High Protein Guacamole

High Protein Guacamole

School may have started here in Pennsylvania, but it still feels like summer outside, and my vegetable garden is still alive and well, so a recipe like this is perfect for today.  I actually made this for a July 4th party, but despite the avocado, most of the other ingredients are currently in or have been in my garden in years past.  This is basically your average guacamole recipe with the exception that in place of one avocado, you add in pureed edamame, which adds a huge protein and nutritional boost to this already healthy dip.  Since soy beans don't have a strong flavor of their own and when pureed are nice and creamy like an avocado, they mix in perfectly and everyone who tried this dip at the party loved it and asked for the recipe.  If you don't want to use soy but want to add protein, you could easily substitute pureed fresh or frozen and thawed green peas.  One cup of green peas has 8g of protein, less than half of the 17g in soy beans, but still significant. So get dipping and enjoy the summer weather while it lasts!

Happy Avocado Month

Healthy Avocados!!

So February is National Avocado Month and since avocados are one of my favorite foods and something I eat almost everyday, I had to get in a post, before the month was over, dedicated purely to this nutritional powerhouse. Everyone knows that avocados are good for you.  There are so many different ways in which to eat them: chopped up on top of a salad, sliced up and on a sandwich or a taco, mashed into guacamole, or just plain (with hot sauce like I prefer)... but my new favorite way to eat avocados is as dessert.  Yes, dessert.  More specifically as a decadent chocolate pudding that tastes better than any other pudding you have ever eaten.  I swear.  This new recipe is basically just a simplified version of my original  raw vegan chocolate pudding, but quicker to mix together and more pure in flavor. Both of my kids love it and my husband who was a bit skeptical of the first attempt, didn't even know at first that this was basically the same thing.  It is that good.  And with only four healthy ingredients, it is a dessert you can eat anytime, all the time. So Happy Avocado Month, for one more day... but please, remember to eat them all year long.  They are one of those fabulous healthy foods that are available all year, not matter where you live or what the temperature is outside.

Christmas Guacamole

Christmas Guacamole

I was not planning on turning this quick Christmas day appetizer into a post on my blog, but after my mom commented that my ingredients all set out on the counter looked so pretty, I thought, why not? Guacamole is not a hard dish to make, but I thought I would share my go to combination because it always seems to be a crowd pleaser.  I was lucky I was able to get any photos of it at all to be honest since it was the one appetizer that got completely devoured on Christmas day.  I don't always add in red pepper, and in the summer I usually add in fresh tomatoes, but I thought the combination of the dark green jalapenos and the bright red bell pepper made it an especially festive addition to our Christmas spread.