BLAT's and Award

BLAT's are one of my favorites in the summer.  It isn't traditional I know.  People think I am strange, and don't know what I am talking about.  But the A is for Avocado!  It goes perfect on a BLT.  But then it really isn't a BLT anymore is it? So I have to call it a BLAT.  Fresh garden tomatoes, buttery avocados, crispy lettuce, salty bacon all on toasted bread....delicious!  Serve with sliced cucumbers from the garden and my new favorite crackers (Cashew Nut Crisps), and you have the perfect lunch!

There isn't really a recipe here, just stack slices of everything on your favorite toasted bread.  Skip the Mayo!  First, it is gross (sorry, personal opinion).  Second, you have creamy avocado...who needs Mayo?  Third, there isn't an M in there is there?  If you want to add Mayo then it would be a BLMAT! 



Now on the Award.  Tina over at Flourtrader passed this great award to me a few weeks ago.  I have been very bad about passing it along, sorry about that.  Tina is a wonderful blogger, with all sorts of great recipes on her site.  Make sure you check her out!! 

Congrats to the following bloggers I am passing this along to!  (You can pass it along to a few of your favorites as well)

Cassie at Bake Your Day
Carloyn at All Day I Dream About Food
Wendy at The Weekend Gourmet
Sawsan at Chef in Disguise
Janet at From Cupcakes to Caviar
Dee at Deelicious Sweets
Laura at A Healthy Jalapeno
Julie at SugarFoot Eats
Erin at The Spiffy Cookie
Valarie at Simple Fare, Fairly Simple

Thanks to everyone who reads my blog!  It really means a lot, and I appreciate each and every one of you!!

Creamy Avocado Pasta

I think I found a new favorite pasta recipe!  I saw this mentioned somewhere, and was intrigued.  I had to think about it for awhile though, I was a little nervous.  I mean, I LOVE avocado's, but the idea of that as my pasta sauce made me a little nervous.  What would it taste like?  Would I like it?  Would my husband actually eat it?  Well, it was amazing, and I can't wait to make it again!  It was so easy too!  You have to boil noodles, but aside from that, no cooking required!  And to top it off, it is healthy!!!  Use a fortified pasta, and you have protein, fiber, and everything all in one tasty meal!


Creamy Avocado Pasta
Adapted from Oh She Glows
Printable Recipe

1 large Avocado, pitted
1 lime, juiced + zest to garnish
2 cloves, minced
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/4 cup Fresh Basil
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2 servings/6 oz of your choice of pasta
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Cook your pasta according to the package directions.

 To make the sauce place the garlic cloves, lime juice, and olive oil into a food processor. Process until smooth. Add in the avocado, basil, and salt. Process until smooth and creamy.

Pour sauce over pasta and toss until fully combined. Garnish with lime zest and black pepper. Enjoy!
 .
Note: Because of the avocado this does not reheat well.

Chicken Tostadas

My husband said tonight that he thinks I have too many desserts and sweet things on my blog.  So today, I bring you a dinner recipe.  I have a couple of them to give you, I just haven't gotten around to it.  My dinner pictures are never very good, because I am just trying to get the food on the table quickly.  Husband and Son don't wait for food!  If we have leftovers, then I take my time after dinner to get a picture, but that doesn't always happen. 

We found this Cooking Light recipe last summer, and immediately fell in love.  It is so good!  It is great for summer too.  You can use leftover chicken, or a rotisserie chicken, and then you don't even need to cook anything!  It is a fun recipe for a party too.  You could just lay out all sorts of different toppings, and people could assemble their own.  Plus it is so colorful and pretty! 

Chicken Tostadas
Adapted from Cooking Light
Printable Recipe


Guacamole (I always make my own, but this one works well with this, so I followed it)
1 avocado, peeled
2 Tbls tomato, chopped
1 Tbls Onion, chopped
1 Tbls lime juice
1/4 tsp salt
1 clove garlic, minced

Pico De Gallo
1 cup tomato, chopped
2 Tbls onion, chopped
1 Tbls lime juice
1/4 tsp salt
1 Tbls cilantro, chopped
1/2 jalapeno, chopped

Chicken
2 chicken breasts
garlic powder
onion powder
salt
pepper
chili powder
cumin
1 Tbls lime juice
paprika

8 (6 inch) corn tostada shells

Sprinkle both sides of chicken with all the seasonings except the lime and paprika.  Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes, or until chicken is cooked through.

While chicken is cooking prepare the guacamole and pico de gallo. 

Guacamole - mash the avocado with a fork.  Add in all of the ingredients.  Stir until well combined.

Pico De Gallo - Combine all of the ingredients in a bowl.  Toss well.

Shred the chicken using 2 forks.  Sprinkle paprika over all of the chicken, and add the lime juice.  Toss together. 

To serve spread guacamole across the tostada shell.  Top with chicken and then pico de gallo.  You can add anything else you like at this point.  Enjoy!

Chicken Skewers

Preview

It is the last day of school for my little boy today!  He is officially done with Kindergarten.  I don't know how we got here so quickly!  Only 9 short months ago he could barely read a few words, and now he is reading chapter books, he wants to walk to the bus stop alone, and just get dropped off by the door.  So bitter sweet to see him grow up and become so much more independent. 

Ok, sorry!  Proud Mom.  I will move on to the food now!

Memorial Day weekend is here!  It is practically the grilling holiday of the country.  So after you take a second to remember what Memorial Day is all about, and all the people who have fought so we can grill to our hearts content on this day, consider something other than a burger.  Oh don't get me wrong, I love a good burger!  But I do like to change it up as well.  These chicken skewers are a great alternative.  1.  They are healthy  2.  They have an avocado dipping sauce (did you read that right?  AVOCADO!)  3.  They are super quick and easy.  We had these the other night, and they were a hit all around.  My son doesn't like avocado (I know, I really need to do something about him), so he dipped his in ranch. 


Chicken Skewers with Cool Avocado Sauce
Printable Recipe
Adapted from Taste of Home Healthy Cooking

1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1/2 cup lime juice
1 Tbls balsamic vinegar
2 tsp minced chipotle pepper in adobo sauce
1/2 tsp salt

Sauce
1 avocado
1-2 Tbls sour cream
1 Tbls minced cilantro
1/2 lime, juiced
1/2 tsp lime zest
1/4 tsp salt

Pound chicken to about 1/4 in thick, and cute into 1 inch strips.  Combine the lime juice, vinegar, chipotle and salt in a ziploc bag.  Add chicken, and squish it around to coat.  Marinate in the fridge for at least 30 minutes. 

To make the sauce halve the avocado and remove the pit.  Using a fork mash the avocado.  Stir in the sour cream and cilantro.  Once well combined add the zest, salt, and squeeze in the juice from half a lime.   Refrigerate until serving.



Thread the chicken onto skewers.  If you are using wooden skewers, make sure they are soaked first.  This prevents them from burning, and from splinters getting into your meat.  Discard the marinade.  Grill covered over medium heat for 4-6 minutes on each side until no longer pink. 



Serve with the sauce.  Enjoy!

Guacamole

I have loved guacamole as long as I can remember.  We always had Mexican food on Sunday when I was growing up, and guacamole was usually on the menu.  So when I met my husband and he said he didn’t like it, I was shocked.  We made him try it, and he liked it!!  Turns out, I think he had only ever had the stuff in restaurants, which in my experience is notoriously BAD!  Over the years, he has grown to love it as much as I do, I think.  Now if we could only get our son on board. 

This is the recipe I grew up with, and I still make.  Lately if I have lime on hand I have been squirting some in, but that is a very new addition.  I have tried with cilantro and jalapeno’s and all sorts of other recipes, but I always come back to this.  And really, I get rave reviews on this one – so why change! 

Guacamole

Printable Recipe

2 Avocados

3 Tbls onion, chopped

1 small tomato, chopped

½ tsp chili powder

½ tsp paprika

¼ tsp salt

1/8 tsp pepper

Lime juice (optional)

Halve the avocados, and remove the pits.  Using a fork mash the avocado.  

I have never measured anything with this recipe, so it is all estimates.  Play around with it how you like it.  Start small, and add more.  This is what is looks like once I put my seasonings on before I mix it all together.  

I squeeze the lime on at the end, if I put it on.  It is supposed to help it not turn brown. I just read in a magazine though that you are supposed to run your avocado (after it is cut in half, I believe), under super cold water, and that works too.  The article said there was no real reason why this worked, it just worked. 

If you want to get fancy you can put it in a bowl, and serve with chips.  Or you can just eat off the plate!  Whatever works for you.  

Chicken Tostada Bites

Friday night was Girls Night Out!!!  Well actually, girls night in this time.   We all brought something to share, ate, laughed, had a margarita, and had a great time.  It had been way to long!  I chose to make Chicken Tostada Bites, and they were a hit. I was told to make sure that I blogged about this, so they could all have the recipe! I had seen something like it over at Apple a Day, but put my own spin on it.  Usually I make something like this on real Tostada's, but I thought serving on chips was a cute idea and much more fitting for Girls Night!

Unfortunately I was so excited to see my girls, I forgot about taking pictures - oops! 

Chicken Tostada Bites
Printable Recipe

Tortilla Chips
Chicken
1 pound boneless skinless chicken breasts
1 jar salsa
1/2 of lime, juiced


For the Pico De Gallo
1 large tomato, diced
1 small green chili, diced
1 Tbls chopped fresh cilantro
3 Tbls red onion, diced
Salt

For the Guacamole
2 large avocado
5 Tbls red onion, diced
1/2 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp paprika
Salt and Pepper to taste
Juice from 1/2 of lime

Put chicken in a 13x9 baking dish.  Pour a jar of salsa (whatever flavor or heat level you like) over the chicken.  Bake at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes, or until it is cooked through.  Once it is cooked through, using 2 forks shred the chicken.  Squeeze lime juice over the chicken.  Toss back in with the salsa. Cover with foil so it stays warm. 

While the chicken is cooking get the pico de gallo and the guacamole ready. 

Pico de Gallo - combine tomato, chili, cilantro and onion in small bowl.  Season with salt.  I squeezed a little lime juice on it as well.  Set aside

Guacamole - Halve the avocados, remove the pits, and scoop out the flesh onto a plate.  Using a fork, mash the avocados.  Mix in the onion and seasonings.  Squeeze in the lime juice.  I always taste test, and adjust the seasonings.  It really depends on the avocado how much salt and other seasonings you need.  So start light, taste and add more if you want.  I usually add in tomato with my guacamole, but because this was using pico de gallo as well, I left them out.

To serve stop each chip with a scoop of guacamole, and spoonful of chicken, and then a little pico de gallo. 

 

Finally Spring

It is finally starting to feel a little like spring.  It has been a long time coming this year in Iowa.  We went from 80's one weekend, to snowing the next!  And since, it has just been rainy, windy, and cold!  So this weekend when it was finally sunny and in the 60's it was time to celebrate!  Despite the cold the grass has grown, and was in desperate need of mowing.  That meant moving the garage around (move snowblower to the back, lawn mower and bikes to the front).  After all of that, picking up about 500 sticks on the lawn, and finally mowing....it was time for a spring meal.  I was breaking out the grill!  Hamburgers and pasta salad.....can't get any more summer in my mind. 

Now my husband has started to sound like my son "Are you going to blog about hamburgers?  Everyone can make a hamburger at home."  Again, I am sure he is right.  But I am not a chef, I make everyday food.  I do enjoy trying new recipes (quite a few planned for this next week), but we eat normal food, and this blog is about what I cook.  So I will blog about burgers! 

Hamburgers
Printable Recipe

1 pound ground beef (I use 93% lean, because of calories, but more fat = more flavor)
1 Tbls Worchestershire Sauce
1/4 of a small onion
Salt & Pepper

Mix everything together in a bowl.  I like to use a hand-held grater to grate the onion in.  This gives you the advantages of onion (moisture, extra flavor), but you aren't biting down on chunks of onion.  My son won't eat it if he can see them, so this works well for him. Once everything is mixed together, form into patties.  You want to be careful not to over mix the meat.  Form the patties with a well in the middle, so they don't balloon up into balls on the grill. 

 

Put on a hot grill, for about 10-12 minutes, depending on how done you like them.  We like just a little pink on the inside, so closer to 5 minutes a side.  You can toast the buns on the top rack of the grill, or off to the side for the last few minutes of grilling. 

While they are cooking, get your toppings ready.  I LOVE Avocado's and will use any excuse to eat them.  They are great on burgers.  When I first met my husband he didn't really enjoy Avocado's, but I have converted him!