Tomato Mozzarella Castles

I know most people hate grocery shopping, but I love it.  What’s great about the grocery store is that everything is affordable. What other store can you say that about? (No… we’re not counting Dollar Tree). Even Wal-Mart carries some expensive gizmos and gadgets that you’ll think twice about before purchasing.  But not the grocery store. AND the prices of everything seem even better when you split the bill with your significant other/roommate. Yea I know that the 2 of us will finish the food in half the time it would take me to alone, but it still makes me feel better when I get that $400 bill and know I’m only paying half. $400!? I know…a little much. But it’s not always that high! It’s just that I hadn’t been to Trader Joe’s in months and went a little overboard.  D (as we shall now refer to my boyfriend, so I can stop saying “my boyfriend” – eek) was not too helpful picking things out – but he did bag the groceries. Even though it may have been better if he hadn’t…When it comes to bags – beware – Trader Joe’s only has paper and you absolutely cannot cram 12 cans/glass jars into 1 bag and expect it to make the trip home. I told D this beforehand – does he listen? Nope. What happens? O about half the bags rip right down the middle and so we are running up and down the street from the car to the apartment lobby, cradling the bags as if they were newborn children. We’ve even got passerbys helping us at this point. But that’s not the end of it. One of the bags – (the one D packed full of cans and glass jars – I’m not placing blame, just stating the facts) – rips and falls to the ground, splattering 26 oz of tomato sauce (and glass) all over D and the lobby floor. By now we’ve got everyone in the lobby glued to our circus act. Thankfully security lends us a moving cart (yep one of those carts they use in hotels to bring up suitcases) to transport our groceries, and cleans our mess up.  Moral of the story – pack light when using paper bags. What on earth does this have to do with tomato castles? Well it was these tomato castles that I made after we had finished sorting through our mess of groceries!

Ingredients:

4-5 oz mozzarella, thinly sliced

1 large tomato, thinly sliced

1 avocado, thinly sliced

1/8 small red onion, thinly sliced (just a few slivers for each layer)

2 tablespoons olive oil

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

2 teaspoons cilantro, chopped

1/2 teaspoon honey

2 tablespoons lemon juice

salt, to taste

 

Directions:

1.Combine olive oil, ginger, pepper, cilantro, honey, lemon juice and salt.  Set aside.

2. On a plate layer tomato slice, mozzarella slice, avocado slice, and red onion slice. Repeat 1 or 2 more times. Drizzle mixture on top of tomato castles.  Garnish with fresh basil leaves.