm sure that they make life easier in a lot of ways, but I'm obsessive about decluttering the house so things like that just don't belong in my kitchen.  I was debating if I REALLY wanted to deal with all those individual jars and parts...clutter, clutter, clutter!

That being said...I broke down and bought a yogurt maker.  But it's not your typical "plug in and let it sit" yogurt maker.  It's an Easiyo!  You are technically supposed to buy their powdered yogurt starter and use that, but here's what I did instead:
Pour milk into the jar.  Put some yogurt in.  Put on the lid and shake.  Boil some water, pour it into the outer jar (NOT in with the milk!) up to the line.  Put jar (with milk and yogurt) into the outer jar, put the lid on, let it sit on the counter for 8-12 hrs.  I think it actually says you can be done in about 6 hrs, but I think it seems to get thicker when you let it sit for longer.  It made the THICKEST homemade yogurt I have ever made.  It also got the approval of 3 little yogurt connoisseurs who said it was the best homemade yogurt yet (okay, 2 out of 3 said that...the other 1 just ate very enthusiastically).

Easy, minimal parts, electricity free (well, if you have a gas stove, or another way to boil the water), consistent results, and GOOD.  Plus it's pink!  I used a quart size canning jar, but the plastic jar is BPA-free and food grade.  The plastic jar on mine was cracked on arrival, and I don't think I want to deal with sending it back in since I would probably opt for using a glass jar anyway.
 
Bacteria, Part 2. 
I attempted lacto-fermented vegetables. 

I found a REALLY easy lacto-fermented carrots recipe, and since I have a bunch of whey leftover from making cheese, I thought I would give it a try.  YUM.  They are so good.  They taste like dill pickles, and they are just the right crispness after about 4.5 days of fermenting on the counter.  It's definitely going to be a repeat recipe.  Preston, Archer, John, and I all liked them.  B only took one bite, but he didn't say anything negative so I'm not sure if he didn't like it or if he was just in one of his non-eating moods.

I'm now on a quest to find some more easy lacto-fermented recipes so let me know if you find something that looks good/easy/interesting...especially if it's appealing to kids like the "Pickle Carrots" (as Preston calls them).

Okay, Excitement #2

Alright, one more exciting thing for the day (because it's Friday and you can never have too much excitement, right?).

Food Renegade is doing a giveaway for 3 starter cultures from Cultures for Health.  I think I blogged about Cultures for Health on my old blog (or maybe it was here, I get confused!), but I am just getting ready to order some new yogurt cultures from them so I'm REALLLLLY hoping to win this giveaway. 

So now you know.  Go.  Enter.  (Or don't, and give me better odds of winning!)

My Weekend Project

CHEESE!

Since mastering the "art" of mozzarella making, I have been wanting to try cheddar.  The instructions seemed a little intimidating so I kept putting it off...and putting it off...and putting it off.  Once I finally dove into it, it wasn't all that much different than the mozzarella.  It has a few more steps, but really, a lot of the time it takes is waiting time.  

So I now have a 2 lb block of Farmhouse Cheddar on my cutting board.  I can't say for sure that it's a success yet, but so far it looks like the pictures so I think that's a good sign.  In a couple days I'll coat it with wax, and then it will have to age for 2 months or so.  In 2 months, I should know if it was officially a success!

Now, all I need is a goat or a cow for all the milk I'll need to make cheese!

The Best Lentils Ever

We eat a lot of beans/legumes in our house, due to my meat aversion.  I REALLY like lentils because they are so incredibly versatile, but not everyone in our house is as big of a fan as I am.  Last night, however...the boys each ate a bowl of these within about 2 minutes flat.  Even B, who is possibly the slowest eater EVER (alright, he may have taken 5 minutes, but that is still a record). 

Salsa Lentils - I didn't write it down so hopefully the measurements are right!
1 c lentils (rinsed)
1-1.5 c of water
1/2 c salsa
1 quart diced tomatoes (or 2 14 oz cans)
1 bouillon cube (or use broth instead of water)
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp sugar
2 cloves minced garlic
1/2 onion, chopped
Put it all in the crockpot, stir, cook on low 8 hrs.  You can serve this however you want: over rice, as a taco/burrito filling, or make it into taco salad.  If you're going to use it as a filling, you might want to use a little less liquid or vent the lid of the crockpot during the last hour. 

This was GOOD.  And I used the leftovers to make veggie burgers tonight which was tasty too...especially for leftovers!

Road Trips & Bagels

We love road trips around our house. In college, John and I (and sometimes our neighbors in married student housing) used to take off for weekend California road trips on a fairly regular basis. California is a little too far for us to go now, but we did take a long trip down to Utah (and then through Boise and over to central Oregon) recently, and obviously our recent trip to Seattle. Since having kids, I attempt to take as much food along with us as possible for health and budget reasons. Bagels are one of our favorite road trip foods, and the boys think they are a treat because we generally don't buy them unless we are planning to take them on a trip or camping. In fact, for some reason, the boys call bagels "donuts." I'm not sure they have actually had a real donut before, so that could be why they think bagels are donuts.

Anyway, since our Seattle trip was kinda spontaneous, I didn't want to go grocery shopping so I decided to try out a bagel recipe that I had bookmarked a while back. They were a little time consuming, but not difficult at all. I used the recipe from HERE, and the only change I made was to use whole wheat flour instead of bread flour. I just made plain old whole wheat bagels, and they were GOOD! I'm hoping to try it again with a few different combos...hoping to try blueberry, cinnamon raisin or craisin, and possibly tomato basil? We'll see. I'll probably try to make up a couple of batches to freeze at some point.

They even looked like bagels! (Well, most of them anyway...)

In other kitchen related experiments, I tried making rice milk tonight. It's currently chilling in the fridge, but I plan to use it for breakfast tomorrow. We'll see how it turns out! I'm also planning to try making oat milk, but we had rice for dinner tonight anyway so I just made some extra to make milk with.

DIY Cheez-It's!

The boys are driving me just a little bit crazy today (it's been a long week), so I decided to attempt something that has been on my to-do list for far too long: cheese crackers!

At the grocery store the other day, John tried to toss a box of Cheez-It's in the cart. Um, no thanks. Processed cheese product? Blech. (In all fairness to Cheez-It's, I don't even really know what's in them because we don't buy them...) I told John that I had found a recipe a while ago for goldfish crackers, and I would attempt to make Cheez-It's from it. And WHY NOT attempt it on a day when I was already close to pulling my hair out?

TADA!

And guess what? They were easy. I wish I had doubled the batch as the boys declared that they "wanted cheese crackers every day." They taste very close to Cheez-It's (or what I remember of Cheez-It's...it's been a few years), but I think they are a little salty. Also, next time I think I will attempt to roll them out even thinner because the thinner ones were nice and crispy! Yum.

Okay, want to try? HERE is the recipe! I mixed it all up in my Vita-Mix and stuck it in the fridge for about 20 minutes (but next time I will chill it for longer because it was still a little sticky). Then, I rolled the dough out on wax paper (I didn't have parchment), cut it into squares with a pizza cutter and plunked the whole thing on a cookie sheet. Worked perfectly.

Possibly Preston and Bryton are currently cleaning their playroom with the anticipation of more cheese crackers. (Hey, it's not bribery...it's positive reinforcement!)

Making Up for Yesterday

Last night's dinner = complete flop.

Tonight's dinner = complete opposite. I ate WAY too much!

First up: making tortillas! With the amazing tortilla press that my dad made for Christmas. It looks good AND it's functional. So much easier than rolling each one out by hand.

The boys loved helping with the press...because obviously it's a 3 person job! :) I love B's eyes in this picture.

Archer had to sit this one out, but he's just so cute anyway.

The finished product! Yummmmmy.

John, mid-eating. Obviously it was a hit!

Yam Soup & Couscous Muffins!

I have made both of these today, along with some breadsticks but those don't sound quite as interesting right?

I made Spicy African Yam Soup for dinner tonight - it's currently in the crockpot, but I tried a bite and it's good! I decided to cook it in the crockpot because I needed to cook the garbanzo beans anyway (I used dried instead of canned), pureed it in my VitaMix (not in the recipe, but P&B claim that they don't like sweet potatoes even though they LOVE sweet potato fries...anyway, I decided to disguise them!), and then added the rice and peanut butter after pureeing. We're also having breadsticks and some home-canned green beans. Yum.
ETA, regarding the soup: It was NOT a hit. I liked it, but no one else did. Not even John, who apparently REALLY didn't like it since he suggested we go get dinner somewhere, and then proceeded to eat lots and lots of breadsticks. :)

The other interesting thing I made today were these Gritty Banana Mango Corn Muffins. I didn't have any dried mango so I used dried apples, and we also ran out of eggs so I subbed ground flax seed and water. We had them for dessert for lunch and everyone but B liked them. Maybe it was the texture that he didn't like? Either way, definitely unusual (who would have ever thought to put couscous in a muffin?!), low in sugar, and overall pretty healthy I'd say. I think mango would be really good in these - I do have some frozen mango that I could maybe try? I'm not sure it's a repeat recipe, but none of the boys like couscous (even Arch refuses to eat it which is VERY rare) so it was a good way to use some up in a way that at least 2 out of 3 them of will eat.

Granola Bars

excuse the poor quality phone picture - I'm lazy...

I'm taking a break from my kitchen decluttering today to catch up on other (slightly more enjoyable) things. Like making granola bars! I used this recipe but modified it to make it slightly more healthy. Here's what I did:

1 c. steel cut oats

1 c. rolled oats

1 c. whole wheat flour

1/2 c white chocolate chips (I had some leftover from holiday baking)

1/2 c. craisins

1/2 c. wheat germ

1/2 c. ground up walnuts (I don't really like walnuts, but I figured if they were ground up enough I wouldn't notice them...thank you Vita-Mix!)

1 tsp. cinnamon (actually used a little more than that)

1/2 tsp salt

1 egg

1/2 c. honey

1/2 c. rice bran oil

2 tsp vanilla

Press into 9x13 pan, bake at 350 for 20 minutes. Mine were brown around the edges at about 18 minutes so I took them out. Cut with pizza cutter after a minute or 2...then let sit in the pan until cool.

They are plenty sweet even though I completely left out the brown sugar. Next time I might try eliminating the egg and using flax seed mixed with water instead. Or, I might try an even healthier (no bake!) recipe that looks pretty interesting that I found here. My dad happened to leave us with an abundance of chia seeds! :)

Only 10 Days...

Christmas was 10 days ago, but we've been a little busy around here with Christmas celebrations and my parents' visit. My parents left last night, so I guess it's time for things to get back to "normal" around here (except that the boys apparently want to continue their lack of naps which is NOT making me happy...I really could have used a little nap today!).

Anyway, back to the point of this post: my Christmas present! Remember when I blogged about the KitchenAid that I got 90% off at Lowe's? I have a bit of a history with KitchenAid mixers - we got a nice Professional KitchenAid mixer for our wedding, and I burned out the motor making bread. Then I borrowed my Mom's old Bosch mixer which I discovered was infinitely more powerful than the KitchenAid, but after giving it back I had been just mixing up bread by hand. Anyway, I thought I'd give the KitchenAid another try since you just can't beat $15 for a mixer, but sadly it just wouldn't cut it. It was too small and definitely not powerful enough to make 4 loaves of bread at a time. I was a little disappointed, but figured I'd just go back to mixing it by hand.

Well, fast forward to Christmas morning, and my amazing husband got me this beauty:A shiny new Bosch Universal mixer! Apparently, along with being a last-minute Christmas shopper, he's a pretty smart guy. I'm definitely one of those girls who appreciates a good functional - yet thoughtful - gift, so I was not insulted by it being an "appliance". Maybe next year I'll get a Dyson? :)

My other Christmas present (that I bought with my Christmas money) should be here Friday...hopefully I'll blog about it next week sometime!

Lemon Glazed Chocolate Biscotti

I needed a dessert to take to a Christmas party tonight, so I started trying to figure out what I could make that was festive, yummy, and a finger-food. BISCOTTI! But I had never made biscotti before, so I thought I should start with a recipe that was clearly marked "BEGINNER." Thank you, Google: Easy Chocolate Biscotti for Beginners. I have no idea how people managed to cook or bake ANYTHING before the internet. Luckily I didn't have to fend for myself in pre-internet days. I had used up our last eggs earlier in the day making some yummy bread and cinnamon rolls (gave most of them away, thankfully, otherwise I'd be gaining way too much weight), and no way was I going out in the cold just for EGGS! So I thought I'd give it a shot using flax seed meal and water as a substitute for eggs.

SUCCESS!

I've had to restrain myself from eating them all today. I dipped the ends in chocolate, and then made a lemon glaze (just powdered sugar and juice from 1 lemon) to drizzle over them. They are delicious. Perfectly crunchy, sweet, and a little tart. Oh yum. It was time consuming from start to finish (mostly baking time), but not difficult at all. And I made them after the boys went to bed last night so I had purely uninterrupted baking time!

Say Cheese!

Archer is really starting to pose for the camera. He's such a ham. He does a fake smile and sits really still until he hears the click. Then he's off and running, although he occasionally turns and gives me a cute smile while he's retreating.

Really, he's gotta be the cutest 16 month old on the planet.

And in other "cheese" talk, look what I made!

Mozzarella cheese. Mostly gone already, and greatly enjoyed by the boys (okay, John and I might have eaten a little bit too). I also want to try cheddar, but it looks quite a bit more complicated and it has to age so I thought I'd start with this. I definitely liked the instant gratification of the mozz and it was yummmmmy!

Thanksgiving

I'm so behind! But we're not quite a week past Thanksgiving yet, so it's still acceptable right?

We spent Thanksgiving this year with John's family. The boys loved helping make rolls to take along! They seriously love helping in the kitchen, and I'm working on having patience with them in the kitchen. :) It was much easier on Thanksgiving morning because John was there to run herd on Archer while the big boys helped. My patience is definitely better when I'm not trying to chase Archer and monitor the kitchen activities.

The helpers

Sandwich Bread!

I've blogged before about how I use the master recipe from Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day for the majority of our breads (pitas, garlic bread, etc.), but I've used it to try to make plain old sandwich bread and it was just okay. We eat vegetarian at home, so it's not like we are huge sandwich eaters anyway. I love a good veggie sandwich, but the boys (John included) mainly stick to grilled cheese or PB&J, with the occasional chickpea salad (think tuna salad without the fishy taste) thrown in.

Anyway, it's difficult to find a homemade bread that will stand up to spreading refrigerated peanut butter on it but apparently it can be done! I tried out this new recipe yesterday and it was a huge hit. It's by the same authors as Healthy Bread in 5, but it is a bit less...HEALTHY. Tastes delicious though! I did sub a bit more whole wheat flour for part of the all purpose flour (ended up doing about half and half I think). I'm curious about what it would taste like with all whole wheat, but I doubt it would've gotten the rave reviews unfortunately.

I froze half the batch, so when I have time I plan to make the breadsticks (or maybe just another loaf of the bread since it was such a hit).

Finally

Okay, it's OCTOBER and we're still (finally) getting tomatoes.

Yesterday I finished picking the tomatoes and decided that I probably had enough to do either tomato sauce or diced tomatoes (I canned a few jars of tomato soup a couple of weeks ago). I opted for the tomato sauce since we use it more, but in hindsight, I probably should have done the diced tomatoes since it's easier to find tomato sauce to buy in glass jars. Oh well, the tomato sauce was MUCH quicker to do, and since I started this while John was still at work, I kinda needed something low-maintenance thanks to 3 little boys and 1 destructive dog. I washed the tomatoes, cut the bigger ones in half, and tossed them in the vita-mix. I seriously love that thing. It makes my life just a little bit easier.

Anyway, out of that gigantic pot of sauce, I ended up getting 11 pints. My pantry is filling up quickly! I'm hoping for another week or 2 of warm (by warm, I mean above freezing) weather to possibly get enough tomatoes for some salsa...yum!