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Archive for the ‘avocado’ Category

don’t fruit the guac

Posted in avocado, guacamole, mango, Mediterranean, pomegranate on July 12, 2012 | Leave a Comment »

Except that I did, and it was great.

So I made Shape Magazine’s Guacamole de Frutas the other day. It was a recipe I found in the winter (I think their December issue?) but figured I’d wait until summer when some of the ingredients were at the their best (can you even buy peaches in the winter??).  Problem is, the recipe also calls for pomegranate seeds.  Talk about a recipe of conflicting seasons!

Well, as it turned out, last week was quite the debacle of recipe choice vs. grocery store availability.  Long story short:  I was a good wife and had Andrew pick out some recipes he wanted me to make and I should have seen the first red flag go up when he grabbed my Eastern European cookbook.  Don’t get me wrong, we love all those Mediterranean/Lebanese/Turkish dishes, but I have to really pick and choose what I make so as not to have to go on a wild goose chase for some unheard-of ingredient.  Well, I didn’t do that…and ended up with a grocery list a mile long featuring things like “sumac” and “lavender flowers.” (I found neither, but did have acceptable substitutes.  And thankfully we have a Penzey’s Spices on Elmwood, so next time I’m in I’m just going to stock up–expiration dates be damned!)

Anyway, two of his dishes called for pomegranate seeds, as well as this one, and since I’d just seen pomegranates at Wegmans the other day (to my surprise, no less), I figured they must be getting them despite it being summer.  Well, wouldn’t you know that the day I go looking for the infamous red orbs, Wegmans doesn’t have a single one.  Tops to the rescue!

ANYWAY…

I fruited the guac…with apples, peaches, mango, pomegranate seeds, a little onion and lime juice, and a tiny bit of jalapeno.  YUM.  I ate it as a lunch side with tortilla chips, and then had another portion on some cinnamon-sugared pita for breakfast.  Both were very yummy options.  If you like guacamole, be sure to give this one a try.

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i had an idea…

Posted in avocado, baking, banana, breakfast, cheese, chocolate, Co-op, King Arthur Flour, nail polish, strawberries, whole grains on May 23, 2012 | Leave a Comment »

…and it was a yummy one!

A couple days ago, as I was packing Andrew’s lunch (yes, just one of the gazillion things I said I’d never do) all I had left in the bottom of the Julio’s chips bag was a bunch of crumbs.

And immediately, I thought of a mexican breakfast/egg dish kind of thing.  Why?  No idea.

I held onto the bag of crumbs and finally made my concoction this morning, sauteeing onion and red bell pepper with the eggs, and added leftover chorizo (score!), some salsa, avocado, green onion and monterey jack cheese.  All this atop Julio’s seasoned chips.  Just delightful.

I kept it light be serving just these on the side:

Strawberries and half an orange.  Just delightful :)

Happy Wednesday afternoon!  I’m making some King Arthur Flour’s Banana Chocolate Chip Squares (another blogger was nice enough to type up the recipe) to bring to the co-op‘s first annual meeting (!!!!) tomorrow night, and will be continuing The Hunger Games.

Oh, and do any of you like radishes?  I admit I’m not a huge fan, but after writing my latest ‘Eat This’ column for the co-op’s blog, I think I might give them another try.

Does life get better than an afternoon of baking and reading, all after having had a great workout and painting my toes?

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impulse shopping

Posted in avocado, baking, banana, bread, breakfast, busy, color, hummus, kitchen, maple, nut butters, peanut butter, school, spinach, strawberries on May 17, 2012 | Leave a Comment »

This is what happens when Holly goes to Wegmans for ‘a few things:’

Hey, at least it’s all healthy, right?  Just LOOK at all those colors!

HAD to get:

-bananas and spinach (only one left in the house–yikes!)

-cottage cheese (I have a cut-up pineapple in the fridge just begging to be paired with it)

-avocado (remember all those Julio’s chips Andrew shipped home??)

-strawberries (because I’ve waited all winter long for them)

-red pepper and sugar snap peas (homemade hummus is in the fridge as we speak–or type, rather)

-wheat germ (for a bread recipe)

-frozen blueberries and a lemon (for a muffin recipe and because berries are expensive enough)

-deli ham and light swiss (Andrew’s gotta have lunch tomorrow…)

OK, I’ll admit, I totally got sucked into the Nature’s Market section (like I ever DON’T?) and some SALES caught my eye…

…like this one for Health Valley Organic cereal bars and ‘pop tarts.’  It was $1 off each, and the blueberry was just calling to me.  (Blueberry totally has been these days!  I already made a plan to make Ellie Krieger’s blueberry muffins this weekend…)  I figured Andrew would like the strawberry bars and I could mix some warmed ‘toaster tarts’ into our morning breakfast routine.

And then there was the sale on granola:

It was $1 off, too!  In my defense, we’ve been out of granola for awhile now and I said to myself (out loud, of course) that I should get some more soon.  I initially saw the ‘vanilla blueberry with flax seeds’ (there is that blueberry again) variety and grabbed it, only to then see the ‘maple walnut with chia and quinoa’ and ‘oat and honey WITH COCONUT’ flavors…  There was just no deciding between them.  At least they’ll last awhile…

Side note: Some of you are probably wondering why I would BUY this stuff when I can make it all myself, which I actually enjoy doing.  A couple reasons:

1.  I’m EXHAUSTED, and surprisingly busy.  I’ve been catching up on random stuff since finishing up with school, as well as tackling a bunch of things that popped up, like arranging summer travel plans and working out a new gym routine.

2.  I don’t really enjoy cooking in this kitchen.  It sounds bad, but it’s true.  Until I have ‘my’ kitchen, it just isn’t the same.

3.  I’m starting The Hunger Games soon (maybe this weekend!), which will consume me for however long it takes to read them all.  Andrew, I apologize in advance–I’ll make sure we’re stocked up on the unhealthy food you insist on eating when I don’t cook.  Or maybe not.

4.  The bright colors and yellow SALE tags caught my eye.  (Hey, I’m just being honest.)

5.  And lastly, I am (unfortunately) about to become just as busy as before.  My summer online class starts in a little more than a week and I already took a look at the online info…  It looks INTENSE, to say the least.  Fantastic.

So yeah, despite ending school, I won’t be found in the kitchen too much just yet…

OK, back to groceries….

The Justin’s was on sale ($6.99 instead of $8.99… still pricey, but oh, so good!) and I’ve been eyeing this Cinnamon Raisin Swirl variety EVERY TIME I GO TO WEGMANS.  EVERY TIME.  I pulled the trigger today–why not?  Kath eats almond butter on her carrots sometimes, and ever since I saw one of those photos I’ve been intrigued to try it.  I thought the Justin’s would be the perfect accompaniment for some carrot sticks.  (Oh, have I told you all I’m eating raw carrots now?  I went my whole life HATING them, and then all of a sudden, they’re fine.  What’s with that?)

And this guy was hiding behind all the store-bought goodness the whole time…

Beautiful, wonderful-smelling homemade bread.  What better with which to pair the new cinnamon raisin peanut butter??

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while the cat’s away the mice will play

Posted in Andrew, avocado, banana, BBQ, cheese, coffee, cooking, creamer, mango, Movies, pineapples, Pioneer Woman, pizza, sweet potato on April 25, 2012 | Leave a Comment »

Andrew’s out of town for a few days starting tomorrow–he’ll be spending a couple of those days in Texas with Silas and Heather (and Margaret!) to attend Silas’s graduation from pilot training, then heading over to Houston for a conference.

(I realize some of you are gasping at the thought that I would announce to–potentially- the whole world that I’ll be home alone without a big, strong, strapping man to protect me.  In my defense, two things: first, my blog is SO not that popular, and second, we have a giant dog.)

Soooo….what does Holly do when Andrew leaves?  She makes macaroni and cheese!  Duh!

I’ll be making Cooking Light’s Sweet Potato Chili Mac, among other things that involve cheese, like Pioneer Woman’s Breakfast Bread Pudding.  But first, I had to grocery shop!  (It’s like crack to me, seriously.)

I went with a list (of course I did–have I ever NOT?), but allowed myself a few splurges along the way since Andrew wasn’t going to be home.

The list:

1. More bananas.  If I run out, I get panicky.  I used to only eat them when they still had a little green on them, but now I’m way less picky.  Plus, if they’re too far gone, there’s always banana bread :)

2. Seltzer!  I LOVE mixing black cherry and vanilla.

3. A mango.

4. An avocado–what better to add to a ‘southwest’ salad to go with my chili mac?

5. Two ORGANIC Pink Lady apples.  Such a treat.  Did you know apples are number 1 on the “Dirty Dozen” list?

6.  Bow-tie pasta for my chili-mac… You do not even want to know how much time it took me in the past aisle to choose between elbows, spirals or the bow-ties.  (All whole wheat, of course.)  Actually, (and in the vein of journalistic integrity) I went to the store for elbows, doubting I’d find them in whole wheat, but when I did I wondered if I’d prefer spirals because I was making a “chili mac” and not a true macaroni and cheese (in which case elbows would DEFINITELY be preferred), and it was only AFTER I put the spirals in the cart I noticed the bow-ties.  In wheat.  For 20 cents more.  I said “price be damned” (not really, and not out loud–thankfully–but you know what I mean) and grabbed the bow-ties.

7.  Canned pineapple chunks.  I’m also making a hawaiian pizza while he’s away.  I have pizza dough, leftover pizza sauce, fresh mozzarella and deli ham in the fridge…  I mean, is that a no-brainer, or what?

8.  Cottage cheese. Buying pineapple (canned or fresh, but I prefer fresh) necessitates buying cottage cheese, and vice versa.

9.  Bottled creamer.  Confession to make:  I’m back on the wagon, at least temporarily.  I’d been trying out homemade creamers, then no creamers…  Andrew’s mom sent me home with a bottle of “Warm Cinnamon Sugar Cookie” and I got hooked all over again. (Well, maybe not hooked, but it sure is convenient.)  With cinnamon roll and butter toffee-flavored coffee at home right now, I figured the vanilla caramel flavor would go quite nicely.  The truth is, until we make “good” coffee (a.k.a. NOT something from a ‘pod’) at home, I don’t care about dumping sweeteners and flavorings into it.  Health-wise, I’m not thrilled, but I had to.

10.  And in case anyone wonders if I love my husband…  I got him some treats for the road.  Funyuns (eeewww!), Combos (these are my mom’s travel food and they’re ours, too–please note the ‘Made with Real Cheese’ sign in the upper left corner of the bag…Andrew doesn’t seem to mind THAT real cheese), and orange gummi bears, all in their own box.  Andrew loves orange anything, and these were definitely an impulse purchase if there ever was one: while waiting in the check-out line, a woman was next to me, already digging into her container of red (cherry) gummi bears, which piqued my interest.  I was about to grab blue raspberry for my guy, when I saw orange.  Done deal.

And check out what else I found:

We’re also white-cheddar fans, too.  (Is that ‘too’ redundant since I have ‘also’ in the same sentence?  Someone tell me…)  We’ve had a Netflix DVD sitting on the coffee table for more than a week now since we’re HOOKED on Big Bang Theory–thanks a lot, Carolyn–and we have to watch it TONIGHT before he leaves!

(You also don’t want to know how much time I spent in the popcorn aisle, trying to figure out which kinds to get…  Andrew likes extra butter, I like Orville Redenbacher’s “natural, simply salted” variety–can you blame me that I don’t like the FILM of grossness that coats one’s mouth after eating other kinds of microwave popcorn???   Anyway, I ended up getting Andrew his own ‘snack bags’ of the movie theater butter flavor, and figured I could always share mine with him.)

At least ONE of us will be eating well while he’s gone!  Who am I kidding? Don’t even get me started on how much I’m going to miss all the awesome Mexican and BBQ I could have had if I was going to San Antonio with him…)

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my chef/cobb salad

Posted in avocado, cheese, eggs, Ranch Dressing, salad, spinach on August 11, 2011 | Leave a Comment »

It feels like early fall here today.  I guess that might be because it IS ‘early fall’ since there is snow by Halloween here.  It’s not even the middle of August yet…

My run this morning was fantastic.  Blue skies, enough of a breeze to give you goose bumps…  I even wore a t-shirt, which for this tank-top-only girl, means it was cool.  Running in the park here this morning reminded me on Montreal.  I can’t wait to visit Quebec again.

We had just about a serving of honey ham left in the fridge, plus all the fixings for a great salad, so I decided that’s what I would have for lunch today.  (I sent Andrew to work with a yogurt, fruit and chips so I could have the meat!)

While I love all the flavors that go into your typical chef or cobb salad (avocado, deli meat, bacon, bleu cheese, egg), it’s not often I have everything on-hand at home and they are pretty dangerous menu items at restaurants, so I don’t eat them much.

My lunch was absolutely BRIMMING with goodness!  The bottom was 100% spinach (not baby, the kind you have to stem–it lasts way longer in the fridge) and the toppings included: 1 oz. cheddar cheese and 1 hard-boiled egg (both nabbed from the breakfast bar this morning), 1/4 avocado, cucumber, carrots, celery, green onion and about 2.5 oz. deli ham.

I topped it with a serving (2 tbsp) of Wegmans Yogurt Ranch dressing, which is only 80 calories–SWEET!

Actually, that’s what the salad was: sweet.  The honey ham was sweeter than I anticipated, so the whole salad took on a less-than-salad-y flavor.  The total calorie count for the salad was 460, which is somewhat high (for a salad) but since this was FULL of protein, it should keep me full for quite a while.

And because I like my salads fully mixed before eating them, I dumped it all into a large bowl, topped with dressing (1 tbsp at a time to see if I needed both–I did) and stirred.

Voila!  Can you tell I’m using Andrew’s un-ironed shirts as tablecloths?

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you know you’re a health nut when…

Posted in Andrew, avocado, beans, Food, honey, strawberries on August 10, 2011 | 2 Comments »

…your dinner looks like this:

It’s Kath’s Orangey Bean Salad, only with pintos instead of navy beans (it’s what I had).  Actually, it worked out perfectly because I used half the can of beans for Ellie’s sloppy joes, and planned on using the other half for this.  I also had an avocado from the Southwestern Barley Salad I made a few nights ago, so it worked out quite well.  I put it in my tracker and it was 350 calories.

If you hadn’t guessed already, Andrew was on his own for dinner tonight; he and his dad drove THREE HOURS to go look at tractors today.  He would have had a cow if I’d put this in front of him on the table.  Seriously.  A cow.  I’m pretty adamant about serving good, healthy food here in this house and making him (occasionally) eat things he doesn’t like, but even I wouldn’t make him eat this.  He would have died.

I also brought these yummy treats to the table:

Strawberries, a bit of honey, cinnamon and some shredded coconut.  I took a bite or two, but alas, was too full of beans to eat it!  Blame it on this new thing I’m trying, it’s called “stop-eating-before-you’re-uncomfortably-full.”

Guess I’ll just have to save them for later tonight!

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