Preventing Food Waste- "Sun" Dried Tomatoes

Have you ever bought one of the large clam shell boxes of grape tomatoes from Costco or Sam's Club?  I love the Cherubs, but Sam's Club was out of them, so this time it was Zima- orange grape tomatoes.  They are both so sweet!  But when I buy that many, it always seems like they start to wilt before we can use them all.  I didn't want to freeze them (our freezer is packed enough as it is), so I decided to try to dry them in the oven-  to see if they would be sort of like sun dried tomatoes.  Guess what?  It worked, and it worked well! 

When you notice your tomatoes beginning to wilt (the skin starting to pucker), just wash your tomatoes as you normally would before eating them.  Then slice them in half.  Turn on your oven to the lowest temperature- I believe mine was set at 170 degrees.  I put my metal cooling rack on top (lightly sprayed with Pam) of a cookie sheet and placed the tomatoes on, cut side up.  Then I lightly sprayed them again with Pam, and then sprinkled them with sea salt and freshly ground pepper.  Put them in the oven for a few hours.  I began checking mine after about an hour, and about every half hour after that.  They took a good part of the day to dry out.  It is important to keep checking them, though, because some will dry faster than others.  When you check, if there are any that are done, pull them off and let them cool.   

These are red- they are the Cherub kind.  The Zima's turned out orange because they were orange to begin with!  When all the tomatoes are dry, let them cool and put them in a plastic ziploc freezer bag.  You can use these as you would any sun dried tomatoes, but I really like them in pasta dishes.  They add a little sweet tang to pasta that is really good!  You can keep them in the zip bag in the pantry if you dried them fully, or you can keep the bag of dried tomatoes in the freezer, ready to use at any time.  They will at least use a lot less space since they are dried!   Enjoy!

 

I also decided to include a recipe we like that uses the tomatoes.

 

Ranch Chicken with Bacon and Sun Dried Tomatoes

6 chicken breasts (boneless, skinless, trimmed)

6 strips of bacon, cooked crisp and crumbled

1 pkg. Hidden Valley Ranch mix

1 can cream of chicken soup

1 cup Naturally Yours fat free sour cream (If you can't find Naturally Yours, then the Daisy light or fat free will work, too.  If you don't have either of these available, I'm sorry-- but you'll want to use the full fat kind in any brand.  The other brands of light or fat free sour cream just are too gross to be worth using!)

1 lg. or 2 small cloves of garlic, minced

1/4 to 1/2 cup evaporated milk

1/2 cup sun dried tomatoes

 

Spray the inside of a crock pot with cooking spray.  Mix the cream of chicken soup, sour cream, milk, garlic, ranch mix, tomatoes, and half of the crumbled bacon together.  Refrigerate the remaining bacon in a baggie until you are ready to eat.  Scoop half of this mixture into the crock pot.  Lay the chicken down, then scoop or pour the rest of the sauce over the top.  Cook on high for 3-4 hours, or on low for 6-8, until the chicken falls apart easily when you go to cut it up.  I like to just break it with my fingers into bite sized pieces, but you can cut them or shred them, too.  Serve over cooked noodles/pasta, I think the more delicate egg noodles work best.  Top with remaining bacon crumbles.