Reflecting on tomatoes & health
 

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What a phenomenal year for my kitchen garden tomato crop! I’ve been eating a whole lot of sweet juicy tomatoes right off the vine. But there are so many other ways to prepare and serve tomatoes—slice, dice, chop, chunk and wedge. Garnish a dish with tomato wedges or cherry tomatoes. Serve on sandwiches, in soups, sauces and salads or serve a salad in a scooped out tomato shell.

This is the perfect season to make tomato-based GAZPACHO (salad soup). I found a great recipe for this refreshing meal-in-a-bowl in one of my favorite books on the health benefits of plant-based eating, PREVENT AMD REVERSE HEART DISEASE by Caldwell Esselstyn, M.D. The first part of the book presents the medical, scientific and nutritional basis for dietary change resulting in reversal of heart disease and other chronic diseases. The second part includes 150 recipes created and edited by Ann Crile Esselstyn, wife of Dr. Esselstyn. I owe my restored health to the Esselstyns for teaching me that I could eat well and be well by feasting on a great variety of vegetables, fruits, grains and legumes prepared and served without meat (beef, pork, poultry or seafood, etc.), dairy and added oil. I include the GAZPACHO recipe here along with photos of my visit with the Esselstyns at one of their Prevent and Reverse seminars at the Cleveland Clinic in 2012.

PREVENT AND REVERSE HEART DISEASE has been a life-changing book for those seeking optimum health and hope in the face of healthcare crises around the globe. It will continue to be a game-changer for personal, societal and planetary health. In a few days this extraordinary book will be joined by a new Esselstyn cookbook—THE PREVENT AND REVERSE HEART DISEASE COOKBOOK by Ann Esselstyn and daughter Jane Esselstyn. Mine is already on order. You’ll be hearing more about it from me very soon.



GAZPACHO

3 medium tomatoes

1 cucumber

½ bell pepper any color

1 large rib celery

½ large jalapeno pepper seeded

1 small onion

2 garlic cloves

1 14.5 oz can no salt added diced tomatoes (I used 3 more chopped tomatoes)

½ cup chopped parsley

2 tbls. Balsamic vinear

Juice and zest of 1 lime

Salt & pepper to taste

(I used 2 tbls. Braggs Aminos)

Chop vegetables in blender, chill and serve

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I am sure they are good for you but ahhhhh they are yummy. I used to go out to the tomato plants in the yard with a salt shaker and rub a big red juicy tomato on my jeans, salt it and eat it on the spot. YES!!!


There is one huge fallacy that I have run into since I have moved to The Villages. People, otherwise HONEST and trustworthy people from New Jersey claim that New Jersey grows the best tomatoes and corn. Everyone has always known that the best tomatoes and corn grown in this country are from OHIO!

Our neice was the tomato queen in Reynoldsburg, Ohio.
http://www.everything-tomatoes.net/2..._festival.html

:icon_hungry:
Gracie, I thought that was corn????

from Ohio

I was reared in central New York and never realized how fortunate we were until I began moving around the country. Diary and produce abound truck farmers were plentiful providing super farmers markets and roadside stands. As I recall New York was the third highest in farming communities in the 1980's I do not know its rating today.

I love a good steak with a side dish of tomatoes.

If meat prices continue to rise i may become a vegan:D

Tell ya what, if you ever have a tomato/corn tasting competition, I'd love to sit on the panel and be a judge!

kitchen garden ?
 

[QUOTE=jimbo2012;931372]http://capegazette.villagesoup.com/m...20TOMATOES.jpg

What a phenomenal year for my kitchen garden tomato crop! I’ve been eating a whole lot of sweet juicy tomatoes right off the vine. But there are so many other ways to prepare and serve tomatoes—slice, dice, chop, chunk and wedge. Garnish a dish with tomato wedges or cherry tomatoes. Serve on sandwiches, in soups, sauces and salads or serve a salad in a scooped out tomato shell.


Hi Jimbo, Please tell us about your "kitchen garden". Is it an indoor, outdoor, organic and / or hydroponic?

As a vegan if I had one it would be hydroponic.

We go to Whole Foods in Tampa or Orlando if we're in the area

I bought four beautiful deep red juicy beefsteak tomatoes Saturday morning at the Marion Market - the vendor said they were grown in Kentucky. These are the best tomatoes I've had yet in Florida. I'll go back for more next weekend.

Bless your heart, graciegirl! This one's for you:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BoDVEIUR4xs

But don't forget...Jersey tomatoes have their own song:
Why do they sing about Dixie
And the girls from the Caroline?
The girls from Georgia are peaches.
And the girls from Texas ain't slow.
But why don't they sing about Jersey
Where the great big tomatoes grow
(You 'oughta see 'em!),
Where the great big tomatoes grow?

wait wasn't that Jersey boys

Nope! ;) Dincha ever go to Your Father's Mustache when it was in the City or the one in Pt Pleasant Beach down the Jersey shore? This was a theme song there!

Tomatoes contain lycopene which is an antioxidant. Other red items like watermelon and pink grapefruit also contain lycopene.

I like tomatoes raw in a salad and cooked in soups. Occasionally, I'll even eat one whole with a little salt. But cooked tomatoes provide more lycopene than raw tomatoes.

Lycopene, along with all of the other chemical substances found in tomatoes, is good for the whole body. It's especially known to help prevent cancer but, no doubt, it's good for everything. :icon_wink:

I recall fondly the summer I was introduced to my first tomatoe sandwich ...
fresh bread,mayo,salt,pepper and peeled slices of tomatoe...
Thank you Ms. Dottie for lunch .....EFLAND ,NORTH CAROLINA GARDEN !
Now,summer isn't complete until I have one...
I've 2 this year....
Thank you for starting this blog...