The Best Tomato Bruschetta Recipe (2024)

This past week has been both exhilarating and difficult. Exhilarating because I came in #1 in Circle of Mom’s Top Foodie Mom Contest!

Difficultbecause two of my boys (my youngest son and one of the twins) suffered concussions within the span of 3 days, and both of them will have celebrated their birthdays while still experiencing the effects of their concussions. This past Monday was my youngest son’s birthday and today is the twins’ birthday.

The Top 25 Foodie Mom Contest was a long and tough contest with lots of talented foodie moms in the running, so I am honored to have come out as #1 on the Top 25 Foodie Mom 2012 list. I couldn’t have done it without each and every one of your votes for which I am so thankful.My hope is that by winning this contest, that more people will find my blog and gain awareness of “Food as Medicine.”

I would like to thank my family (especially my husband, who is my #1 fan and supporter), my friends (including friends that I became reconnected with during this contest), my devoted followers (thank you for all your shares and retweets), and all the new followers that found my blog along the way. I couldn’t have done it without all of you. The power of friendship, loyalty, social media and networking working in unison throughout this contest was incredible, and I learned so much.

Thank you for believing in what I am trying to do here on Jeanette’s Healthy Living. That’s what keeps me plugging away. That and the indescribable joy that I experience when I deliver a meal or popsicles for friends with cancer and they give me a big hug. These are the small things that you and I can to do to make a difference.

Some people have asked me what the prize was for winning this contest. There is no monetary prize. My blog will hopefully get more exposure so that I can spread the message of “Food as Medicine,” and help others learn more about healthy cooking. I want to empower all of you to feed your families, friends, and of course, yourself, healthy and delicious foods that not only appeal to the senses, but keep you well nourished and free from illness and disease. Please take some time to visit all the other blogs on the list – there are so many talented moms.

Now for the not so good news. Last week, I shared on Facebook that my youngest son suffered a mild concussion. Well, two days later, another one of my boys (one of the twins) suffered a more severe concussion. He was playing soccer with some friends over the long weekend, and the game got a little physical (what do you expect with a bunch of teenage boys!). From what I’ve pieced together, he fell hard on the ground with the back of his head landing first. He’s been in bed the last six days, lying in the dark, coming out once in a while to celebrate my youngest son’s birthday earlier in the week, and for dinner.

Needless to say, this has brought back some bad memories of when my oldest son suffered a severe concussion almost two years ago from football. Thanks to all of you who have been praying for both of my boys’ full and complete recovery. Thankfully, my youngest son’s concussionwas a mild one, so although he missed out on his big 4th grade field trip yesterday, he’s getting better each day. As for my older boy, we went to aconcussion specialist yesterday and assuming his headaches are gone by this weekend, heshould be able to slowlyreturn to school next week. We will be celebrating his birthday today, albeit in a quieter fashion, and are grateful that he is making a recovery.So, to cheer my boys up this week, I made Tomato Bruschetta for breakfast one day – yes, for breakfast! Tomato Bruschetta is one of the easiest appetizer or snacks to whip up. It just requires a few fresh ingredients. Since tomatoes are not quite in season yet where I live, I bought a box of organic cherry tomatoes from a local market. They were not as sweet as in-season tomatoes, so I made a slight variation on a tomato bruschetta that I typically make for my family. I was inspired by a recipe I found on Allrecipes.com and added a little balsamic vinegar and a spoonful of chopped sun-dried tomatoes which brightened up this tomato bruschetta. Marinating the tomato bruschetta overnight also helped draw out the tomato juices.

This bruschetta reminded me of a scene in the movie Julie & Julia where Julie and her husband devour fresh tomato bruschetta, dripping with fresh tomato juices. That scene was the pivotal moment when Julie decides to start blogging her way through Julia Child’scookbook. My mouth was watering after watching that scene again last night, which is why I am calling these The Best Tomato Bruschetta.

Today, a group of bloggers is honoring Julie Powell as #50 in the Top 50 Women Game Changers in Food. This is the last post in this series! I have learned so much over the past 50 weeks about an incredible group of women that have made a significant impact in the food world. Julie Powell is best known for her book Julie and Julia: 365 days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen, which was made into a movie. Julie started blogging about her attempt to cook her way through Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking cookbook, and landed a book deal.

Apparently, Julia Child did not approve of Julie Powell’s cook-every-recipe-in-one-year project. Judith Jones, Julia Child’s editor, said in an interview:

“Flinging around four-letter words when cooking isn’t attractive, to me or Julia. She didn’t want to endorse it. What came through on the blog was somebody who was doing it almost for the sake of a stunt. She would never really describe the end results, how delicious it was, and what she learned. Julia didn’t like what she called ‘the flimsies.’ She didn’t suffer fools, if you know what I mean.

Nonetheless, Julie Powell did manage to get more people in the kitchen cooking, and I think took some of the intimidation out of trying Julia Child’s recipes. Just watch the Tomato Bruschetta scene and you’ll want to makethis Best Bruschetta ever immediately.