avocado

Avocado Muffins

June 7, 2018

These muffins are 100% inspired by our recent trip out to California. We were lucky enough to attend Billy’s work conference at a very nice luxury resort in Huntington Beach where they really pampered us with some good food.

Considering that it is California, they really stuck to a healthy “California” themed menu and avocados were all over the place! Even in the muffins! I had never even heard of baking bread or muffins with avocados before (as the main ingredient and not a substitute for butter), but I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised!

The avocado itself doesn’t actually provide a whole lot of flavor. But there is a subtle richness to the muffins that make them delicious all on their own. No fillings or mix-ins needed!

However, I can totally see myself making these muffins again and mixing in some blueberries, almonds, or any other favorite muffin mix-in!

How to Make Them

First, cream together the mashed avocado and sugar just like you would butter and sugar.

Next, mix in the eggs.

Then, mix in the flours, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Then mix in the milk until smooth.

I used a combination of whole wheat and all-purpose flour for these muffins to make them slightly healthier and I love the nutty flavor whole wheat flour provides.

Then spoon the muffin batter into a lined muffin tin.

One thing I think these muffins need so they aren’t so plain is a little sprinkle of turbinado sugar. It creates a really crunchy sweet top that makes these muffins even better!

Finally, just bake until the tops are golden brown, about 20 minutes.

And there you have it. Super yummy avocado muffins! Who would have thought of making a muffin with an avocado? I guess I have to thank our trip out to Huntington Beach for this one!

Supplies and Recipe

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Easy Shrimp Ceviche

June 5, 2017

Since returning home from Hawaii, I have been on a bit of a seafood kick (exhibit A). If you know me, you know I have never been on a seafood kick ever in my life. But I am embracing it with open arms. Unfortunately, due to my lack of experience with seafood, I am not the best at cooking it. Which is why I am drawn to recipes where I don’t have do too much cooking (again, see exhibit A).

Some shrimp ceviche recipes that you may see around the internet don’t actually the cook the shrimp AT ALL. Which is great if you don’t feel like cooking or don’t have access to a heat source.

However, I did have access to a heat source and I had no desire to use raw shrimp (and am a bit of a wuss), so I quickly cooked my shrimp in some boiling water before making my ceviche.

HOW I MADE IT

If you want to try your hand at “cooking” raw shrimp with lime juice, be my guest. Instead I “marinated” my already cooked and chopped shrimp in lime juice for about 15 minutes so I still had the limey-citrus flavor.

While the shrimp soaked in the lime juice, I chopped up an avocado, tomato, red onion, and jalapeno. Then I mixed all of those ingredients in with the shrimp.

It’s almost like making a chunky shrimp salsa.

And that’s exactly how we ate it! On it’s own with tortilla chips!

If you love shrimp and hate to cook, you will love this recipe. Just chop up a bunch of stuff and let it sit in some lime juice and you’ve got yourself a snack, an appetizer, or a meal!

It actually made a really nice, light dinner all on it’s own. But you could also eat the shrimp ceviche on a tortilla (like a taco), in a lettuce wrap; or on a cracker.

But I’m partial to the tortilla chips, because they make this dish that much easier!

[amd-yrecipe-recipe:165]

Sesame Crusted Tuna Bowl

May 31, 2017

After returning home from Hawaii last week, I have a new found appreciation for tuna. We ate tuna (ahi) at least once a day in the form of poke at least once a day. It was fantastic. I wanted to come home and make my very own version of poke, but oddly I can’t find super fresh ahi tuna anywhere around Charlotte. North Carolina (not a hint of sarcasm). So the next best thing was some fresh yellowfin tuna I found at my local Whole Foods.

Since I couldn’t confirm that it was “sushi grade”, and thus acceptable for eating raw, I decided to do something a little different with my tuna. I crusted it in some sesame seeds and then seared it very quickly to just barely cook the outside, leaving the inside completely rare. Trust me, it’s delicious!

First find yourself a good tuna steak! I recommend talking to the fish monger and asking how fresh the tuna is. You don’t want something that is anything over a couple days. Then you won’t be able to cook it and keep it rare.

Then marinate the tuna in a mixture of soy sauce, sesame oil, honey, and ginger. Not long. Just long enough to get a little sticky so that the sesame seeds can adhere to it.

Speaking of which, pour out a bunch of sesame seeds onto a plate then press your lightly marinated tuna into the seeds so that you have a nice even layer on both sides.

Now it’s time to sear this bad boy. I didn’t take any pictures of this process because it happened so quickly! Literally, we popped it into a searing hot pan for about 30 seconds on each side. It was just long enough for the outside to cook, the sesame seeds to char a bit, but the inside stays nice and pink.

For the rest of this bowl, I kept it simple. I served the gorgeous tuna over a bowl of sushi rice, with a bit of avocado, and some mango-pineapple salsa. It definitely took me back to being in Hawaii!

Man it was good.

If you want to feel like you are eating lunch in a tropical paradise, make yourself this tuna bowl, turn on a sound machine (crashing waves), and close your eyes. You will basically be there with your toes in the sand.

Now I know fresh tuna isn’t always easy to come by, and it’s not all that cheap, but I promise it’s a lot cheaper than a trip to Hawaii!

[amd-yrecipe-recipe:163]

Roasted Beet and Arugula Salad

June 8, 2016

Have you met anyone that loves beets? Like, are beets anyone’s favorite root vegetable? I would bet dollars to donuts that they are not. I am not sure anyone goes around craving the earthy taste of beets. While I am not a huge fan of these red roots, I have grown to appreciate them because they are just so darn good for you! I mean, they better be or else why would we eat something that tastes like dirt (in my opinion).

While Michelle was in town (we did a lot of cooking while she was here which is why you’ve seen her mentioned in the last two recipes), I wanted to try making a tasty beet salad. We researched some various recipes to get some inspiration, but we knew we wanted to roast the beets in some way to temper that earthy flavor and we also knew we wanted to use goat cheese, because we love goat cheese!

In the end we essentially adapted this Giada beet salad recipe into our roasted beet and arugula salad. She had an easy recipe for roasted the beets which we liked, and a lot of the ingredients she used we already had in the fridge. What we didn’t have, we improvised.

The first step in all of this is to roast the beets. Well, actually it was to boil the beets because the beets must be boiled first before you can do anything with them. If I had know that before, I would have bought the already boiled beets from Trader Joes. But I did learn a lot about boiling them:

Bring water to a boil
Add lemon juice or vinegar (keeps the beets from “bleeding” too much)
Boil for 30-45 minutes, depending on size.
If you have various sized beets, you may need to boil some longer than others

Finally, when the beets were good and boiled, I could peel and slice them.

We tossed the sliced beets in the shallot vinaigrette then roasted them in the oven for about 15 minutes. We followed the Giada recipe to a tee on this one.

While all of that was going on, we assembled the rest of the salad. And by we, I mean Michelle. I just took pictures (it was so nice to have a helper in the kitchen so I could get some action shots)!

The base of the salad is a mix of arugula and spinach and we tossed in roasted pistachios, pomegranate seeds, and goat cheese. Just before serving we added in the avocado and beets, then tossed everything in the same vinaigrette that we roasted the beets in.

Despite my previous words on beets, I actually enjoyed the beets once they were roasted. Roasting them in the vinaigrette cuts some of their earthiness and makes them a tad sweet. It really balances out the creaminess of the goat cheese and tartness of the pomegranate seeds. I absolutely enjoyed this salad and have even bought more beets (already boiled) to make a version of this again for my weekday lunches.

Plus this salad has so many healthy benefits going on in it with the spinach and arugula, beets, pomegranate, avocado, and pistachios. It is packed with so many vitamins and nutrients. And the beets are actually tasty! Who knew that could happen?

If you make this, let me know what you think! Especially if you’re not typically a beet fan. I promise these beets aren’t going to taste like the canned version you might have been forced to eat when you were a kid. They are actually good!

[amd-yrecipe-recipe:40]

Paleo Avocado Toast

May 4, 2016

Is anything trendier than avocado toast in the food world right now? I can’t think of anything. First it was cupcakes, then macarons, now avocado toast.

Well, I have a confession. I have never had traditional avocado toast! I can hear my Californian credibility slipping away as we speak. I love avocados, I love toast, how have I never put the two together before?

Leave it to me to wait until I can’t actually have toast to try my very first bite. Since bread was out of the question, I turned to my trusted friend, the sweet potato, to take it’s place.

I know what you are thinking, sweet potatoes can never replace bread, and you’re right. But the sweet potatoes, once baked and toasted under the broiler, are as good as you are going to get on a Paleo diet. Trust me, the avocado still tastes heavenly on top of the sweet potato. And since the slices are charred a little bit, you still get that toasted flavor.

: Paleo Avocado Toast

I think the key to making Paleo avocado toast is finding the biggest sweet potato you can get your hands on. That will give you the most real estate to pile on the avocado and any other toppings you want. I decided to add bacon on one and an egg on another. All were excellent on their own, but do you know what’s even better? Stacking the bacon and egg toasts together to make a sandwich!

Ya’ll, it was AMAZING. I had to put it down after one bite and take a picture. That’s why this picture is so random because it’s definitely not styled or staged. This is literally what it looked like seconds after my first bite.

I can already tell you that Paleo avocado toast is going to be my go-to breakfast, weekend lunch, snack, you name it for the rest of my Whole 30, and probably afterwards. It’s perfectly filling and a great way to start my day or to give me the energy I need for a grueling workout.

[amd-yrecipe-recipe:27]

Chicken and Quinoa Stuffed Avocados

April 13, 2016

If you live in Charlotte or happen to visit our fine city, one place you must stop in for a bite to eat is Viva Chicken. It’s a fast casual restaurant with some amazing Peruvian chicken dishes. One of their all time best sellers have to be their quinoa stuffed avocados: half an avocado stuffed with spiced red quinoa and topped with a chipotle mayo and balsamic sauce. Sounds so good, right?

Since I can’t eat at Viva Chicken every day (I wish I could), I decided to make my own version of their stuffed avocados at home. Except for my version I wanted to add some chicken and veggies so that I could feel less guilty about calling it ‘dinner’.

While I love avocados, this dish would be nothing without quinoa. Without it, it might as well be deconstructed guacamole. For those of you who have never made quinoa, don’t worry. It’s exactly like making rice! But a little more full-proof, in my opinion. The only difference is that I toast the quinoa before I add in the liquid to boil.

To start, I poured in the dry quinoa into a hot sauce pan and let the little grains toast, stirring every so often, for about 5 minutes. Then I added in chicken stock (water could be used, too) and let it come to a boil before turning the heat down and covering the the dish.

While the quinoa cooked, I sauteed up some bell peppers, onions, corn, garlic, and a chipotle pepper. Once the veggies were tender and the qunioa had absorbed all the liquid, I added the quinoa and some chicken (I used left over chicken breast. You can also use rotisserie chicken.), then mixed it all together. Now the only thing that was left to do was stuff the avocado!

This may be stating the obvious, but I waited until the very last minute to cut open my avocados. If you have ever worked with avocados before, you know how quickly they can brown. Once the filling was finished, I cut them down the middle, removed the seed, then piled on a generous amount of the quinoa and chicken mixture.

For avocado lovers out there, this is the stuff dreams are made of. Those of you on a low carb diet will absolutely love this recipe as a healthy lunch or part dinner. Hey, add an egg and call it breakfast for all I care! There tons of healthy fat, protein, and just the right amount of carbs. And if you are not an avocado lover, well, I am sorry. You are truly missing out.

[amd-yrecipe-recipe:19]