Recipe Day!

I decided to unofficially make Thursday the day to post recipes. Today I'm going to share two - an old favorite that I adapted from a college friend's recipe and one I just made up last night when my husband asked for something sweet for breakfast!

Fresh Salsa Two Ways
This is a very forgiving recipe that you can adjust to your tastes and to adapt if you have slightly different ingredients. For example, you can use lemon zest/juice instead of lime, any color peppers you want, or even basil instead of cilantro.

Ingredients
5-6 Plum Tomatoes
2-3 Bell Peppers (I usually use green, yellow, and orange for a colorful salsa)
1 Red Onion (you can use white onion instead, I like red for color)
2-3 Cloves of Garlic
1 Tbsp Fresh Cilantro
Zest and Juice of 1/2 Lime
1/4 - 1/2 cup Vinegar (add more or less for your tastes)
2 Tbsp Olive Oil
Cayenne Pepper, Salt, and Black Pepper to taste
+/- 1 medium can of Tomato Sauce (no salt added)

Preparation
Wash, seed, and dice the tomatoes and peppers. Finely dice the onion and mix it with the tomatoes and peppers in a bowl. Mince the garlic or use a garlic press; add to the other vegetables. Finely chop the cilantro and add to the bowl. Add the lime zest and juice to the mixture. Now you are at the point where you get to add more or less of the vinegar, oil, salt, and peppers to your taste.

After getting the flavor just right you can stop right here and you will have a delicious fresh salsa. If you are like my husband and prefer to have more of a "saucy" salsa, add the can of tomato sauce. If you want some of each, split the salsa you have made in half. Keep 1/2 as is and add a small can of tomato sauce to the other half.

Easy Berry Bread
This recipe was a creation of my desire not to go out to the store, to use ingredients from my pantry, and to make something really quick while the baby was sleeping that my husband could have for breakfast. I always prefer to make things homemade, but sometimes you just don't have time. Think of this as a Semi-Homemade recipe ala Sandra Lee on the Food Network...

Ingredients
2 pouches of Pillsbury Muffin Mix (I used one Mixed Berry and one Blueberry)
1 cup of skim milk
1 3.9oz cup of Mott's Healthy Harvest Blueberry Delight applesauce
1 cup of frozen blueberries

Preparation
Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Grease a loaf pan (or use a silicone one as I did). Blend the muffin mixes, milk, and applesauce together in a medium mixing bowl. Stir in the blueberries. Transfer the batter to your loaf pan and bake for approximately 35 minutes or until a knife inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Enjoy!