Tomatoes

 We have found some great, local pesticide-free farmers at our Farmer's Market. This seems to be the tomato season. I bought a ton of tomatoes, not really, but the bags were sure heavy. I was able to make 6  jars of spaghetti sauce and we had some left for dinner. There were a bunch of tomatoes left from making the sauce, so I pulled out my dehydrator and made sun-dried tomatoes.

On one batch, I sprinkled onion and garlic powder. The next batch, I left all that off and just did plain ol' tomatoes. They are so easy, I just sliced the tomatoes after washing them and took the yucky top off and put them on the trays. They are delicious! I can't wait to make dressing* and add them to salads. The sun-dried tomatoes I previously bought were not organic and they were a bit pricey. So to be able to make my own and know that they are clean and they are cheaper than the store is great!

The spaghetti sauce I make is Eat to Live friendly. Here's the link, but I made a couple changes. It calls for sugar and I switched for a couple tablespoons of honey, but on the next batch, I'll omit it completely, it's too sweet. The recipe calls for cooking the onions and peppers in oil, I just used nothing and cooked them in a cast iron pan. I also omitted the salt. My family loves this recipe and I love it too and knowing that it's fresh ingredients, locally grown without pesticides!

My husband and I love going to the Farmer's Market together. I love the feeling of filling my counters with fresh food that is going to keep me and my family healthy. It takes a while to process through it all...wrapping the lettuce for storage, adding to my salad bowl in my fridge, and like today, making sauces and drying tomatoes. My kids love scarfing up the fruits that we find. It's such a wonderful day :)

I wanted to share my Pinterest board again, so if you want to check out lot's of vegan, Eat to Live friendly recipes, check it out.

*Sun-dried Tomato Dressing for Nutritarians
1 cup raw cashews
1 cup water
2-3 cloves, peeled garlic
about 1/2 cup dried sun-dried tomatoes and 1/2 cup soaking liquid
1 tsp basil

Soak the sun-dried tomatoes in boiling water for about 15 minutes. While those soak, blend the cashews and  the 1 cup water for about 1 minute in a Vitamix or other high-powered blender. (If you don't have one, just blend on super high speed to achieve a creamy consistency. Add the sun-dried tomatoes with the hot water and the basil and blend until creamy. Refrigerate until ready to serve and keep in fridge for up to a week.