You say tomato, I say toh-mah-toes are delicious

This is my dog, Jack. He's super furry, super cute, and has super weird tastes in food.

That's his spider monkey toy in the background.

Meaning, he loves all fish (mostly salmon and tuna) and, as I discovered yesterday, tomatoes. So this post is dedicated to him. My family has a theory that he was a bear in a past life; he kind of looks like one now- not the grizzly bear kind, but the teddy bear variety. He also has no survival skills and I feel like the other forest animals would make fun of him (for his cuteness) if he were released into the wild, so his bear past life was probably several reincarnations ago.

Princess Jackson

Plus, he'd have to sacrifice the cushy standard of living to which he is accustomed, so I think he's going to stick around in a domestic environment.

Clearly getting sidetracked- this is supposed to be about food that I, and my dog (strangely enough) both enjoy. The other night, I made a tuna melt on whole wheat mini bagels with a side of sauteed baby kale. Tuna melts are a quick, protein (and flavor) packed dinner.

Such a good dinner! And ready in about 10 minutes

First, toast your bagel. The oven won't toast your bagel, so it's best to do this step before preparing the rest of the melt. Prepare your tuna how you like it (I do a bit of mayo, pepper, and lots of chopped celery), and then put it on top of your toasted bagel. Put a few slices of tomato and some cheese as well- I like to use sharp cheddar. Place under a hot broiler until the cheese is nicely melted (should take 5 minutes or so), and enjoy!

Cheeeeeeeesy

I've been using a new method lately to sauté vegetables. Sautéing usually involves using oil, but you can achieve the same end result by using a much healthier substitute, vegetable broth. To make my baby kale (which cooks up very similarly to spinach), I put a tablespoon of veggie broth, and a clove of minced garlic in a medium-hot pan, added my kale, and stirred until it was wilted. It tastes delicious and cuts down on oil! Since I was having cheese and a fatty fish like tuna to accompany my kale, this was definitely the way to go!

I will probably make another tuna melt this week with the tomatoes my brother and I picked in my mom's garden this weekend. While we were harvesting, we threw out some of the more rotten/bug eaten tomatoes into a pile. Jack got into said pile, and had a small (3 tomatoes?) snack for himself. Odd snack for a dog, but he really seemed to enjoy them! We picked a ton of yummy, ripe tomatoes, and since my mom is kind of is overrun by tomatoes right now, so I'm happy to take them off her hands!

Check out those Goliath tomatoes in the back!

I'm planning some tomato and cottage cheese lunches, as well as plain ol' tomatoes with balsamic vinegar and basil! Insanely delicioso and insanely easy! I know Jack is going to miss me when I go back to my apartment...

You're leaving?!?

But I'll be sure to eat many a tomato this week and think of him fondly!

YUM!