Food Facts and the Horror of Fire-roasted tomatoes

Ok maybe the title is just a tad dramatic, but hear me out. Tonight, for dinner, I was in the mood for something Mexican-y. I was thinking enchiladas, but after having 2 slices of pizza for lunch--so much for being conscientious, huh?--I decided to roll with the chicken tortilla soup, since it's always a favorite of mine. This recipe called for fire-roasted tomatoes. Now, I'm not really a fan of canned vegetables, but tomatoes couldn't be so bad, could they?

My local grocery store was having a "can-can" sale, and most canned items were crazy cheap! So I'm thinking, "perfect, I'll buy the things for the soup, and save money in the process, yaayyy!". I Googled one of the canned tomato brands that was on sale, and found this splendiferous (I still can't believe that's a real word. I thought I made it up) website called Foodfacts.com . What this wonderful site does is rate groceries by their ingredients, nutritional content, and it also highlights ingredients if they are controversial. Also, if you click on any ingredient listed under a certain item, foodfacts.com will give you the information on it!

Herein lies the horror.

No. Brand. Of. Fire. Roasted. Tomatoes. Received. An. "A". Rating. Shocking, right? Neither did any chicken stock/broth brands. That, to me, is disheartening that we can't get an A rating on foods we all trust so easily. One of the ingredients found in several of the brands of fire-roasted tomatoes was called "calcium chloride". Sounds harmless, right? While it may be safe for human consumption, let's hear what my new friend Foodfacts.com says about calcium chloride.

"The anhydrous compound is commonly used as a drying agent, absorbing water until it dissolves into a liquid. This characteristic makes it effective in settling road dust. When spread in the form of a powder or flakes, it absorbs more than its own weight of water, forming a liquid that keeps the road wet. It also is used as a food preservative, treating aquarium water, and for de-icing roads."

Um...What? De-icing roads? Canned tomatoes? Nah, bro. I'm good on that. This has brought me to a whole 'nother level of awareness of how crappy the food industry really is. So I made my own fire-roasted tomatoes. Sans the road de-icer. Super easy. Here's how.

I bought 3 pints of grape tomatoes because they were on sale, but any tomatoes will do. I used two pints to make 16 oz of fire-roasted tomatoes. 

Pay no attention to the fact that only 1 1/4 pints of tomatoes are here. Use 2 pints. 

1. Slice tomatoes in half lengthwise and squeeze all the seeds out. (I later poured the seeds into my composting bin.)

2. Turn on broiler. 

3. Place tomatoes cut side down on cooking apparatus. If you're using large tomatoes, you can use the broiler rack. I don't have a broiler rack, because my oven is ridiculously old. I think it was used to make the meal at The Last Supper, but I digress. I just used a baking sheet/cookie sheet to place the tomatoes on, and made sure the oven rack was at least 9 inches away from the broiler flame.

4. Leave in the oven for 5-7 minutes, until skin is nice and roasted, and tomatoes are soft.

5. Let cool, remove from pan. Place on cutting board and roughly chop.

6. Add salt if desired.

Dassit!

And this was DELICIOUS! The only downside is you that these tomatoes can't defrost your car's windows.

I'll take this as a lesson to continue to make as much of my own food as possible, and continue to eliminate prepared foods from my diet unless they are "clean". It doesn't feel good to know that we put this kind of stuff in our bodies unknowingly. Lesson. Learned.

Let's get ready to compooooosssst!!

One day, as I was browsing Pinterest (what else is new?), I saw someone had pinned some "Composting 101" tips. Me being the Suzy Homemaker Martha Stewart wanna be that I am, I figured, why not find out more about this magical dirt-making process. As soon as I saw how easy it looked, I HAD to try it. With me being more conscientious and all, this was right up my alley! So, I begged my husband to come with me to Home Depot to get all of the supplies (Just kidding--what man do you know needs to convincing to frolic in the manly playground that is Home Depot?).

Here's what I got:

1   orange Home Depot bucket with cover
2   Rubbermaid garbage bins (only because they were on sale for $14 for 2. Who could say no to that??)
2   12" bunjee cords


That's all you need!

Before I go further, let me give you a little crash course in what composting is. Veggie/Fruit Scraps. Dry leaves/paper. Heat. Moisture. Time. BOOM, Composting.

Now that you have your composting degree, let's keep it moving. Next, I used a power drill to make holes in the "sides" and top of one garbage bin so that my impending compost pile would be nice and aerated.

You have no idea how long it took me to figure out how to change the drill bit size. But I was determined to do it before my husband realized I was struggling. 

Next, I used the bunjee cords to secure the lid to the bin.

In the other bin, I began to gather my "brown" composting items. This consisted of shredded newspaper, shredded cardboard, an old t-shirt (torn and shredded)...oh, and my entire Christmas tree. By the time I was done ripping up and shredding all the brown material, my hands were dryer than Gandhi's sandals, but this is why God invented lotion.

Ok maybe not my ENTIRE Christmas tree, but just the leaves. 

Over the next week, I collected all my scraps from the cutting board, salad that went uneaten at dinner, onion peels, fruit peels, used coffee grounds, used tea bags, corn husks, etc. Here's a nice comprehensive list of green and brown items you can compost. I was really surprised at the amount of space I saved in my garbage bag by collecting veggie and fruit scraps!

Just one week of green item collection

Before you just dump everything together, it's important to know that a certain ratio of browns and greens is desired in order for the bacteria to break down the composting items into dirt. From many of the sites I read, a 1:1 ratio is fine. Some even spoke of a 1:3 green to brown ratio. I chose to stick to a rough 1:1 estimate. We'll see what happens in time. I made a thick "bed" of dry brown items at the bottom of the compost bin (the one with the holes and bunjee cords), then added my green items. On top of that, I added some more brown items, mixed it all around, then sprinkled some water to the mix. I'm about 80% sure I did this wrong, but after some Googling, I saw that I was ok for the time being. The next time I add to my pile, I'll sprinkle some water on top of each layer of items. After everything was all mixed up and sexy, it was time for the fun step.

My puppy went nuts when I was rolling this thing around. And that, folks, is my first composting experience!! Let's hope it actually makes dirt! LOL. I have a tendency to mess things up the first time I try so here's hoping I didn't! I'll regularly post updates on my compost, and whether I'll have some deliciously rich dirt for my veggie garden this summer, or just piles of rotten crap sitting in my yard.

Quinoa Cake "Lazy Breakfast"

      So recently, I stumbled upon a delicious-looking recipe on Pinterest---as I often do. Being a consumer of all things burger-esque, this recipe for basil quinoa cakes was right up my alley. I made these beauties about a week and a half ago, and put the excess in my freezer. Another thing you'll soon discover is that I. FREEZE. EVERYTHING. I can't tell you how many times the contents of my freezer have saved the day. Anywho, on one particular morning last week, I was having one of those "lazy breakfast" days, when I want something delicious but don't want to put much effort into making something fancy.

Frozen quinoa cakes to the rescue! Oh, and if you haven't tried quinoa, yet, you need to.

Since these cakes are so versatile, I figured they'd be just as delicious for breakfast as they were for lunch the other day. With a little effort, and 10 min to spare, I came up with this.

If you, too, would like to join me in this lazy breakfast endeavor, follow along, grasshopper. I shall show you the way.

Things you'll need:

• your frozen or freshly made quinoa cake
• chopped tomato
• 1/4 of an avocado sliced
• half a cup sliced onion
• 1-2 eggs
• Extra Virgin Olive Oil or oil of your choice
• salt and pepper to taste

Bare with me, as I'm no Rachel Ray, and haven't the slightest clue about telling people how to cook things.

1. Heat oil over medium heat in pan. Add onions

2. Let onions brown under medium heat for 5 minutes. Stirring occasionally so they don't burn.

 When done, they should look like this.

3. While onions are browning, or after they've browned, reheat quinoa cake. If using microwave, make sure you sprinkle some water on both sides of the cake so they don't dry out in the microwave. 

4. Cook eggs to desired doneness, season with salt and pepper to taste. 

5. Assemble egg, then quinoa cake (or quinoa cake and then egg. No one's judging you, here.), avocado, sauteed onions, and tomatoes.

Voila!! Deliciousness and nutrition in less than 10 minutes! Lazy never tasted so good. 

My Uncreative Introductory Blog Post

What do you mean by Uncreatively Conscientious?
Uncreative:
         I'm not creative. Like, at all. But people seem to think I am, so I just roll with it most times. I am artsy and tend to dibble and dabble in just about everything, and probably have way too much confidence in my abilities. But me? Creative? Pshhh! Do you have any idea how long it took me to come up with this blog title??
        What I'm really good at is re-creating, and putting my own spin on things that are already in existence. This is a place where I'll come to share these recreations with those who care to read about them!

Conscientious:
        For the past year or so, I've been finding myself in a more conscientious place, and strive to make my life as fulfilling as possible. To me theres nothing more drab than monotony. I try just about everything, love DIYs, up-cycling, projects, and finding ways to eat healthy and delicious meals. My take on it, is that I want to feel good about the things I do in life, and believe that we get so caught up in our day to day, that we forget the abundance of things that are available to us! My plan is to experience as much as I can, be conscientious about the things I do to my body as well as what I put out into the environment! Life isn't just for taking, it's also for giving back.

Everything you'll find on this blog will have to do with my continuous effort in trying to live a more conscientious--(there's that word again)--life. Beauty products and tips will be as natural as possible. The foods will be whole, clean foods for the most part. The DIYs will often focus on upcycling, double-use products, recycling, and gardening.

I'm not great at a lot of things. But that'll never deter me from trying them and enjoying the fruits of my labor! I hope, at the very least, this blog can inspire you to step outside your box and do something that makes you feel a bit more fulfilled.

By the way, who the hell are ya??
Oh, hi. I'm Kimora.     :)