Stuffed Avocados

For years I have been saying that I need to try baking avocado after seeing so many delicious looking images online. So I finally did!

I was looking for a dinner dish for this huge avocado that was ready to eat.

Below is the actually recipe. I used used more ingredients due to the size of the avocado. This recipe is likely for the little Haas avocados.

1 avocado
1/4 cup finely chopped onion
1/4 cup finely chopped tomato
1 jalapeno, finely chopped
1 teaspoon minced cilantro
1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lime juice (about 1 lime)
salt and pepper
1/4 cup pepper jack or cojita, shredded or crumbled (I used cheddar since it was handy in the fridge and to be honest I have never heard of cojita!)
hot sauce to serve it desired

Preheat oven to 325F.

Cut avocado in half and remove pit.

In a small bowl, combine the onion, tomato, jalapeno, cilantro, lime juice and 1/4 teaspoon of salt (ok, I forgot to buy cilantro so there is none in here).

Season the avocado halves with salt and pepper. Divide the veggie mix on the halves. Sprinkle the cheese on top.

Crinkle two pieces of foil under and around the halves to keep them from rolling on a baking sheet (and make clean up easier!).

Bake until cheese melts. This will take 8 to 12 minutes.

Enjoy! Healthy, filling, and yummy!

If you love avocados but never baked them before like us, give it a try. I see many recipes online with eggs baked in them. I will be trying that in the near future.

Thank you for stopping by. ~Val

Avocado Soup

I made this avocado soup on a whim one day when I had 2 ripe avocados lying around needing to be eaten.

How beautiful is our granite by the way? I am obsessed with its brown waves you see on the right side below. It is so much more enjoyable to be in the kitchen now than before with our decades old pink counter!

I referred to my cooking bible 1000 Vegetarian Recipes by Carol Gelles and came across this simple recipe for which I had the 3 ingredients on hand.

2 cups of vegetable broth
1 1/2 cups of chopped ripe avocados (I found 2 hass avocados to be the perfect amount)
1 cup of buttermilk

First bring the broth and avocado to a boil over medium heat.

Then place in a blender or food processor (depending on size, 2 batches may be needed). 

Cover and process until pureed into this beautiful smooth color.

Then put back in pot and stir in the buttermilk. That's it! 

I first had a bowl hot. Once cooled in the fridge, it is a delicious gazpacho! Great for a summer snack or side with a sandwich.

The recipe also suggests adding a 1/4 cup of chopped scallions or cilantro before pureeing if desired.

It stays green too (no browning)! I am guessing the buttermilk is the reason for this. 

Thank you for stopping by. I hope I have inspired you to try something new in the kitchen! ~Val

Delicious Food

I wanted to share a few recipes I have tried lately and loved!

Crunchy Cashew Thai Quinoa Salad with Ginger Peanut Dressing

Recipe here.  

I'm obsessed with this salad! It is like candy! It will likely be a staple in the fridge this summer.

I used peanuts since they are only a fraction of the cost of cashews. This one here doesn't look like the one on the website because I used green cabbage and forgot to buy a red bell pepper! It was still amazing. I love heat in most dishes and added finely diced Habanero pepper. It is a dish that you can play around with in terms of ingredients.

Avocado Feta Salsa

Recipe here.

I eat this as a salad. It is also great mixed with greens. The first time I made it, I found it a bit vinegary for my taste buds so the next time I made it I used 1 tablespoon less of vinegar and added another tablespoon of olive oil. It is not as flavorful after being refrigerated so eating it fresh is the way to go!

Arugula Pesto + Farro Pilaf

Recipe here.

This is quite the dish that can be changed with different veggies. I love the arugula pesto! There were no pumpkin seed in the store when I went to make this but sunflower seeds were a great substitute. Since gluten is not my friend, I used quinoa instead of farro.

Instant Frozen Yogurt

This looks like baby food but it is delicious mango frozen yogurt! 

I made this by chopping up a large, fresh mango and freezing it in the morning. By the end of the day it was ready. I put it in the food processor with approximately 1 cup of plain yogurt and a heaping tablespoon of brown sugar. It whipped to perfection! 

I can across this idea in a magazine. The original recipe says to combined 4.5 cups of frozen mango (or a 16 ouce bag), 1.5 cups of plain Greek yogurt and 1/3 cup of confectioner's sugar or brown sugar (that sounds like too much sugar considering how sweet the fruit is). 

Next time we will try it with Greek yogurt which would make it even creamier and play around with other fruits. 

I did try this with frozen orange wedges but had an issue with the texture (it came out soupy and pulpy). However, we froze the leftovers which turned into perfect Italian ice! I just love when mistakes have a happy ending. Now I know how we can make a delicious icy treat in the future.

Thank you for stopping by. I hope you feel inspired to make something in the kitchen! ~Val

This Week's Blog Post

Tiffany Inspired Bracelet

My youngest niece is having a Tiffany and spa themed birthday party! So I am working on Tiffany inspired bracelets that all the guests will receive at the party.

This chain is perfect for kids. It looks heavy but it actually made of super lightweight aluminum and is quite strong!

Portable Air Conditioner

This photo of Emmett shows how hot it has been in my house! The poor thing could not even find energy to put his limps on his pedestal. He was looking at me as if to say “can’t you do something about this?”.

This was the best $300 I have ever spent!!! After accepting that this summer is not going to improve in terms of heat and humidity I broke down and bought a portable air conditioner! I have been living without which was survivable up to this season!

I opted for portable so that I can spot cool rooms by simply rolling this unit from room to room as needed. I can use the oven again!  It has an obnoxious tube that exhausts out the window!

It was not as simple to install in the window as anticipated but Jim figured out a way to make it work easily. If I was by myself trying to set up the window situation there would have been a number of curse words coming from my mouth!

Carter Fields

CarterFields is a little gem I initially read about in the local newspaper. Located on the North Andover/Boxford town line in MA it is 85 acres of conservation land.

After a short hike through overgrown, bug filled woods, the path brings you to an open swampy area of nesting trees! The pictures are taken from really far away, hence the grainy results.

There is an estimate of 70 pairs of great blue herons that nest here each May and June. Unfortunately we did not have binoculars to get a good look at the birds but we could make out their profiles! After cropping the photos, we can see them much better.

Mango, Avocado and Arugula Salad

I came across this salad via Pinterest. Pairing mango with avocado is something that never crossed my mind before. This recipe is delicious if you love the ingredients.

Its dressing is a honey Dijon which is really simple to whip up. Considering the price of macadamia nuts along with their incredibly high calorie content, I substituted with cashews. This is a great summer salad! Recipe here.

Garden Update

Pretty pink lilies!

Pretty pink gladiolas! It is neat how the buds open from the bottom up.

Pretty pink hibiscus! I love these enormous floppy flowers!

The hydrangeas are blooming!

Thank you for stopping by! Have a wonderful week! ~Val

The Week in Review!

This past week was nothing exciting. I do feel a need to share my fabulous corn salsa recipe though! I made 2 batches for a Cinco de Mayo party over the weekend....one for a side dish and the other for a chip dip!
It is so easy. Start with a can of black beans and a can of corn:

Then add diced tomato and avocado:

Lastly add scallions, cilantro and dressing then mix it up!

So delicious and healthy!!!
Here is the recipe:
3 tomatoes, diced
1 can (15oz) black beans, rinsed
1 can corn (11oz, drained)
2 avocados chopped
4-8 scallions sliced (depending on your tastes)
1/4 cup fresh cilantro, chopped
1/2 cup Italian dressing (I use low calorie)
Great for cookouts!!!

New to my shop are 24kt gold vermeil jewelry findings that were crafted in Bali.

Available at www.missvalscreations.com.
I am quite excited that this tree survived! It is called an Eastern Red Bud. My dad raised this one from an offspring of his 40 year old tree. It was planted last summer and survived the brutal weather!

It has these pretty pink buds all over the branches which will soon turn into leaves.
My little azalea is starting to bud too!

Hopefully by next weekend there will be more of this fuchsia bud popping up!!!
Thank you for reading! Happy Mother's Day to all you moms out there. :)
~Val