This pantry item is very common; however, the quality can be quite different depending on what brand you buy. Did you know that some brands contain high fructose corn syrup as an ingredient? I went to the pantry this morning to grab a can of crushed tomatoes and that’s when I realized all I had was tomato paste.

I decided to make my own crushed tomatoes with the stem tomatoes that had been sitting on the counter. To make your own crushed tomatoes, you can pulse canned whole tomatoes in a food processor or do what I did – cut the stem tomato in half and then squeeze each half through your hands into a bowl. The skin of the tomato was thick so after squeezing each half of the tomato, I then cubed each half. I was pleasantly surprised how easy it was to make my own crushed tomatoes! Each summer, our garden is over flowing with various kinds of tomatoes. I will now be able to have more confidence in the quality of what I’m putting into my dishes.

Crushed tomatoes were used in my Parmesan Pork Sausage Stuffed Zucchini Boats (all pictures associated with this blog post are copyrighted by www.LLHealthyFit.com)

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