Bruschetta makes everything better.

I learned to like brown rice because of bruschetta.  The irony here is that once upon a time I used to HATE tomatoes. I'm sure they felt the same way, until my friend Lindsey introduced us properly. Since that glorious day when she force fed me a piece of her homemade Tomato Basil Bruschetta we have been close friends.
I now keep a batch of the tomato topping on hand at all times and it has been used on everything from omelets at breakfast to fish at dinner.
So when I got the news that I had to cut calories, I knew that I wasn't going to lose my friend bruschetta. No way... not now...not ever. They can pry the goodness from my cold dead... well you get the picture.

The classic recipes usually contain more olive oil than balsamic vinegar, but that doesn't work for me now.  Because I wanted the ability to closely monitor the fats I chose to make my Hypo Bruschetta without oil. Instead, I add it in if necessary on bread but I use a sprayer from Pampered Chef that has olive oil in it.

So here's my recipe for
Hypo Bruschetta Topping
(Keep in mind that I NEVER measure this. )
5-8 roma tomatoes, chopped
6 leaves fresh basil, roll them together and slice (it's called a chiffonade if you want to sound fancy)
1 few glugs of really good balsamic vinegar2-8 cloves fresh garlic (the amount varies depending on how many people I may have to talk to after I eat it)
1-2 tablespoons onion, chopped
Mix all of this together and let it sit for a little bit before devouring.

Here are a few things I like to do with it
1) Do the classic thing. Use it as a topping on whole wheat bread. Add a slice of fresh mozzarella on top and pop it under the broiler until the cheese is melted.
2) Cook up a few egg whites to top a toasted whole wheat english muffin and put this on top.
3) Use this instead of pasta sauce.
4) It's very good with leftover chicken on a lettuce salad.
5) Saute it with some olive oil and whole wheat ravioli.
6) Add it to steamed green beans.
7) It tastes great on grilled chicken, tilapia, salmon and beef.
8) Stuffed peppers! Use bruschetta, brown rice/wild rice blend and ground turkey to make an amazing stuffed pepper. (I really ought to blog about this one sometime cause it is sooo good.)
9) Add a few pieces of mozzarella and some bruschetta to brown rice or pasta. I take this to work a lot. About a minute and 30 seconds in the microwave gives me a delicious lunch.
10) Use it as a topping on a baked potato.