Fresh Tomato and Cucumber Salad

Love the look of cut up fresh vegetables. 

So an interesting thing happened the other day at my Moms. She was having a gathering with some friends. Their was your typical mix of foods at the event. There were jello salads, broccoli salad,  coleslaw, potato salad etc...  You get the picture. The thing that was interesting was someone just brought a salad like I posted today. That was the one that got eaten the fastest. Their was hardly anything left of it. It made me so happy that people were drawn to the healthier option. It made me so happy. We can make the world a healthier place one recipe at a time. 

This is a super easy recipe and looks so pretty and fresh. This is a great to use some of my tomatoes from my garden. 

Ingredients

English cucumber sliced thin
6-7 Roma tomatoes sliced thin
1/4 C olive oil
2 minced garlic cloves
1 tsp thyme or fresh if you have it
handful of basil leaves chopped thin
salt and fresh ground pepper to taste

Directions

1. Place cucumbers and tomatoes in the serving bowl.
2. In a small bowl mix together oil, garlic, and thyme until all combined.
3. Pour on to the vegetables and toss until all the vegetables are covered.
4. Toss in the fresh basil. (You can substitute dry 1 to 2 T dry basil if you don't have fresh)
5. Salt and pepper to taste.
6. Serve at once for best results or cover with plastic and store in fridge until ready to serve.

Tomato Basil Zucchini Soup

We have a very large amount of Roma tomatoes this year. Tomatoes are what grow best for us. It sounded really good to make some soup on Sat. It had been rainy in the morning. I loved this soup. It had such a wonderful flavor. Yum! I even had some cold yesterday. 

Ingredients Serves about 8.
3 lbs Roma tomatoes (Little less or little more works too)
1/4 C olive oil = 4 T olive oil
2 tsp salt
3/4 tsp pepper
2 T olive oil
1/2 yellow onion chopped (I just chopped in the blender)
1/4 purple onion chopped up
3 garlic cloves pressed
1/2 a zucchini sliced up
1/2 red pepper chopped
1/8 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
3 fresh basil leaves (if you have them)
1 T dried rosemary
3 to 5 T dried basil leaves
4 C water (add more if it is too thick)
Directions
1. Heat oven to 400. Toss tomatoes that have been sliced in 1/4 pieces, into a bowl with olive oil 1 T basil and a little salt and pepper. Spread on cookie sheet. Roast 45 min. Don't let them burn.

2. In a large pot heat on medium heat onions, garlic with and oil,  and red pepper flakes until golden brown. Add zucchini, red pepper, and spices, and let cook a couple minutes. Then add the water. Then add the oven roasted tomatoes too. Bring to boil and then simmer about 35 minutes or until thickened. The flavor gets better as it cooks. I put the large chunks of vegetables and some liquid, into a blender and pulse for a few seconds.

3. You can add more spice if you prefer. It is wonderful to have extra! I love this soup and it freezes well for lunches! =)