I Heart Avocados!

Hi all!  How was your weekend?  Mine was great.  They always seem to go by so fast, don’t they?  This weekend was our monthly book club.  We usually have goodies as our book club so I decided to make Ina Garten’s recipe for guacamole.  Guacamole is so easy to make, and I had most of the ingredients at home.  They also had a four pack of avocados on sale at the grocery store so it was a win-win situation.  

I love avocados and usually always have 1 or 2 on hand to change up a sandwich.  They are full of healthy fat and have lots of vitamins and minerals, including Vitamin E, Vitamin C, folate, and potassium to name a few.

Guacamole (serving: 3 cups)

Ingredients:

• 4 ripe Haas avocados
• 3 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice (1 lemon)
• 8 dashes hot pepper sauce  
• 1/2 cup small-diced red onion (1 small onion)
• 1 large garlic clove, minced
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1 medium tomato, seeded, and small-diced

Directions:

1. Cut the avocados in 1/2, remove the pits, and scoop the flesh out of their shells into a large bowl.
2. Immediately add the lemon juice, hot pepper sauce, onion, garlic, salt, and pepper and toss well.
3. Using a sharp knife, slice through the avocados in the bowl until they are finely diced. Add the tomatoes.
4. Mix well and taste for salt and pepper.

(Changes I made to the guacamole:  I eliminated the hot pepper sauce and added 1 extra garlic clove)

And the finished product…

Yum Yum Yum!  With a chip to dip!

Guacamole is a simple dish to start with and there are a lot of different variations you can use.  One thing I would recommend is to taste it first before adding the juice of the whole lemon.  It still tasted delicious but the lemon flavor was very strong.

Everyone else brought yummy goodies so I filled up on a little bit of everything.  Mango salsa, guac, chips, grapes, melon, and apples.

  The book club is always a lot of fun.  We will talk about the book for a few minutes then usually chat about other stuff.  This month’s book was Captain Corelli’s Mandolin.

This was the first time since starting being in this book club that I hadn’t finished the book.  I’ve heard good things about this book, but it was a bit tough to get through.  The funny thing is that most the people in the book club had a difficult time with it and no one finished it! 
We always watch the movie if there is one for the book.  We figured we would watch it anyway.

Although we could agree on not being big fans of Nicholas Cage, the movie was good.  

Later on in the evening, I met my friend Whitney for a drink and appetizer at BJ’s, a fun bar and restaurant.

I know, I know, I was trying to watch my choice of alcoholic beverage, but a Hefeweizen sounded too good to pass up.

We shared an appetizer of the avocado spring rolls, which are super tasty.  Did I have enough avocado or what!?!

 Crispy golden wontons wrap a tantalizing blend of avocados, cream cheese, sun-dried tomatoe
s, red onions, cilantro, pine nuts, chipotle peppers and spices. Served with a sweet tamarind sauce.

The waiter said this item is one of their most popular.  The sauce is out of this world.  I had 3 halves.

I made it to jump rope class so my workout is out of the way for today.  I think a nap might be in my future today.  Hope you have a wonderful Sunday!

Tagged as: avocado, BJ's, guacamole, recipe