tomato – Rainy Saturday Creative

I have been subscribing to Bon Appetit for a few years now. I don’t subscribe to magazines so much anymore, so I get super excited when Bon Appetit comes in. I don’t ever cook as much as I think I will, but it is still eye candy!

I received the June/July 2022 issue on Friday. On Saturday I made the curried tomato sandwich on page 56. Today I made the grilled corn with chaat masala on page 54 and tomato salad with jalapeño ranch on page 53.

The curried tomato sandwich was super easy. You are basically toasting bread on the stove top in oil and curry spice. Then you make your tomato sandwich as usual. I did like the recipe and just used mayo and tomatoes, but it would be good with additions like lettuce, bacon, or avocado. However you like your sandwich. You can also use your favorite spice if curry isn’t your thing.

I had to make some adjustments to the grilled corn with chaat masala. The first being that chaat masala has too much of a licorice taste I don’t like. I used Chana masala instead. I also don’t have a grill. I used two frozen mini ears of corn, wrapped them in wet paper towel and microwaved them for five minutes. Separately I combined the butter and Chana masala. Seemed like too much spice to the amount of butter, so I added more butter. Then I heated some oil in a pan on the stove so I could get that charring. Then on the plate I rubbed the corn in the Chana masala butter and added some shredded Mexican queso cheese, I couldn’t immediately find cotija cheese. It was all really good. I will save the Chana masala butter for when I make it again. I am sure I can use it for other things.

One might argue I did not make the tomato salad with jalapeño ranch. I didn’t use jalapeño and I didn’t have any chives. I forgot to add them to the shopping list. So I added more onion spices. I also didn’t rub the tomatoes with oil and garlic. I am sure that is delicious, but I like tomatoes as is too. I used the ranch as a dip. To be honest I think it is kind of weird to throw them on top. It is really good. Maybe next time I will make it more proper, but still leaving out the jalapeño.

Maybe next weekend I will make the Bloody Mary salmorejo on page 52.

Well I thought I was going to blog a lot more! Oh well!

The primary purpose of this blog is not to be a fitness blog. I guess whatever I fancy really! Cooking, art, music, poetry! I do have a hundred-ish pounds to lose, so fitness will be sometimes a part of it.

Tomorrow I see a personal trainer to help me along. Around 2013 I was doing really well with running and the gym. I had gotten from around 246-250 pounds to 230. Then I strained my hamstring (quite sure from boot camp and not running), I had to stop running for a bit, I fell back into old habits, never got back into it. I started to get back into it 2-3 weeks ago and I feel good about it. I have learned I am an excuse queen for working out after my job. Thankfully I am a morning person so getting up an hour earlier to get to the gym at 5am works better. My job starts at 7am. Not a lot of time to freshen up in between, but I must do it.

I am doing a couch to 10K program to get back into running. That is 3 times a week. My goals for now are a 10K and then a half marathon. I will play by ear if I want to do more. I know I don’t have to for my health, which is the most important thing, but it seems to what motivates me to get my ass out of bed and my foot out the door.

Thinking my workouts will be couch to 10K three times a week, one of them being a trail run. Swim once a week. Cross train two times a week. Rest on Sunday, I am not religious, just a good day for a rest. Now my trainer may have other ideas and I plan to be obedient.

First food photo is what I plan on for breakfast that isn’t the usual unhealthy stuff I eat. Though My Fitness Pal says it is 536 calories. A touch high, but I am more a breakfast and lunch person than dinner person. 1/2 cup oat milk, 2 tbsp peanut butter, and 1 tbsp honey blended in a blender (I had a hard time blending them by hand). Then pour into a bowl and add 1/4 cup rolled oats, 1 tbsp flax seed meal, and fruit of your choice. This recipe was inspired by the YouTube channel Make it Dairy Free and their video “what I eat in a day”.

Make it dairy free what I eat in a day

This next thing is a tomato tart. I used the black pepper tart crust recipe from Epicurious Heirloom Tomato Tart recipe, but my base layer is ricotta mixed with salt, pepper and um, canned garlic. On top of that, shredded gruyere cheese, then topped with glorious farmer’s market tomatoes. After the crust is done I put in the toppings, turn off the stove but leave it in the oven for ten minutes. There is still enough heat to melt the cheese.