Hunt’s Heart Healthy Tomatoes

Jenny and I differ in a lot of ways (what? You hadn’t noticed?) and not the least of which is our feelings on tomatoes. When we were kids, we went to our grandmother’s house every Sunday for lunch (and still do a lot of times!) and during the summer, Grandma would often set out a plate of sliced tomatoes, fresh from her garden.

Jenny would gobble them up – I would not.

Suffice to say that neither of us were focusing on the nutritional aspect of our meals – we were just happy to scarf down Grandma’s cooking – but it turns out Jenny was doing something good for her body as she ate one of her favorite foods. Check out these tomato facts:

— An article published in the March/April 2011 American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine titled “Tomato Consumption and Health: Emerging Benefits,” demonstrates the significant nutritional advantages of increasing tomato consumption. Emerging research underscores the relationship between consuming tomatoes and tomato products with reduced risk of certain cancers, heart disease, ultraviolet light-induced skin damage, osteoporosis, and other conditions.

— Because tomatoes are so nutritious, the new Dietary Guidelines for Americans say people should try to eat one more serving of them each day.

— The lycopene in canned tomatoes, like Hunt’s, is easier for your body to use than from raw tomatoes, and you get seven times more lycopene from canned tomatoes than from the raw version.

To be honest, I am still not a fan of raw tomatoes – and unfortunately, neither are my kids. But (ironically) we all love tomatoes in things (I could eat salsa every day of the week and I seriously have a ketchup problem), so we can still get the health benefits. And as I’ve been trying to do more cooking at home, I find that canned tomatoes are something I always like to have on hand, because they can be put in just about anything!

I probably use them most often for chili. Kate’s birthday is Friday, so she gets to pick what we have for dinner, and she has requested her favorite – chili spaghetti. I think that might be an Ohio thing, so for those of you who have never heard of it – it’s just chili over spaghetti (instead of sauce, preferably covered with shredded cheese and onion). I often make this the day after we have plain chili, as a way to use up the leftovers but not be boring.

So here’s my recipe, dedicated to my birthday girl!

chili from the freezer 2 SQ

Chili Spaghetti
Ingredients:
2 pounds ground beef, browned and drained
1 large onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 14.5 oz cans of Hunt’s diced tomatoes (I like the petite diced with mild green chiles, as pictured above. Sometimes I use one of those and one original diced if I don’t want it to be too spicy)
2 8 oz cans of Hunt’s tomato sauce
1 can red pinto beans, drained (I like the kind with seasoning made for chili)
2 T chili powder
1 T ground cumin
salt and pepper to taste
Spaghetti, cooked and drained

Directions:
Brown ground beef with onions, garlic, salt and pepper. Drain, and put beef mixture into a slow cooker. Add tomatoes, tomato sauce, chili powder and cumin. (I add the beans at this point, because I want it to be done when I get home from work, but if you want them to be firmer, add them in before the last hour it cooks). Cook on high for 2-4 hours or on low for 4-6 hours. Serve over cooked spaghetti, and garnish with onions and cheese.

That’s one way we get our lycopene – how do you get yours? Who would you dedicate a Hunt’s tomatoes heart-healthy recipe to?

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I’m being compensated for participating in the Hunt’s campaign through The Motherhood, but the thoughts, opinions and love/hate relationship with tomatoes are all my own.

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Pretzel Light Sabers FTW

Thanks to the advice of our uber-smart readers, the pretzel light sabers Sam and I made for his school birthday celebration were a hit. Check them out!

Sam was a great helper!


(Don’t ask me why this picture isn’t formatting the same way as the others…grr!)

The finished product!

They were so cute (and I had so many supplies left over) that we are making them again for Kate and Sam’s family birthday party on Sunday. YUM!

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Easy-Peasy Comfort Food

I’m really enjoying my gig as a member of the Shared Tastes Panel (go ahead, click and check out my fellow panelists!) for ReadySetEat.com.   I mean, fer realzies, they are paying me to cook dinner, what could be better?  And the recipes are delicious!   Here were my two favorites I tried this month:

Cheesy Chili Mac

This Cheesy Chili Mac was the easiest thing I have ever made in my life.  And it was SO good!  Just a box of regular old mac & cheese mixed with a can of Wolf Brand Chili – ta da!  Quick, easy, wonderful comfort food!  It was a real hit at my house and definitely one I’ll be making again. Possibly today for lunch ’cause MAN that photo is looking good right now!  And I still have both ingredients in my pantry!

My next favorite  – Spanish Rice – seriously had me running back for seconds.  Happily, I made a whole bunch of it and was also able to have some leftovers the next day which were just as amazing as when the meal was fresh!

Spanish Rice

What made this meal even more fabulous was that it was E-A-S-Y to make – literally just dumpedabunchofstuffinaskillet and let it simmer.  And it was soooo good my mouth is watering as I’m writing this!  So, so, SO good.  I know Spanish Rice might not be the first thing that comes to mind when you think of comfort food, but put a little colby jack on the top of this dish and it is extremely comforting.  Let me tell ya.  And look at all those veggies in there!!   Tomatoes, corn, peppers – it’s a winner!

Part of the reason Ready, Set, Eat meals like the ones I’ve talked about are so easy to make is because all of the recipes on the site are seven ingredients or less!  And many are all made in just one pan or skillet so clean-up is a snap.  I’ve gotten to the point where I look for recipes on the site based on what I’ve got in my pantry and I can almost always find a simple fit – it doesn’t have to be when I’m cooking for review.  The site is so easy to use that I’m going to it a couple of times a week.  I love the recipe box feature and the fact that you can search by keyword, ingredients, and how much TIME you want to spend preparing the meal.  There are so many great features that make finding a recipe for and preparing dinner as simple as possible.

So, if you haven’t checked out ReadySetEat.com yet (but surely you do everything I recommend, right??), GO FOR IT!  It really is where you’ll find hundreds of answers to that age-old question: “What’s for dinner?”

Check it out, and let me know what looks good to ya!  OR what you’ve already tried!

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As I mentioned, I am being compensated for my work on the Shared Tastes Panel.  But I pinkie-swear I am telling the truth about these recipes.

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