Homemade Tomato Salsa

We put in a huge garden this year. By huge, I mean, HUGE. Fifteen plus tomato plants...twelve or so pepper plants of all varieties green, yellow, red, jalapeno, some red popper thingy (it's hot), banana peppers, onions, herbs, lettuce, celery, beans, squash, zucchini, pumpkins, asparagus etc. Although our garden is big, it can also be very, very simple. My friend Kristeen couldn't have used a better way to describe her garden. She has what they call a "salsa garden", as in they only plant stuff they can use in salsa...so innovative. Well, we have a much larger "salsa" garden, and now that our garden is starting to produce fresh veggies, we are planning many of our daily meals around the excessive amounts of produce from our garden.

This summer has been a hot and humid one. We've been eating lighter meals and dips just to carry us over from meal to meal, since our typical meat and potato dinners are too heavy. Since I've never made salsa before, and we had the ingredients on hand, I decided to make some. There is nothing like FRESH, chunky salsa to remind you of summer! More importantly I know what is going into this salsa (all fresh ingredients), and can regulate the amount of salt and oil used in the dish. Gotta love home cooking any day over store bought, processed foods. Yuck! Plus, it's good for you! How can you be mad at yourself for shoveling eating large amounts of this FRESH, veggie salsa. It's just what the doctor ordered for a healthy heart and mind!

Summer Tomato Salsa

 Doesn't that look so good!?

Ingredients
1 medium red onion
2-3 cloves of garlic
4 large ripe tomatoes
1-2 hot peppers (whatever you have on hand)
2-3 tablespoons of cilantro
2 tablespoons of lime juice
salt and pepper
1 tablespoon of olive oil
1 bell pepper
1-2 tablespoons of red wine vinegar

Chop up ingredients, it's okay if it's not perfect, it's gonna be chunky anyway!

*Side note: I've noticed you can do one of two things to your veggies, one you can leave them fresh OR I've also read that you can saute them to bring out more flavor. Either way, it'll be delicious.

Combine veggies with lime juice, salt, pepper, and cilantro. Refrigerate for 2-4 hours so flavors blend.
Enjoy with chips!


I think hope by the end of summer we will be doing a whole lot of jarring for the winter months!! That'll be a process in itself with a two and four year old running around who want to help. Can't wait!