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Yes, yes, I have a thing for roasted tomatoes lately. The juices I get out of them make me omit a salad dressing, and cooked tomatoes are supposedly better for you as the vitamin C is easier to absorb, and the antioxidants and lycopene supposedly goes up too.

Sitting on the couch, enjoying my morning bowl of oatmeal and coffee, I wondered what to do with the 2lbs of campari tomatoes I greedily bought from Costco. I decided I could make something for lunch, then it dawned on me that I could make a roasted tomato salad with red quinoa, acorn squash, and baby greens.

(No picture, since I haven’t made this yet. I’ll let you know how it goes.)

1lb campari tomatoes
approximately 10 pearl onions
5 or more cloves of garlic
1/2 acorn squash
1 cup quinoa
2 cups water or stock
5 leaves fresh basil
1 tablespoon dried oregano
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
Baby greens
Roasted nuts for garnish (walnuts or pine nuts)

Wash and stem the tomatoes, then place on a shallow baking pan. Score the bottoms of each tomato with an X. Halve the pearl onions and place on the same pan. Peeled garlic cloves can also go on the same pan.
Drizzle with a tiny bit of olive oil, season with salt and pepper.

Halve the acorn squash, and place in another baking pan sliced side down. Add about a 1/4″ of water to the pan. Place both pans in the oven at 400ºF for about half an hour. Remove tomatoes/onion/garlic pan from oven and let rest. Remove squash from oven, drain water, turn cut side up, add butter, salt and pepper, and broil for 15 more minutes.

Prepare quinoa by rinsing with water, then placing in saucepan of boiling water or stock. Reduce heat and let simmer for 15 minutes.  When cooked and still hot, dump into large bowl and add oregano and basil. Pick out garlic and onions, slice finely, and toss in the same bowl.

When squash is cooked, peel and cut into 1/2″ cubes. Toss into quinoa bowl and stir. Gently add tomatoes and oils and juices from the roasting pan and stir to combine. Drizzle with balsamic vinegar.
Let cool. Toss with baby greens, sprinkle with nuts and serve.

Optional: drizzle with olive oil.

Now, this will make a lot of salad, but I had 2lbs of tomatoes to start with. This could probably be my lunch for an entire week, but I’ll most likely also serve this as a side dish to roasted or BBQed meat.

We were low on groceries at the beginning of the week and I didn’t want fast food, so I walked to the grocery store on my lunch break and searched for inspiration. I made enough for dinner and leftovers, and when I brought it in for lunch the next day I received so much interest I took a picture and twittered it.

3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
50g of wine salami (originally I wanted proscuitto, but they didn’t have any so I went with another salty meat)
1/4 cup toasted pine nuts
Pesto (I get mine ready made from a jar)
1 cup grape tomatoes
2 fat cloves of garlic
1/4 cup shredded italian cheese of your choice (optional)
Chopped romaine, or your choice of greens

Score the grape tomatoes with a vertical slit and place on shallow baking pan big enough to also fit chicken. Drizzle with a tiny bit of olive oil.

Thinly slice garlic cloves. Remove the chicken tenders from each breast and set aside. Butterfly each breast and lay flat on cutting board. For each chicken breast, smear a tablespoon of pesto, add a couple of slices of garlic, a sprinkling of pine nuts, and slices of wine salami. Roll up and place on pan, opening side down. Add another tablespoon of pesto and smear on outside of chicken. Coat the chicken tenders with pesto and add on the same pan.
Place in 475ºF oven and roast until the internal temperature of the chicken reaches at least 165ºF. Add shredded cheese and broil until cheese is melty and brown. Remove chicken and slice. Place atop washed greens. Pick out tomatoes and tip juices onto everything. Garnish with more pine nuts, and a splash of balsamic vinegar, and serve.

When I brought this in for lunch, I put the sliced chicken and tomatoes in a small container, and brought the romaine in a separate one. I warmed up the chicken in the microwave until warm, threw the leaves into a pretty bowl, and topped with the chicken and tomatoes. As I was eating it I was reflecting, “I love this diet of mine”.