Last week I mentioned that my preceptor gave me a bag full of fresh veggies from her garden. Well, those went by fast and I was in need of a new batch.
Yesterday Karel and I headed to the beach w/ Campy and on our way we visited my preceptor and "shopped" in her garden. I think we have enough vine tomatoes to last us a month (well, more like a week if I get super creative w/ my recipes).
Tomatoes are packed with nutrition. Definitely a must in the diet of a healthy and active individual.
You probably know them to be a good source of the phytochemical called lycopene (which makes them red) but they are also packed with antioxidants. Did you know that cooking a tomato creates more antioxidants than eating it raw?
Certainly, cooking may reduce nutritional content in many fruits and veggies (for example, oxidation during cooking causes tomatoes to loose some vitamin C) but a diet rich in plant-based foods (cooked or not) is going to provide your body with a variety of nutrients, more so than any processed or packaged food filled with ingredients.
By the way.....a tomato is a fruit because it is a ripened ovary of a seed plant.
I hope you enjoy my latest creation!
Garlic and Green Pepper stuffed tomatoes
1 large vine tomato (per person)
1 clove garlic
2-3 tbsp chopped green pepper
Olive oil
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees
2. Scoop out inside of tomato with a knife and a spoon (save the inside for cooking).
3. Place chopped garlic inside the tomato and top w/ pepper.
4. Place tomato in casserole dish and drizzle w/ a little olive oil (1/2-1 tsp). Place extra tomato pieces in casserole dish.
5. Cook for 15-20 min. or until tomato begins to brown and shrivel.
Optional: serve w/ green beans, brown rice, black beans and apricot.
For the vegetarians: hard boiled egg
For the meat-eaters: chicken w/ jalapenos.
Karel's plate
My plate
