It seems like the weekends go by so fast! I really wanted to sleep in again today 🙁
Yesterday I made shredded zucchini egg whites, a couple pieces of turkey bacon and some fruit – nothing much since I was meeting my Mom for lunch. 😀
I met my Mom at Sweet Tomatoes – the “theme” was lemon – they had a wonderful lemon romaine salad with candied pecans and craisins, a not so wonderful lemon orzo soup, and an interesting sugar free lemon mousse, which unfortunately, the artificial sweetener was too overwhelming.
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I am going to have to try to recreate this soup – it was just one note – lemon! Do you have a lemon orzo soup recipe?
And no trip to Sweet Tomatoes would be complete without hitting up the bread! I had a small slice of sesame bread and a slice of pizza bread:
The best thing I had was a cup of “Chicago style” chili. Not sure what made it Chicago style, but spiked with a lot of Tabasco, it was pretty good!
My mom and I then went to an unusual store called the Treasure Hunt. We think it was almost like an estate sale place – nothing was new and it had tons of furniture. The best part was the “back room” it had box upon box of unusual things! It felt like we were going through boxes out of someone’s basement. Unfortunately, the few things we found to buy weren’t priced yet, so it was a bust. But this was creepy, they had several pirates!
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Since I had Tony’s GPS, we cound another thrift store.
My Mom found something comfy for bed:
And I found a new doll for Hannah:
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Thanks for hanging out with me Mom! 😀
Tony and I lucked out with roma tomatoes – only .49 cents a pound! That meant only one thing: making Baja Fresh Salsa! It’s funny, it’s one of the first recipes I posted back in September of 2008. Considering I only had about 3 readers, two of which were my Mom and husband, I decided to post the recipe again.
Have you ever been to Baja Fresh? It’s a fast food Mexican restaurant and they had the best salsa bar. One salsa was my favorite – it had little flecks of black in it, which I thought was black beans, but turns out it was just charred tomatoes and jalapenos!
Copycat Baja Fresh Salsa (printer friendly version)
- 7 firm medium tomatoes, cold
- 1 small jalapeno
- 1 clove garlic
- 1 tsp. Salt
- 1 ½ cups water (optional, depends on how juicy your tomatoes are)
- juice of 1 lime
- 4 tablespoons chopped cilantro (fresh)
Grill the tomatoes, garlic and jalapeno until charred, but the tomatoes are still a bit firm. Just throw everything in the blender or food processor and pulse until smooth. You’ll be hard pressed not to dip chips even though its still warm! I have kept this in the fridge for up to a week, but usually can it in a water bath for 30 minutes in pint or quart size jars.
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Last night for dinner we had pork roast – we got a deal on this one! I used 2/3 of the roast for dinner, with leftovers for lunch, and cut off two big pork chops for another meal.
Since the grill was already hot from grilling the tomatoes, this cooked up pretty quickly.
For my side dish I decided to make a cauliflower gratin – and while good, I need to tweak the recipe a bit – Hannah thought it tasted like diet food, i.e. not enough cheese! 😀
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I didn’t mean to chop it up so fine, so it ended up looking like mashed potatoes!
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My plate – about 5 ounces of pork and a cup of cauliflower – oh, I may have put some Buffalo Wild Wings Spicy Garlic sauce on my pork! 😀
I am looking forward to working out today – I haven’t exercised since last Thursday! And I am looking forward to lunch – Eating Well’s Hot Chile Grilled Cheese with my homemade cream of tomato soup! It’s a bit chilly today in Chicagoland – but sunny skies, so I’ll take it!
Hope everyone had a great weekend! 😀
ahahahahha. absolutely the CREEPIEST doll ever!!! who even decided to manufacture that!?
– Beth @ http://www.DiningAndDishing.com
That IS a creepy doll! Ack!
If it’s just the addiction to salsa, I’m ok with that…it’s the accompanying tortilla chips that go with the salsa which I struggle with! 😉
You had sent me that baja fresh salsa recipe awhile back and I have yet to try it! But I will, I promise…when my tomatoes come in!
That doll reminds me of Tammy Faye Bakker!
Your mom is so funny – love how she modeled for you (and us!).
My kids would seriously like to have that pirate for their apartment!!! Yarrrr.
Glad you reposted the salsa recipe – it looks good and easy – my kind of cooking!
Have a wonderful day!!!
Ha! Your comment about the doll being Tammy Faye Baker made me laugh out loud! 😀
I love Sweet Tomatoes (out here it’s called Souplantation but it’s the same thing.) They never seem to have good soup though!
oh my GOD super creepy doll. ahh!
That cauliflower gratin looks delicious and I loathe cauliflower!
Ok, that doll is really creepy and I may not be able to sleep tonight! I love sweet tomatoes. We had them in Vegas. I always took way too many veggies on my plate and too much bread too.
Everything looks good – as usual but that piece of bread is making me want to bite my computer screen 😉
haha – that picture of your mom cracks me up! What a hoot!
And, YES, that doll is scary. I think a lot of dolls are kinda scary!
How come weekdays never go as fast as weekends? I think it’s a conspiracy! 😉
I love the idea of adding shredded zucchini to egg scrambles! Amazing creation! And what a delicious meal you made- I just love a pork roast and the cauliflower gratin sounds so inventive and delicious!!! Even if you need to tweak it a little, I’m patiently waiting for your recipe!
Love Sweet Tomatoes! Looks like you and your mom had a great day! Your pictures are you blog always looks so look clear too 🙂
Some delicious eats there! The salsa sounds great!
That doll would totally freak me out…*shudder*. I have a thing about dolls and clowns…
Let me know if you find a recipe for the soup – I used to work in a Greek restaurant and lived off the avgolemono soup. It’s wonderful.
I’m bookmarking this page so I can make that salsa…
Amazing food as always (I’ll have to make the salsa!), but what really got my attention was the doll!!! She looks so sad and real and, yes, creepy!
Happy Monday!
I love your mom with the lingerie, too cute!
I am definitely making this salsa! I always make a pico-like version, but I want that smokey, really good stuff! Thanks, Biz!
Have fun exercising!
Yep the weekends just fly by now. We worked on our yard all weekend and I finally did a light spring cleaning in our big barn!
Love shopping thift stores and The Treasure Hunt sounds like a great place!
Michelle – it’s in Schaumburg – let me know if you want the address! 😀
Wow, what an amazing post of food! LOVE the roasted tomatoes!
I don’t have a lemon soup recipe because I haven’t had it before. Looks and sounds super.
Dang, that was a scary doll! But tell Mama…woo hoo! Sure that wasn’t a real pirate?!
I can’t believe it’s Monday already either! I was seriously tempted to stay home today!
Hmm salsa!
That cauliflower looks delicious! As does everything else ahah
That doll IS creepy! Yikes.
Have a great monday!