This is a post from Eva, but great minds think alike: we sure are on an avocado kick over here! This is a delicious dish, but just a note: it WILL brown after a day, but don’t fret – it still tastes delicious!
Life is just one big adventure, right? So why not put avocado in your mac and cheese?
We’ve heard mixed reviews on this interesting combo but we decided to throw caution to the Santa Ana winds and certainly haven’t regretted it as we’ve been eating leftovers from this lovely, crossover dish all week.
For the avocado-lover this is a must-attempt. Be forewarned: the taste does stray from what your memory knows as childhood mac and cheese. However, in return it adds a whole new, rich dimension that some way, somehow feels like summer. The full recipe is here.
Recently, California avocados came back into season, and we were lucky enough to receive a flat from the California Avocado Commission, and we set out to make a handful of delicious recipes with them. One of those recipes was these amazing cookies from their website. I used all white whole wheat flour, because that’s all I had, and they were just stellar. I also recommend adding about a teaspoon of cinnamon.
Recipe:
2 1/2 cups white whole wheat flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp cinnamon
½ cup finely mashed avocado from 1 large, ripe California Avocado
4 oz. butter, at room temperature
1 cup light brown sugar
1 pkg. 12-ounce semi-sweet chocolate chips
½ cup white sugar
2 room temperature egg yolks, from 2 large eggs (save whites for another purpose or discard)
1 tsp. vanilla extract
This cookies are amazing. They were moist, they stayed moist for days, and they were rich and chocolatey, and even slightly nutty from the flour’s flavor. Jeff didn’t even know that there was avocado in these (until I told him and he claimed I tricked him) so it’s not like they’re going to taste like a guacamole cookie, don’t worry.
They’re good with really cold milk. They’re good on their own. The point is, you should make a batch today with an avocado that is rolling around your kitchen. Use the rest to make an Avocado BLT. And you’re two meals until your perfect day. You’ll thank me later.
We love trying new things to make grains more exciting, and this coconut basmati rice with peanuts, fresh peas, and pea tendrils is exactly the kind of thing we can’t resist. I had a dish similar to this at a wedding last year, and I’ve been waiting for peas to be in season again so we could try it out ourselves!
The dish that inspired this recipe included fresh coconut and it was incredible, but we know coconut can be a controversial ingredient so we opted for coconut cream in our version.
Ingredients: 2 cups dry basmati rice, rinsed
1/2 lb sprouted peas
1/4 – 1/2 lb pea tendrils
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
1-14 oz can coconut cream
2 tsp kosher salt
1/4 cup roasted, unsalted peanuts
2 tbsp olive oil
Directions: 1. In a large pot or dutch oven, saute the minced garlic in olive oil for 2 – 3
2. Add the rice, peas, water and coconut cream and cook rice according to package directions (approximately 15 to 20 minutes).
3. In a separate pan, wilt pea tendrils with peanuts in olive oil.
4. Remove rice from heat and stir in the pea tendrils and peanuts. Season with salt and pepper to taste and transfer to a serving bowl.
Happy Food Revolution Day, everyone! This is a day that’s near and dear to our hearts as food bloggers and regular people who want to live a good long life. Food Revolution Day, started by our dear friend (we’ve never met but we know we’d be friends) Jamie Oliver to help kids – and their families – learn how to cook from scratch at home.
When Jamie’s show was on in 2010, we were shocked to find out what kids knew – and more importantly, didn’t know – about food. Here’s a clip that really woke me up:
On the show, kids go on to not know where milk comes from, or eggs, or understand what grows in the ground, what very common fruits and vegetables are! We think of the right to an equal education as the right of every child to be successful in their path to higher education, but we’re leaving them in the dust on simple things like how to fulfill their basic needs.
We do not come into this world with innate understanding of our diets – we learn this. But society is doing a poor job of teaching children just exactly what that should be. So those children grow up to make bad choices in food, without exactly knowing what the right choices are, even if they have access to them.
So, today, I want you to simply think about the kids you know. Think about if they are lucky enough to know the difference between an eggplant and an apple, between a pear and an artichoke. Now think about the ones that maybe don’t. Can you make a difference in a kid’s life right now? How about a grown-up’s?
I can think of a handful of opportunities we’ve had to tell our friends, people who are successful in careers, in love, in “being adults,” who didn’t know about foods and cooking techniques Corelyn and I take for common knowledge. We feel fortunate to have the education and passion for food, but we recognize that doesn’t come as easily to everyone. But food is a basic need – and human right – of all of us, and it’s time we started realizing we can influence our own health.
It’s time to start educating our children, and ourselves, about food. And it starts in the kitchen, and it starts with you.
To get you started, here are some of our more simple recipes that you, I promise, can cook for yourself and your family:
Recently, I got glutened. Not cross-contamination-minute-amount-glutening, but a take-a-bite-out-of-a-burger-and-realize-the-bun-isn’t-gf-glutening. This is the first time that I have consumed so much gluten after going gf and I was absolutely terrified. I’ve got a lot on my plate and I don’t have time to be sick for weeks (as I am sure no one does). Despite the terror of that first bite, knowing right away that I had consumed gluten was helpful so that I could immediately work toward some preventative care.
After taking some short term proactive steps with some moral support, we made a trek to Whole Foods for some supplies. We used this article as a guide, but clearly each person has to decide what they are up for and what they believe will help them based on what they know to be their own reaction to gluten. Personally, for the first couple of days I get depressed and tired, my joints start to hurt and I get a headache that just won’t go away. After that round of symptoms then the GI stomach symptoms flare up as the gluten works its way further into my system. There isn’t necessarily much that can be done about the psychological side effects except cut myself some slack and accept the fact that it may be a more challenging week than normal, but there did seem to be some steps I could take to protect my insides and speed this process along.
First off, I’m not a huge fan of medicine and taking pills. So while I compromised on this point I did prioritize and pursue other non-pill options. I hydrated like crazy all week. I chose to take some Omega-3, Turmeric, L-Glutamine, along with some probiotics. The article recommended high doses of all of these supplements for the week after a glutening, but since I don’t usually take supplements and and always experience side effects to supplements and vitamins I figured taking regular doses was probably enough for me. I also opted not to get anything that only came in a chewable form and didn’t get everything on the list, but prioritized by genre to these three options.
Overall, it was nice to find out that while there were some rough days, getting glutened can be a totally manageable experience. I don’t live in a bubble, gluten abounds in the universe, and if some sneaks into my person it is not the end of the world; I now know how to manage.
