Mini Pizza Flavored Snack Tomatoes - A New Favorite

If you remember a week or two back, I posted about getting some fruit and veggie overages from our local food bank. 
 
I was going to freeze these little cherry tomatoes and use them in stir-fry but when I tried them in a stir fry that night, the girls didn't like them in it as there were lots of skins and both girls that were home commented on how they didn't like that. 

In the past, I have dehydrated tomatoes but the only time I use them is in omelets as I usually use canned or fresh in other meals. I have two girls that really aren't tomato crazy but Princess One has always enjoyed dehydrated tomatoes. 

I have never just liked snacking on them myself as I would rather have dried fruit for snacking. That is..... until now!!! 

I decided to get creative and dry some tomatoes for Princess Five for Christmas as the freezing idea was out so I pulled out some of the spices I had in the cupboard and sprinkled them onto some cherry tomatoes I had cut in half to dehydrate. 

My new favorite spice is the one I have posted about before from San Fransisco Herb Company. There are two herb companies with the same name so make sure it is the one that is in San Fransisco with only one store as the other has had rodent problems. 
 
The Italian blend is my favorite. I clipped this off their site.
"A salt-free blend of fine cut Italian herbs. Contains no additives.
Ingredients: Oregano, Basil, Rosemary, Thyme, Sage, Marjoram."

It is about $8 a pound bulk. I think that is a great price for the quality of the herbs. I also used some of the curry powder I purchased from them on some of the other tomatoes I dried. 

I used "Real Salt" from Redmond, Utah that has natural iodine in it on both sets. 

I thought about using the seasoned mix I show here but wanted to warn you about using premixed flavors. The mix flavors sound wonderful but some have cheeses or oils in them that can go rancid so if you aren't going to eat them immediately, they may not last long in storage. Since sometimes I have things stored for a few years, I don't want to put anything on them that may make them go rancid. 

I have to share that I was a bit hesitant to actually try them as I hadn't been a big fan before but I couldn't stop once I tried them! They were so good. It tasted like home made spaghetti sauce or a fresh made pizza. I just kept popping them into my mouth. I actually MADE myself stop as I shared I have been having some health problems and I was worried eating too many may cause my stomach distress so I only let myself eat a handful. 


I have had some daily as they are SO good. For those who are Raw Food eaters, vegans, fruitarians or any other limited diet type of people, these are a new favorite snack. They are right up there with kale chips and raw crackers for my favorite snacks.