Don’t end this summer without making this light and refreshing Watermelon Pico de Gallo. It’s fresh, healthy, crisp, and cool!
Keeping my kids busy on the 4th of July while my mom planned for her annual family party was quite a feat. If anyone has a formula for entertaining kids all the while keeping the house clean and orderly, they should definitely market that plan. Like ASAP!
After taking them on a walk, letting them play at the park, allowing them to watch a show or two, entertaining them outside with bubbles and frisbies…I was downright out of ideas. Good ones at least. Apparently folding laundry, cleaning bathrooms, or organizing the pantry are not on a 3 and 6 year olds’ top to-do-list. Shocker indeed.
And then I had a fabulous idea: Burger King, AKA “King Burger” as Braelyn would call it. You see, we passed this Burger King with a two story play place about 2 dozen times during our stay in Utah. Every time we passed it, my kids would gasp in delight, “Can we go there mom??? Look at those slides!”
So on the Fourth of July, I made their dreams come true. We loaded them in the car, bid farewell to my parents for the next 2 hours, and headed to the fast food joint.
Aside from the fact that we would be eating a smorgasbord of delicious food in a matter of hours, I’m not too keen on my kiddos eating fast food in the first place. It is definitely a special occasion in our house. Like, for Emry’s birthday coming up, all she wants is a strawberry cake and french fries. I cannot deny her that request, so McDonald’s will reluctantly be receiving our business on August 2nd.
Anyway, I felt too guilty just using the play equipment without supporting the business, so I went up front to ask if they had apple slices, yogurt, or anything fresh for that matter. The lady looked at me real perplexed and said, “We stopped selling fruit because it just went bad. The closest thing we have to fresh is applesauce.”
Oh boy…it’s a sad, sad world. And so I bought the applesauce and my kids played. Except they only played for 5 minutes because the air conditioning was broken and it was like a stinky locker room sauna in there. We could hardly stand it.
And then I remembered Carl’s Junior/Green Burrito down the street with another play place. What did we do? We packed up and headed to fast food round #2.
Only this time, for our second course of “fast food”, I ordered some tortilla chips with guacamole and it included the self serve salsa bar. Emry loved trying all the different salsas, and surprisingly the pico de gallo was her favorite. She inhaled it!
It was the funniest thing to watch. She would climb the jungle gym, come bounding down the slide, and then rush over to the table to get another chip and scoop of pico. I was cringing inside thinking about all the germs she was ingesting with each bite of tortilla chip, but hey, she was happy and most importantly occupied.
When it was finally time to leave and the family fiesta was about to start, Emry sang all the way to the car, “I love pico, I love pico!” And then she proceeded to tell a handful of relatives about her newfound favorite food. They were quite impressed by her sophisticated little palate.
Needless to say, I had my little Emry in mind when I was whipping up this Watermelon Pico de Gallo the other day.
We had this watermelon in the fridge that we were just not getting through fast enough, and you know me, I refuse to waste. Instead of shoving pieces of watermelon down my hubby’s and kids’ throats for days, I thought it would be fun to disguise it as something different…and then shove it down their throats.
This salsa was so simple to make. It only took some dicing of watermelon, onion, and tomatoes along with some mincing of garlic and jalapeno. Then a few squeezes of lime and honey and a few shakes of seasoning and BAM!!! Fresh watermelon salsa at your finest.
Ben was stoked for dinner that night. Not only does he love anything Mexican food related, but I had also made fish tacos that night with fresh caught Ahi tuna. He literally told me that they were the best tacos he had ever eaten. Then after he finished his entire meal, he proceeded to eat some more pico by the spoonful. And then, miracle of all miracles, he actually heated himself up some leftovers the next day to polish off the rest of the salsa. Yeah, I’d say he enjoyed it.
His favorite part of the pico was how the sweetness of the watermelon and honey paired with the spice of the onion and jalapeno. And then throw in the flavor of the cilantro and other spices, and it’s a home run for sure.
So before this summer is over, and watermelon season has come and gone, add this pico to your menu list. It’s a great potluck party or picnic food for sharing, or make it just for your family because you love them. Either way someone will be happy.
How do you change up eating watermelon?
- 2 tablespoons diced onion
- 1 cup diced watermelon
- 1 cup diced tomatoes
- 1 clove garlic, minced (or ¼ teaspoon garlic powder)
- 1 small jalepeno, seeded and minced
- 1 tablespoon freshly chopped cilantro
- 1 teaspoon honey
- juice of 1 lime (about 1½ teaspoons)
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- dash of pepper
- dash of cinnamon
- dash of cumin
- Prepare veggies and watermelon by chopping, dicing, and mincing.
- Combine all ingredients in a small mixing bowl. Gently stir until well combined. Cover and chill for 4-6 hours. Stir and slightly drain excess liquid before serving.
- Store leftovers in an airtight container in fridge for up to 3 days.
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