Ketchup!

I would like to say that I never feed my children any food with high fructose corn syrup or pre-packaged food, but that would be an absolute lie. I would also like to claim that I don't regularly allow my munchkins to eat store bought chicken nuggets with store bought ketchup, but that would also be a lie. There are even days when they eat chicken nuggets and ketchup for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. What can I say? Twelve hours is a long time to work.

Logan regularly asks me what things are made of, chickens, cupcakes, cows, goldfish. I answer him to the best of my ability, as any loving mother would, but sometimes, he gets to a beginning substance. What is chicken made out of? He's gotten to the beginning of the list. My answer for that kind of question is: carbon and hydrogen. He has finally began to accept that answer. He asked me recently what ketchup was made of. Having read the ingredient list on a few ketchup bottles, I could honestly tell him tomatoes and vinegar. That sweet little question and his beautiful, questioning blue eyes got me to thinking about ketchup and how much better it could be. I began to experiment. The most interesting concoction I created was ketchup using balsamic vinegar.


Ingredients:

1 - 6 oz can of Tomato paste
3-4 Tbsp Balsamic vinegar
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp Lawry's seasoned salt
1/2 tsp black pepper

Combine the tomato paste and spices in a small bowl. Add in the vinegar 1 Tbsp at a time, adding more until you get the consistency you want.

Enjoy!