Chocolate Avocado Shakes

Chocolate Avocado Shake

I made cookies of the first time in almost a month today and the males in my house ate them within a couple of hours. It always amazes me how they claim that they don't really like sweets and then eat a ton of them. I have been attempting to limit the amount of sweets that my family eats and I have been successful except for the whining. The last couple of weeks I have heard a lot of whining including my oldest telling me that I didn't love him as much anymore since I hadn't made him cookies as an after school snack. Instead of cookies and baked goods I have been trying to make sweeter snacks that are healthy as well as delicious. I absolutely love avocados and recently have read a number of sweet recipes that incorporate them. Today I tried a new recipe for Chocolate Avocado Shakes from the April 2013 issue of Eating Well magazine.

This recipe has 7 ingredients. It takes 10 minutes of total time, all of which is active and makes 2 servings. For the milk I used vanilla almond milk, maple syrup for the sweetener and dark chocolate chips for the chocolate. If you wanted to make the recipe vegan you could use nondairy chips. I used the ice setting on my blender to blend everything up since I wanted to make sure that there were no large ice chips.

These shakes were a little too adult tasting for my kids. My husband and I really enjoyed them, but my two boys thought that they tasted weird. That was fine by me since it meant that there were more for me. I like that this recipe is high in potassium since my potassium got dangerously low last winter so I make sure to eat a large variety of high potassium foods. It is also full of healthy fats; avocados are a great way to add healthy fats into your diet and this recipe is nice since it is also sweet.

For the recipe go to Chocolate Avocado Shake.

Pork Carnitas with Garlic and Orange

My oldest went back to school after winter break today. Having school starting again on a Thursday is throwing off my whole schedule. I woke-up this morning sure that it was Monday, luckily by the time my son was at the bus stop I remembered that it was only a two-day school week. I think that my age is starting to show with my lack of memory skills (I'm not discussing what birthday I am celebrating this year, lets just say that I will be halfway between 30 and 40). Since my kids have both been home this week I have been making my dinner meals easy and child friendly. Earlier in the week I made a new recipe for Pork Carnitas with Garlic and Orange from the November 2012 issue of Food and Wine magazine.

This recipe has 8 ingredients. It takes 4 hours 45 minutes of total time, 45 minutes of which is active and makes 4 to 6 servings. I did have to make a few modifications to the recipe. The pork shoulder that I was able to find didn't have a large layer of fat. Due to this fact I had to add a small amount of stock to keep the pork moist in the oven. This also helped to keep the jalapenos from drying out. It was additionally helpful in making the pan sauce to add to the pulled pork at the end of the recipe. I served the carnitas with avocado and cilantro as suggested by the magazine photo. I followed the remainder of the recipe as written.

Be careful to watch the jalapenos in order that they don't burn. Since my pork shoulder was lower in fat it was necessary to add the stock in order that the jalapenos did not burn. I would suggest following this step if you have the same problem. The roasted garlic was my favorite part of this recipe. It lent a delicious flavor to the pulled pork.

For the recipe go to Pork Carnitas with Garlic and Orange.

Butternut Squash and Tomato Posole

My blog readers are probably getting tired of me expressing my love of butternut squash, but I am going to do it again. I love butternut squash and fall cooking in general. As I have stated before the flavors of fall are comforting and delicious when the weather gets cold. Butternut squash to me is one of the staples of fall cooking. It is extremely versatile and can be used in pastas, soups, stews, chili and baked goods. It is also a great way to hide vegetables for kids in muffins and breads. Stew is a staple in my house during the fall and winter. I am always cold once the weather gets cooler so I make a lot of hot stews and soups in order to stay warm. When I first started cooking stews for my family we all fell in love with posole. It is a satisfying and delicious dinner and I make it frequently. Last week I tried a new recipe for Butternut Squash and Tomato Posole from Eating Well magazine, which looked like a great new vegetarian posole recipe.

This recipe has 11 ingredients. It takes a total of 45 minutes, 20 minutes of which is active and makes 5 servings. I had no problems finding any of the ingredients at my local grocery store. I normally buy whole butternut squash, but my store was out so I bought already cut butternut squash. The recipe suggests breaking up the tomatoes by hand, I find this messy. The method I always use is to place the tomatoes in a Ziploc bag, squeeze out the air and then crush the tomatoes by hand in the bag. Much less messy and an easy clean-up. I let my posole cook slightly longer than the recipe suggested. At 30 minutes the squash was more firm than I like. Make sure to fully rinse your canned beans. If the beans are under rinsed they will have a metallic taste, which is unappetizing. I followed the remainder of the recipe as written.

With 10 grams of fat and 9 grams of protein this is a satisfying meal without being high in fat. The fresh avocado and cilantro on top gives the posole a nice well-rounded flavor. I will say that this recipe isn't overly spicy so if you like spicier posole I would suggest adding a small amount of cayenne. This recipe in addition to being healthy is also inexpensive, costing less than two dollars a serving.

For the recipe go to Butternut Squash and Tomato Posole.

Pinto and Rice Burgers

When I turned 14 I decided I was a vegetarian. Having grown up in Seattle I was surrounded by vegetarians and vegans and I thought it was natural for me to become a vegetarian myself. My dad was a huge meat eater, but my mom was great about buying me ingredients to make my own meals. It was during these years that I learned to read and create cookbook recipes and modify ingredients to make dishes vegetarian. I stayed a vegetarian until I was in my mid-twenties. When I moved to West Virginia to attend graduate school I added meat back into my diet. Then I met my husband, who is obsessed with pork. My two boys have followed suit and definitely enjoy meat in their diets. While I do love meat, I also try to have at least 1-2 dinners a week that are vegetarian or vegan and our lunches 99 percent of the time contain no meat. With one of the highest levels of childhood obesity in my state I am determined to keep my kids from following this statistic. Veggie burgers are a household favorite so I was excited when the June issue of Everyday Food had a recipe for Pinto and Rice Burgers, which looked very easy and delicious.

This recipe has 10 ingredients, plus toppings. It takes 15 minutes of prep and cook time and makes 8 servings. I had no problems finding any of the ingredients at my local grocery store and made no ingredient modifications. For the toppings I used cucumbers, avocado, mayo and mustard. I found that the burgers took much longer than the 3 minutes per side suggested by the recipe. I prefer that my veggies burgers have a nice brown crunchy exterior so I let my burgers cook approximately five minutes per side. The bunches of scallion available in my area are huge so instead of an entire bunch I used five large scallions in total. Finally I ended up with 6 burgers in total, my family prefers larger burgers so I made mine slightly larger than the recipe. I followed the remainder of the recipe as written.

Everyone in my family loved this recipe! The burger was not dry as many other veggie burger recipes can be and the avocado topping was absolutely perfect. The cilantro added great flavor, without the burger tasting too much like cilantro. The beans, cilantro, scallions and beans blended together perfectly and the burgers browned very nicely in the olive oil. I was very impressed by this recipe and will definitely make it again in the future.

This recipe is currently not available online, but can be found in the June issue of Everyday Food Magazine. Here is a link to another Rice and Pinto Bean Burger recipe.

Food and Wine Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Toasted Pecans and Avocado

 

 I absolutely love Brussels sprouts. Unlike most kids growing up I would make a beeline for the Brussels sprouts during the holidays. They are delicious! When I first got married to my husband his idea of a vegetable was the topping on his pizza at the student center. Over the years I have slowly reformed him to thinking that vegetables are a normal side at dinner time. My two boys have taken after me and love most any vegetable I put in front of them. Brussels sprouts have become a family favorite and I was interested when the December issue of Food and Wine Magazine had a recipe for Brussels Sprouts with Toasted Pecans and Avocados, which looked delicious and different than other recipes I have tried. 

This recipe has 8 ingredients. It takes approximately 40 total minutes, with 20 minutes being active, and makes 8 servings. All the ingredients were easy to find at my local grocery store and I made no substitutions. Instead of toasting my pecans in the oven, I used the stove-top. I find it easier to use this method when making small amounts of roasted nuts and it saves my oven for the main dish I am preparing. Additionally, I only prepared a pound of Brussels sprouts since that is the size package that I am able to find locally (I would love to be able to find them bulk). Since I had a smaller amount of sprouts I only used one baking sheet, instead of the two suggested by the recipe. I followed the remainder of the recipe as written. 

Roasted Brussels sprouts are always popular in my house and this recipe was no exception. The pecans created a nice texture to the Brussels sprouts and the avocado a delicious flavor combination. This recipe makes a large number of servings and re-heated well for an additional meal the next day. My husband loved the taste from the fresh thyme and balsamic vinegar, which gave the sprouts a nice sweet taste. Overall, a great and unusual roasted Brussels sprouts recipe. 

For the link go to Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Toasted Pecans and Avocado.