It’s the new year, and Jason and I are trying to eat healthier. We did a pretty good job already, if I do say so myself. We have smoothies filled with organic fruit and almond butter for breakfast, salads with spinach, kale, apples, red onions, quinoa, and avocado for lunch, and some combination of brown rice, tofu, potatoes, black beans, brussels sprouts and other vegetables for dinner.

We (Jason) makes our own almond/walnut milk to go in our smoothies and we (I) buy organic whenever it doesn’t break the bank. (Thanks Costco near Boulder!)

After the new year, Jason has been eating as vegan (plant-based) as possible, and I’m trying to be supportive by eating mostly plant-based food with him. Also, It would be a bonus if I lost a couple of pounds by cutting out cheese after the gingerbread-cookie-fueled holidays I just survived. Damn you, gingerbread and cream cheese frosting! You do nothing for my love handles!

Jason volunteered to go to the store last night so I wrote a list for him. I put salsa on it. I love salsa. I miss salsa. I dream about salsa. I put salsa on almost everything!

Instead of bringing home salsa, Jason brought home tomatoes, red and orange peppers, a lime, shallots, garlic, a jalapeno, and cilantro and announced that we were going to make our own salsa because, “most salsas have something in them I can’t pronounce” which makes them bad for you in Jason land.

When Jason and I first met, I ate much healthier then his dude-with-good-genes-in-his-20s metabolism required him to. Now I yawn, stretch and try to keep up with his overly healthy ways… by demanding that he let me at least help him make the salsa.

So tonight, I poured us each a glass of wine and took directions as he ordered me to look up a recipe to make sure we didn’t forget anything. (I found this one from Alton Brown.) Chopped a vegetables before throwing them in a food processor. I turned the knob to “blend” and sipped my wine until the mixture was somewhat chunky. Then Jason poured the contents into a mason jar while the rest of the wine down my throat. I may not know how to spell jalapeno (I looked it up) but I do know what’s in this homemade salsa!

Alton recommends letting this sit for 12 hours for “flavor infusion.” I’ll go to the store for tortilla chips. Yummy!