I know, I’m a day late.  Yesterday was a looooong Sunday.

Anyways.

This past week I had a love affair with dairy.  Buried deep within my deep freeze in the basement was a bag of mozzerella cheese.  High above where the cheese was found there was Trader Joe’s wheat pizza crust. Mmmmmmmmmmpizza.  Hot gooey cheese pizza.

I made my pizza, watched the Royal Tenenbaums while working out and called it a Monday night.

My love affair didn’t end there!  On Wednesday I had sushi with a close friend from college.  Sushi is a rarity and one of the only times fish passes my lips.  its been so long since having it, I had to get used to the texture.  The taste of a Philadelphia roll drenched in soy sauce is so delicious!  (That’s the only time I drench sushi in soy sauce, the saltiness of soy sauce & cream cheese is heavenly).

By Thursday night my face felt crappy and phlegmy from my love affair.  I kept a clean raw food diet over the weekend to get back into shape and clear up my face.

Moving on!
Its summer. Its hot. Its humid. Who wants to really turn their oven on? Especially in an apartment that has an inefficient air conditioning system? I DO!

It is tomato season and one of my coworkers got some Jersey tomatoes for me.  New Jersey stands out for their tomatoes in the NY/NJ/PA/DE area (and blueberries! NJ is the blueberry capital of the US).  There’s nothing better than roasted tomatoes!

There’s several ways to go about making roasted tomatoes.  First, you’ll want to set your oven to 375 (slower roast for big tomatos, typical roast temp for roma sized tomatoes), maybe 425 if you want them to roast faster.

Cut your tomatoes in half horizontally.

–  For each, Spread about 1 T of olive oil/safflower oil over top the tomato.

–  Add a desirable amount of balsamic vinegar, or a balsamic vinegar sauce.

–  Slice a garlic clove and stick in the flesh area of the sliced tomato top (does this make sense? I’ll make more soon and update with pictures, promise).

–  Chop some basil and rosemary and sprinkle it on top.  It depends upon how much you really want on your tomato, the flavors will stand out and can be strong.  I had approximately 3 T of fresh chopped basil and 1 tsp of rosemary.

–  If you want, you can also scoop some of the seeds out at the top and slightly stuff your tomato with the herbs.  (Same place you stuff your garlic).

Stick them in the oven for about 2 hours.  I check every 20 minutes because you just don’t know how fast the roasting process will work (maybe my oven has a mind of its own?).  And you don’t want a too roasted tomato.

You can use these as a side to a meal, or as the meal itself!  You can roast the little itty bitty tomatos (about 325, maybe 30 min? Check every 10) and add those to a pasta dish, a pasta salad, salad, mixed veggie side, risotto,  or any other dish that uses tomatoes.

This week I’m eating all my fresh foods, as I’ll have a busy week and need the energy.  Friday morning I’m going away to Providence, RI for a mini holiday!  I’m really excited to try out some awesome places I’ve read about and review them.

Have a great week!