This Food Is Good!

It looks basic, and it is, but the flavor is very satisfying. First though, I have to give credit to my friend Melvin, who told me how he makes his salsa... and I based my recipe on his. Having said that... it's cheap, easy and healthy. You can prepare it in just a few minutes, and it's easy to make it in large quantities.

SALSA

3-4 Tomatoes
1/2 c. Red Onion
1/2 c. Sweet Corn
1/4 c. Cilantro
2 T. Lime Juice
Adobo Seasoning with Pepper

Dice the tomatoes and onion and toss them in a bowl. Add corn. Chop up the cilantro and add it. Add the lime juice and then shake on the Adobo to taste. Mix it all up and you are done. If you would like, you can mince a clove or two of garlic and add that.

TIP: I use about 1/2 of a can of sweet corn to make this. Take the rest of the corn from the can, put it in a small freezer bag, and freeze it until the next time you are making salsa, soup or a stew. Don't fall into the habit of throwing out extra food that can just as easily be frozen and used in the future.

You now know that I have a refrigerator full of cut up veggies. You also know that I try to use these in as many different ways as I can until they get used up. Now let me introduce you to "Veggie BLT's... in miniature".

Several months back I was craving a BLT, so I went to Trader Joe's, got some Smoked Tofurky slices, some Morningstar Fake Bacon (yes, please call it Fakin'... you are very clever), and make a killer veggie BLT on toasted sliced bread. But tonight... I made them mini... and according to the bf they were way better this way. I agree.

Mini Veggie BLT's

12 pack of small King's Hawaiian rolls
Several Red Lettuce leaves
1 Tomato, sliced
Handful of Alfalfa sprouts
1/2 Onion, diced
1 slice of Smoked Tofurky for every roll you plan on making
1/2 strip of Morningstar Bacon, again per roll
Earth Balance "butter"

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees. While it is preheating, toss the bacon on a skillet. I heat it on one side until it is soft, then flip it and just as it starts to sizzle, turn off the stove. The heat in the pan will cook it the rest of the way and it will be crispy but not overcooked. That stuff tastes great when done right, but is not so wonderful when it's hard and burnt.

Once the bacon is cooling, toss the rolls in the oven. Spend the next few minutes putting everything you need out, this way the veggies are still cold when you eat them. After about three minutes, the rolls will be ready.


Arrange them however you like; this is the order I stack stuff in:
Bottom of roll, lettuce, tomato, alfalfa, onion, bacon, turkey, earth balance, top of roll.

This way, the tomato won't soak into your "meats" and leave them soggy, the onion won't fall out of the roll because it is stuck in the alfalfa, the turkey keeps the bacon and butter from merging, so you notice two really distinct tastes. Am I kind of micromanaging my food? Yes. But I really enjoy how each thing tastes, and this way I get to do just that.

It is really easy to procrastinate making healthy food when it requires a lot of preparation time every time you want to make something. Who wants to spend time every day slicing tomatoes, rinsing lettuce and sprouts, dicing onions and chopping peppers just to make lunch? No one has time to add more tasks to their day, and it creates more dishes.

I go grocery shopping once a week. When I get home, I make it a point to go through and prep the food for cooking. Fresh herbs get rinsed, wrapped in paper towels and stored in a zip lock bag. Lettuce and sprouts get rinsed and stored in containers with paper towels. Everything else gets chopped up and put into small containers. A mandolin slicer will make this go even faster. Rinse the slicer and cutting board between veggies.


This makes it really easy to take your lunch to work (but more on that later)... as it now will take you less than 5 minutes to throw this together:

Whole Wheat Veggie Wrap

Warm a whole wheat wrap or tortilla of your choice on the stove. Just toss it on the skillet, no need to spray. Warm it for a minute before flipping it over to warm the other side.

Spread some hummus (I used the Chipotle Pepper Hummus that I made yesterday) in a line down the center of the wrap. Mustard also works well.

Sprinkle chopped veggies on the wrap. Don't overload it, or you won't be able to hold it together later. I find that you get a better overall taste with chopped rather than sliced veggies.

Top it off with some large pieces of red lettuce, fold the sides over, and you are done.

This photo was taken just before the lettuce was added.