My Kitchen View

So, we have lots of tomatoes! And I'm thinking that I simply must make a tomato pie one of these days. I've never made one and never eaten one but I'm pretty sure I would love it. I also must make BLTs (Bacon, Lettuce, and Tomato on buttered, toasted bread with real mayo) - they are a summer staple and one of my mom's favorites! Do you have favorite tomato recipes?

Last night, we had vegetarian taco salad...so simple and filling. We really enjoy using black beans and cheese as the proteins over mixed greens with sour cream or plain yogurt, salsa, avacado, tomatoes, and tortilla chips. It was delicious and healthy. One of my personal goals lately has been to incoroporate more vegetarian meals into our diet. My family doesn't mind eliminating meat for a few meals a week and I love the challenge of finding creative ways to enjoy meatless meals.

My latest, fun project was the cupcakes for my two-year-old son's birthday. He chose them from a great book - Hello, Cupcake. The book has amazingly creative cupcakes that are do-able for the home baker. Last year I made circus cupcakes from the book - they were super cute but I'm happy to report that these were less time consuming and generally easier. :) My little guy was thrilled with the results and I changed up the cupcakes to work with the time constraints and ingredients available. I did a cupcake display instead of 24 nearly identical cakes. I liked the result! Check out the book if you are a cupcake fan! The picture below is the main design - little fishbowls.



Don't forget to enter the GIVEAWAY! It's a super cool, fun, and inspiring cookbook!