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.

— 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 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.