Bloody Mary Bisque (Healthy and Easy!)

I know, I know - Bloody Mary Bisque? What?? Well, as per usual for this time of year, I'm getting heaps of tomatoes from the CSA and it's game on versus the fruit flies to see who gets to eat them. Usually I make some form of tomato soup for my end game. Deconstructed, what is tomato soup? Tomato juice and seasoning. What are Bloody Marys? Tomato juice and seasoning. I've never been happy with using canned tomato sauce or the V8 types in my soups, so I figured I'd check out the liquor aisle. Because that always has the answers.What sold me was a new horseradish mixer. I can usually take or leave a Bloody Mary, but if there's horseradish, I want six. The nice thing about making tomato soup with mixer is that you get a bunch more flavor without having to use a bunch of cream.

Ingredients:
1 TBS butter
1/2 onion, roughly chopped
6 cloves garlic, lightly crushed
4 medium-large tomatoes, cut into chunks
1.5 cups of your favorite Bloody Mary mixer
.5 cup broth
Salt and pepper to taste
1/2 cup milk, half and half, or cream if you really like
1/2 cup Greek yogurt
1/4 cup vodka (optional, but it's Bloody Mary Bisque)
Big handful basil, chopped

Directions:
One reason I like making soups is that since it all gets blended together anyway, it doesn't really matter how you chop stuff. So throw your butter in a big pot with a lid, turn the heat to medium, and once it melts, toss in your onion. While it cooks a bit, crush your garlic, and toss it in too. Give it a stir a couple of times until the garlic and onion start to brown.

Toss in your tomatoes, mixer, broth, salt and pepper. Cover and cook 20 minutes or so until everything is nice and squishy. Turn off heat. If you have an immersion blender, stick it in the pot and puree. If you don't have an immersion blender, go get one. With the blender stick running on low, slowly pour in your milk, then add your yogurt. This will help prevent the dairy from curdling, which it likes to do when it gets hot.

Add your vodka and basil, and stir it all up. Taste and adjust seasoning if needed. Cheers!

Easy Caprese Mac n Cheese

Behold, it is tomato season, and we are loaded with tomatoes! Also, because it has been hot, I have not felt like cooking in the slightest. There are recipes going around for doctored up ramen, but easy mac is more my specialty. You can add healthy veggies, extra cheese, meat if you so desire, and no hot oven! For this recipe I used Annie's white shells and cheddar, but really any will do. Also, if you already have some basil pesto, you can skip half the prep and toss in the pesto with the tomatoes. That was my original plan, but then I remembered I already ate all the pesto. Oops.

Ingredients:

1 box instant Mac n cheese

2 tomatoes, diced

4 cloves garlic, minced

3 tbs milk or milk substitute (or however much the box of Mac says to use)

1/2 cup mozzarella, grated (I didn't really measure this, more just grated directly into the pot...)

Large handful basil, finely chopped*

Drizzle olive oil

Drizzle balsamic vinegar

Salt and pepper

Directions:

Cook your macaroni in a pot of boiling water, as directed by the box. Drain in a colander. Drizzle a bit of oil into the macaroni pot and on very low heat, sauté the garlic for one minute. Add milk and cheese powder to pan and stir, as directed by the box. Put macaroni back in pot. Throw in mozzarella and stir to combine. After a minute of melting, add tomatoes, basil, salt and pepper to taste. Continue heating and stirring another one to two minutes until everything is warm and mixed well, and the cheese is all melty. Serve with a drizzle of vinegar on top.

Wasn't that easy?

*Chopping tip: Stack the leaves of basil on top of one another, roll up, cut thin slices cross ways, then cut those strips in a couple places lengthways.