My avocado and egg smash up is featured on today's DailyBuzz HealthyLiving site.
I'm excited to try some of the other recipes, especially the dark chocolate avocado mousse.
Congratulations to Peanut Butter Fingers, Running with Tongs, Skinny Taste, Kahakai Kitchen, Fun, Fit and Fabulous, Green Lite Bites and Bran Appetit.
Go get some avocados and give whip up one of these excellent recipes.
Years ago, when my parents were visiting from New York, I decided to serve them some avocados. Joe, my dad, was less than enthusiastic having only had unripe, unflavorful avocados up until this point. He remarked upon how he stayed away from avocados at all cost because they were tasteless and held no appeal for him. His opinion was forever changed after I served him a California Haas avocado.
Once it was served up simply diced drizzled with some olive oil, pepper and salt, I thought his head was going to explode. I think he thought I was a magician of some sort because I had picked a perfect avocado. The teacher in him asked me a million questions about why our avocados were so much tastier than any he had eaten before. And, how did I get that pit out so perfectly?
I figured it was because they are grown here and we are lucky enough to have a year-round variety, the Haas avocado, available at all times. The avocados we've had in New York are a harder, taller variety than the Haas. According to this website, I'm thinking Joe is getting something like a Zutano avocado. The taste is much lighter and not quite as creamy as the Haas.
I eat a lot of avocados. I'm also lucky enough to have a group of friends and co-workers who love food as much as I do. We don't work in the food industry, but we all love it. Whenever I'm trying to come up with a recipe for a particular ingredient, I tend to take input from everyone at work. I spend an equal amount of time working with them as I do working on this site, so it makes perfect sense that if I can make something they'll love to eat, we all win.
The egg smash-up is an Israeli dish, I think, that my friend Anastasia started making for us. It's really a simple mix of equal parts hard-boiled egg and avocado, with some salt and pepper. It's great on everything from toasted baguette to rice cakes. It'll keep you going for hours, too, so no need to worry about getting hungry anytime soon!
My friend Robby suggested the smoothie recipe. I was not always a fan of smoothies, but something about the combination of banana and avocado sounded good to me. You can use either regular milk or almond milk here. The almond milk gives it a nice nutty flavor. I don't recommend using rice milk, though, because it's almost too sweet next to the banana and honey. And, the combination of the almond milk, avocado and banana makes the smoothie smell like the beach.
Lastly, my other friend Ari makes a wonderful guacamole. I don't think mine even comes close. But, it does have a great fresh flavor and nice piquant onions to offset the smooth and tangy avocado.
I know when I'm in New York this summer, if I can find some avocados I'm going to break out these recipes and blow Joe's mind.
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PREPARATION
Serves 2. Prep time, 5 minutes; cook time, 0 minutes.
Cook’s note: You can use almond milk or rice milk instead of regular milk.
INGREDIENTS
PREPARATION
Serves 4. Prep time, 5 minutes; cook time, 0 minutes.
INGREDIENTS
PREPARATION
Serves 2. Prep time, 5 minutes; cook time, 0 minutes.
Beans and rice in any form are a wonderful, homey, warm, satisfying dish. To be honest, I hadn't had much in the way of really good Mexcian, El Salvadorean or Nicaraguean food until I moved out to California.
When I was 16, I got on a plane to Los Angeles from New York. Gran fran sent me off with a bagful of food, which, if memory serves me right, involved a salami sandwich on Pepperidge Farm white bread with Mayonnaise, pretzel sticks and M&M's. I felt very grown up on that trip. It was my first solo cross-country trip. Old enough to seem like I belonged on that plane alone, but young enough to revel in the free sodas and movies (yes, movie headphones were free in those way-back days).
My friend's family picked me up at LAX and asked if I was hungry, which I was. They drove to a small Mexican food stand and said the fish tacos were the best thing to order. I hadn't had much Mecxican food growing up, so had no idea the goodness I was in for. That fish taco changed my life! It made me realize there was a whole world of spices and herbs that I had never even thought of. I still recall the satisfying crunch of the lightly battered fried fish against the cilantro and cumin-spiced beans to this day.
Once I moved to California, there was a wealth of Mexican and El Salvadorean food choices, and I have been in heaven ever since. A favorite dish, casamiento, which is essentially rice and beans was introduced to me in the recent past. The version I've enjoyed the most is served at Panchita's here in San Francisco. Trying to recreate it has proven fruitless, so I can only satisfy my yearning for casamiento at Panchita's. I do, however, make a nice non-spicy rice and beans dish that has a similar homey/satisfying texture and flavor to it.
So for me, beans and rice were really just that: black beans, rice, some sour cream, sharp cheddar and if I'm feeling adventurous, diced red onion and avocado. It's one of my first out-on-my-own fast eacy comfort foods. I've been making this or a variation of this dish for close to 20 years. My rice and beans is only for me, sometimes my family, too, but it's not the kind of dish I even think to serve to guests.
I am including a real Casamiento recipe here, for those of you who have the time and heart to put into it.
Otherwise, this is how I make my own, lovely rice and beans. Enjoy!
serves 4
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