Our Meatless Meal

We have been having a pretty calm weekend.  Labor Day for us is always low key because school always starts the day after.  Labor Day Monday means getting everything ready for school, going to bed early etc..  We are also dog sitting one the cutest dogs ever again this weekend.

Looking around the kitchen today, I realized we had a large amount of produce that needed to be eaten. I had at least 6-7 regular size tomatoes, and 20+ cherry tomatoes.  I also  had 5 ears of corn, 4 avocado and a watermelon from our last visit to the store.  It felt like a great day to have a produce dinner. (with some leftover macaroni and potato salad thrown in )

Homemade Sweet  Salsa 

I decided to try and make my own salsa with the tomatoes.  I searched online  for a recipe, but I was missing too many ingredients for most of them.  I decided just to throw together what I had on hand, and see what happened.  We were all pleasantly surprised with the results.

I cut up 5 small-medium tomatoes.

I  then cut up some sweet onion, and red bell pepper.  Most salsa recipes called for lime juice, which I  did not have.  I saw I did have a some red wine vinegar, and some olive oil.   I added a little bit of both, hoping that the flavors would blend well together.  I wish I had some fresh cilantro, but I didn't have that either. I added in some crushed pepper flakes, garlic, salt and a teeny bit of oregano.

Kara took the first bite, and announced that it was good.  Yea!!  It has a sweet taste with a bit of a bite to it. Next time if I am more prepared I will probably add a few more ingredients to it like fresh cilantro.

I also  decided to make some homemade guacamole with the avocado.  I put 2 avocado, a handful of cherry tomatoes, garlic, and onion in my bullet blender.  The top part was smooth, but when I put it in the bowl, I saw it was a bit chunky underneath.  I didn't feel like putting it back in the blender, and my family doesn't mind chunky guac, so I kept it that way.  Again I wish I had a little bit of lime juice to add to the recipe, but we were able to eat in on lime flavored tortilla chips,  

Fun Tip: I am  going to share a fun way to butter corn that I learned from my grandma years ago.  Put some butter on a piece of bread.   This is quite a bit of butter, but it was Smart Choice brand so it at least it was a bit healthier.

Place the warm corn on the cob on the bread, and fold it up like a bun.  Spin the corn in the bread until it is covered on all sides with the butter.

(Excuse the horrible picture)  When you are done, you have buttered corn AND a piece of warm  buttered bread.  My kids love it eat corn this way.

I am okay now, but just before dinner I thought I might have to go to urgent care.  Years ago I attempted to make roman shades.  While they are not the prettiest, they serve their purpose.  Maybe someday we will get around to actually changing them.

 

One thing that I NEED to fix is the dowels rods in the shade that often slip out of place.  See that dowel sticking out?  Well, that is my face level.  I was in the garden with Kara, when I heard the phone ring in the kitchen.  I ran into the house to get to the phone before the machine picked up, and didn't see the dowel rod.  I definitely felt it when it hit me HARD in the corner of my jaw.  It HURT really bad for awhile.  I took some pain reliever and held ice on it for a few hours.  When I tried to eat, I about fell off my chair.   We were not sure what I should do, so I called a good friend who is a nurse.  She told me that I did the right thing, and if I did go in there really is nothing they can do for that type of injury.  I am glad we waited.  It been almost 4 hours and the pain has subsided.  I was finally able to eat in the last hour or so.  It looks like there might be a slight bruise, but I think I will survive.