The Best Fruit Vegetable

I grew up on a love for tomatoes - green tomatoes, baby tomatoes, red tomatoes, I ate it all. I put tomatoes on a lot of things that generally would go good with tomatoes on it, such as pizzas and salads, tacos and burritos. I used to eat sliced tomatoes with salt on them because I never originally liked them plain and sliced, and salt added flavor to them, but then somehow I grew out of wanting to put salt on my tomatoes anytime I would slice them if I wasn't eating them whole. I could also eat containers of the baby tomatoes all day, because they are a great snack when you're not wanting to spoil your appetite entirely, but they're just that perfect summer snack and hit the spot every time.

I've never been to an actual summer camp, although I had always wanted to when I was a kid, but my parents could never afford it. Also, because I hated being away from my mom or staying anywhere that would be too far away from her, and for much too long. People probably wouldn't think of tomatoes as being a favorite summer food, or summer camp food. You would often think more direct summer food such as cooking smores by the fire or just roasting marshmallows, and maybe even some burgers or hot dogs on the grill. But, who would think of tomatoes? Maybe some people would, who knows.

What's weird about tomatoes is that they can be considered as both a fruit and a vegetable. I've always seen them as a vegetable, since they're used in a lot of food dishes and condiments, such as pizzas, salads, tacos, burritos, pastas or pasta sauces, ketchup, etc. But as a fruit, I can't see it as anything more than the fact that tomatoes are very soft, like peaches, and with the juices that they have as well, too. There are people who hate tomatoes but love ketchup, and people who hate ketchup, but love tomatoes. My fiance' actually doesn't care for either ketchup or tomatoes, but he will use ketchup every once in a great while, and he will only eat tomatoes if they're diced, and if there's not a lot of them. I love ketchup and I love tomatoes, so it all works out for me, LOL.

When I was a kid, I always used to pick tomatoes out of tomato plants in people's yards if they were offering to give them away, and I always took as many as I could get my hands on, because as a kid, if you're getting one of your favorite snacks for free, why not take advantage of that? My dad also used to have a neighbor from one of our old houses, who's wife planted a tomato garden as often as she could, and would specifically let me be the first person to take first grabs on all of the tomatoes. My dad would often tell me to stop taking all of their tomatoes, but they would tell him that they were okay with it. I still remember those people, and I miss them and their beautiful tomato garden...

Another thing from when I was a kid is that I used to be a huge fan of this book called, Harriet the Spy, and I remember when she would pack the same thing for lunch at school every day - a sandwich on white bread with tomato and mayonnaise. As disgusting as it sounded, it also sounded kind of good too, and I wanted to try it out for myself, so I did. Sometimes I would add a slice of cheese just to make it more sandwich-y. It actually wasn't half bad, even without the cheese on it. Just don't overdo it with the mayonnaise like I've done, because then you will be grossing yourself out, LOL. I've been hooked on this kind of sandwich basically ever since then, but I actually haven't had this sandwich itself in quite a while, although I have recently had some tomatoes, though. I even put tomatoes on all of my subway sandwiches and wraps whenever I get them, because I feel like tomatoes just add that extra "mmph!" to a certain food.

Even while I was pregnant with my son between November of 2020 and delivering him on June 20th of 2021, baby tomatoes, and tomatoes in general, were always something that I had to have as a snack, and I'd eat them so much every day. I was told that I had to eat certain things in moderation, but of course though, who really does that? Eating in moderation makes you feel so limited, but I guess it has its pros, too. But when you're pregnant, you're not satisfying your moderation, you're satisfying your hunger for both you and your baby.

Tomatoes are juicy and sweet, and they go good with just about everything, even things you wouldn't have thought of before. Honestly, I could eat tomatoes every day, especially baby tomatoes. I used to get them on every grocery shopping trip with my fiance', or at least try to, but sometimes we didn't always have the money for them, so instead we just bought what we were going to eat for dinner that night. I think tomatoes are a great summer food, because you can eat them right after you buy them from a grocery store, or if you pick them directly from a tomato garden, but just make sure you wash it off first though, before you eat it! Or, you can put them in the refrigerator and have them be cold, then take them out and cut them up or eat them however you want, and let the coldness makes it feel so refreshing!