Holy Guacamole

Holy Guacamole !

I’ve been told to quit my day job and become a professional guacamole maker….. not kidding. I have this dowwwwwn and could definitely sit by myself and eat an unhealthy amount of this goodness. Just look at it.

I can’t heeeeellllpp it. It’s sooooo beeeauuutiful”. – and name that movie 🙂

EDIT of DSC_7843

I mean real talk- I’ll eat that all. Kidding I wont. I would if it was socially acceptable and I was able to get my mind to forget how many calories that contains….but I could probably make a good dent in it.

Lets get up close and personal with this stuff.

Ahhhhhh feed me.

EDIT of DSC_7863

Ok so I know you guys totally want some of this. Here is my top secret recipe revealed to you! (you lucky readers you)

I pretty much shoot from the hip with this and of course it depends how much of this you’re making and how many mouths you want to feed. I’ll show you my typical ratio I use for a group of people and keep in mind you can par this down or bumb it up depending on your crowd (or how hungry you are 😉 )

Ingredients:

  • 3 Avocados
  • ¼ cup diced red onion
  • ½ cup diced tomatoes
  • ¼ cup chopped cilantro
  • ½ jalapeno, chopped
  • Juice of half a lime
  • 1 tsp. ground Cumin
  • 1 tsp. Garlic Powder
  • ½ tsp. Chipotle Pepper Powder
  • ½ tsp. Red Pepper Flakes
  • ½ tsp. Salt

Directions:

  • Peel and cut your avocados into smallish cubes. Use a fork or potato masher to gently mash up the avocados. I don’t mash all the way up because I like some chunks in mine, but that’s up to you.
  • Juice your 1/2 lime into the avocados and stir to evenly mix.
  • Dice your onions, tomatoes, jalapeno and cilantro and gently mix in as well.
  • Then sprinkle your spices into the mix and stir to combine.
  • Chill and serve! Chilling isn’t necessary but know you can make this ahead of time.

 But WAIT?!?!? What about how avocados turn brown and look like something that comes from….well never mind you get the idea- not super appealing. No problem-o, I have toooooootally found the solution to this.

 First of all the fact that you just put the juice of half a lime into your guac will really help keep the browning to a minimum. But truth be told even then you can sometimes get the dreaded icky brown. Here’s what you do. If you’re serving it right away, don’t worry. This baby won’t stick around long enough to even begin to brown. If you are making ahead of time and planning on serving later, all you do it follow all the steps above and put into a container. This can be your serving bowl or just a storage bowl. Then you take some plastic wrap and lightly press down and make sure it’s touching the entire surface of the guac(*don’t worry it won’t stick when you take it off*) then pop in the fridge and try not to sneak any of it while you wait! And I swear to you it could last 5 days and it would hardly brown! Not joking.

EDIT of DSC_7846

Thanks for stopping by and by the way, notice how my pictures are umm, how do I say, not taken with my iPhone? I am taking initiative to step up my food photography game, which isn’t to say some drafts I have started already and publish at a later date won’t have the sub-par quality 😉 Inspired by Lindsay over at Pinch of Yum. She is my little mini hero breathing new life into my blog pics! And not to mention I think I’ve noticed about 1/3 of my posts are recipes from her site! If you haven’t looked at her blog- ummmm you need to. ASAP. Like why are you still reading my blog? GO! 🙂 Kidding stay as long as you’d like ❤

xoxoxo

669058772380712020613

Advertisement

Garlic Artichoke Bread

Garlic Artichoke Bread

Think of this as Cheesy Garlic Bread meets Baked Artichoke Dip, only it’s 50 times better than that 🙂

20131125-084956.jpg

Ingredients
2 tbsp butter
2 cloves garlic, pressed
1 (14 oz) can artichoke hearts, drained and chopped
1 cup shredded cheddar and mozarella cheese blend
½ cup grated Parmesan cheese
¼ cup plain greek yogurt
1 large shallot, finely minced
1 small loaf ciabatta bread ( Really any type of bread would be fine)
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
*I added about 1-2 tbs of fresh chopped basil and it was sooooo delicious!

Instructions
Preheat oven to 350-375

In a large skillet set over medium-high heat, melt the butter until foamy. Add garlic and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Remove from heat, and stir in artichoke hearts, mozzarella, cheddar, Parmesan, sour cream and shallot until combined.
Slice/open your bread) Place the bread open face side up on the baking sheet,  and spread the cheese and artichoke mixture overtop. Bake until cheese is melty and it starts to brown and bread is hot. I finished it off with a few minutes under the broiler to get even better color! Then cut bread into servable size pieces and serve right away, while the cheese is still nice and melty and delicious.

I made this for a group of friends and they all seemed to enjoy it. I defineitly did! This would be great as an appitizer or side dish. Also you can totally make this ahead. I actually make the artichoke cheese mixture the day before and then just spread it on the bread and baked it and it turned out fan.tast.ic!

Enjoy!

xoxo

669058772380712020613

Black Bean & Corn Salsa

BLACK BEAN & CORN SALSA

Honestly never met a person who didn’t like this(sometimes people prefer no cilantro, but never didn’t like it)

So delicious, so healthy and so easy. honestly throw all the crap in a bowl and stuff your face 🙂

I have one of these veggie chopper things:

and it works PERFECT for this(but obviously you could do it by hand too)

sort of guessing with this recipe( long ago I’m sure there was a recipe I followed but now it’s just sort of whatever I feel like) You can experiment with to make your own perfect recipe too!

SALSA INGREDIENTS:

2 cans of BlackBeans(rinsed)

1 can of corn(they sell salt free, preservative free corn in a can now, so buy that, it’s so much better for you)

couple tomaotes

1 avacado

2 jalapêno pepper, seeded

1 bell pepper of your choice(red,green,orange,yellow)

1 small or 1/2 cup red onion

1/2 cup of fresh cilantro

chop all those to a size of your liking and mix all those items in a bowl(not tooooo much so as to not mush the avocado) then mix the dressing in a separate bowl:

DRESSING INGREDIENTS:

1/4 cup vinegar(red wine, or white wine or white)

Tbs of Olive Oil

juice of 2 limes

and a dash of salt

Pour over the mixture and try not to eat it all in one sitting 🙂

Thanks for reading!

xoxo

-G

Salad Caprese

SALAD CAPRESE

Soooo, one of my favorite things of ALL time would have to definitely be Salad Caprese, in any form imaginable.

It is possibly the most simple amazing thing to make. you need literally 3 ingredients(however I use like 6) haha…but still that is so simple.

1) TOMATOES

2) FRESH MOZZARELLA CHEESE

3) FRESH BASIL

4) GOOD OLIVE OIL

5) BALSAMIC VINEGAR

6) SALT

okkkk now for the tricky part:

Slice your tomato,mozzarella, and basil. Alternate slices of tomato and cheese and sprinkle with basil. Drizzle with olive oil and a tiny bit of balsamic vinegar and if you so like(I do) a bit of Kosher salt.  And beeeeeeeeehold:

HEAVEN

Try not to drool.

I have also made another version of this amazing invention! It is an party appetizer version of the same thing. So fun and cute and soooo easy to make and eat! You use all the same ingredients except in different forms. This time you will need GRAPE TOMATOES and small MOZZARELLA BALLS oh and toothpicks! I just slice the tomatoes in half and start poking away with the toothpick. I usually do Mozzaralla, basil, tomato. I find they don’t easily slip off that way and they stand up straight on a platter, but you can do what you like 🙂

How fun is that right?!? Fresh, Refreshing, Summer loving….ahhh. good food.

If you have recipes that are similar or another version, please share as I’m obsessed 🙂

Thanks for reading,

xoxoxo

-G