Fire Roasted Salsa

When I lived in British Columbia, one of the things I missed was Mexican food. The ladies at my church had a salsa cook one year, and I got the recipe from them. Over the years, I have made it a few times, and changed it as I went, and this time I added a bit of extra kick to it with habanero peppers, and with grilling the peppers, garlic and tomatoes before building the salsa. So without further ado, here is my take on salsa.

This is a cooked salsa, reminiscent of La Victoria or Pace picante sauce (though much better than either).

Ingredients:


6 pounds Roma tomatoes
10 jalapeño peppers
5 habanero peppers
1/2 bulb garlic* (about 6 cloves)
3 28 oz cans diced tomatoes

6 medium onions, chopped
3 6 oz cans tomato paste
3 green bell peppers, seeded and chopped
2 red bell peppers, seeded and chopped
1/4 cup cilantro, chopped

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup white vinegar
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/4 cup Kosher (coarse) salt
1 teaspoon mustard powder
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper

Preheat a grill to medium. Cut the top off the bulb of garlic, drizzle with extra virgin olive oil, and place, cut side up, on the grill. Toss jalapeños and habaneros in oil, place on the grill. Place tomatoes on the grill. Turn as each side blisters and toasts to evenly roast the peppers and tomatoes - tomato skins will blister and pull back. Turn the garlic once to roast from the cut side. Remove all peppers and garlic to a bowl, cover with plastic wrap and leave to steam about 20 minutes. Remove tomatoes to a bowl or sheet pan, allow to cool enough to handle.

Rough chop onions into a large stock pot. Seed and chop bell peppers, add to stock pot. Add canned tomatoes to stock pot. Carefully peel and split roasted tomatoes (I split them over the pot to squeeze out the juice). Discard the peel, roughly chop the tomatoes and add to pot. For the next step, I wear disposable latex gloves. Peel, seed and dice the jalapeño and habanero peppers and add to the pot. Squeeze the garlic bulb and mince half the roasted garlic, add to a pot (the remaining garlic will keep in the refrigerator a few days in a sealed container - yummy!). Add the rest of the ingredients and simmer for 2 hours.

This is great with chips, on eggs, or anywhere else you would use salsa.

Baked Oatmeal Cups

I discovered Sugarfree Mom's Personal Sized Baked Oatmeal with Individual Toppings: Gluten Free & Diabetic Friendly on Pinterest, and thought it could make a great basis for a bariatric friendly quick breakfast - and since we are going to Disneyland next week, I thought I'd give them a try (with my own modifications). Since the rule for bariatric patients is "protein first", I made these as a high-protein breakfast option. And since I love banana nut bread, carrot cake and zucchini nut bread, I made a triple treat out of them. So here goes - with thanks to Brenda - my take on Baked Oatmeal Cups.

Ingredients

2 whole eggs

2 cups applesauce, unsweetened

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

6 packets Splenda

5 cups old-fashioned rolled oats

1 tablespoon cinnamon

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1 3/4 cups milk

1 cup water

2 scoops Protein+ Whey Powder

1 whole banana, mashed

1 whole carrot, grated

1 whole zucchini, grated

2 cups walnuts, chopped

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix eggs, vanilla, applesauce and Splenda together in a bowl.

Add in oats, salt, baking powder, flax and cinnamon and mix well with wet ingredients.

Mix protein powder and water until combined. Mix together with milk. Mix into other ingredients and stir to combine.

Separate batter into 3 mixing bowls. In one bowl, add carrots. In another, add banana and almost half of nuts - reserve some to top 8 muffins. In a third bowl, add zucchini and other half of nuts.

Spray two 12 capacity muffin tins with cooking spray or use cupcake liners. Pour mixture evenly into muffin tin cups. Top banana muffins with reserved nuts

Bake 30 minutes until a toothpick in center comes out clean. Cool and enjoy or freeze them in gallon freezer bags.

These are wonderful, moist and give the essence of the classic breads without the fat or guilt. They are portion controlled, low fat and, if you use certified gluten free oats, they are gluten free to boot! Definitely worth a try.

Per Serving: 173 Calories; 8g Fat (40.7% calories from fat); 9g Protein; 18g Carbohydrate; 3g Dietary Fiber; 22mg Cholesterol; 168mg Sodium. Exchanges: 1 Grain(Starch); 1/2 Lean Meat; 0 Vegetable; 0 Fruit; 0 Non-Fat Milk; 1 1/2 Fat; 0 Other Carbohydrates.