Tomato Bruschette with Basil

To accompany Jasmine's delicious pesto chicken, I made the Food Nanny's Fresh Tomato Bruschette with Basil. I will tell you about the Food Nanny at the end of this post. She is AWESOME! I really enjoyed this recipe because the basil and some of the tomatoes were from my garden.
Here is my version of the recipe.

Ingredients:
2 large tomatoes, chopped
2 T olive oil
2 t chopped fresh basil
1/2 loaf Italian bread, sliced into 1/2 thick pieces (I used a homemade baguette.)
1 whole clove of garlic cut in half (optional)
Olive oil
1/4 c grated Parmesan cheese
salt and pepper

Combine the tomatoes, oil, garlic and basil in a medium bowl. (You can just add some of the garlic if youSet aside

Preheat broiler. You will be broiling on a middle rack so that the bread won't brown too quickly.
Arrange bread on cookie sheet and place it under the broiler. Toast it on both sides. Watch it so that it doesn't burn. It should be light brown.
Remove from the oven. Rub each piece with the cut garlic clove. Brush a small amount of oil on each slice. Spread the tomato mixture on each piece, then top with cheese. (I put pesto on a few slices and it was yummy!)
Put pan back under broiler until cheese melts.
Salt and pepper to taste and serve hot.
(One variation is to top with thinly sliced tomatoes.)

Dinner is served!

If you haven't heard of the Food Nanny, you are missing out! I hadn't heard of her either, until she came to speak at our women's organization at church. Before she came I read over her cookbook. It was all about cooking for families. Since my family was gone, I kind of dismissed the whole idea. Then I met Liz Edmunds, the Food Nanny. She is the nicest person you could ever meet! You just feel like a million bucks when she is around. She greets everyone with a warm hug and huge smile. Her talk was absolutely inspiring. I came home and started using her plan right away. It has made me excited about cooking. It also hase saved me a lot of money on groceries and we are eating better than we ever have. I have tried tons of new recipes.

Basically the Food Nanny's Plan is to assign each night a theme. My themes are Sunday-traditional;Monday-new recipe or new favorites; Tuesday pasta;  Wednesday meatless or breakfast; Thursday international; Friday pizza, and Saturday leftovers. I plan and shop for 2 weeks at a time. You can learn lots more about the Food Nanny here. I highly recommend her book The Food Nanny Rescues Dinner or her TV show on BYU TV.