avocados

Taco Stuffed Avocados with Chipotle Cream

Creamy avocados are used instead of shells for these weeknight beef tacos with chipotle flavored sour cream, making for a fun twist on taco night.

This recipe post is sponsored by the makers of HORMEL^® Taco Meats because we all have #TacoGoals, and this taco with a twist is a tasty way to meet them.

Have you ever read US Weekly magazine? It’s okay to admit it. I’m with you. I was a serious junkie for about 15 years. I bought the mag every single week, at the grocery store newsstand. I couldn’t even bear to become a subscriber where I would have saved money because as a subscriber the magazine was delivered a whole 2 days later and how could I possibly wait for my Hollywood voyeur fix?

So, in US Weekly, every week there’s a section titled, “Stars…They’re Just Like Us.” They pump their own gas, they walk their own dogs, and GASP, are even spotted without makeup at the grocery store.

Welcome to my non-celebrity life.

This blog post should be titled, “Food Bloggers, They’re Just Like Us.”

We overcommit, we have the best of intentions to meal plan for the week and then don’t, and then after spending the whole day obsessing over food and plotting out recipes for our blogs and oftentimes cooking all day for our job, all of the sudden it’s dinner time and there we are, just like you, digging through the fridge looking for something everyone at the table can eat for dinner because a meal of Red Velvet Cupcakes and Champagne Mojitos probably won’t cut it.

That’s why having a few dinner time shortcuts on hand is always a good idea at our house.

continue to the recipe… about Taco Stuffed Avocados with Chipotle Cream

Roasted Garlic and Pickled Jalapeño Guacamole

How many times have you heard it? You know the phrase, the not-so-very-much-original one we all say because it’s just so perfectly descriptive.

You know it. Come on, say it with me. Think it. Live it: “Hoooooooly Guacamole.”

Okay it’s a little trite, but so true. Guacamole is the ultimate dipper, topper, finger licker. Cinco de Mayo by now is in the holiday back seat but with summer’s festivities on the bright lights horizon, there’s so many more reasons to kick back and “dip-toe through the tortilla chips.” Okay, that was a stretch but let’s just roll with it.

photo via Garlic Girl’s Instagram

My recipe for Roasted Garlic and Jalapeño Guacamole is a riff on a recipe created at this spring’s Big Traveling Potluck by Jodi of Garlic Girl, Des of Life’s Ambrosia and Melba of Out a Thyme, the ladies who stole the show and won the Best Tasting Recipe award at the Guacamole Challenge we all competed in. It was a friendly competition. That said, there may have been some tears shed when the winner was announced and my team didn’t win.

We were CONVINCED we were shoe-ins with mango and bacon in our version of guacamole. We were wrong.continue to the recipe… about Roasted Garlic and Pickled Jalapeño Guacamole

Roasted Kale and Fennel Salad with Avocado Caesar Dressing Plus 20 More Kale Recipes to Love

I succombed to peer pressure. I jumped on the bandwagon. I’m intoxicated with the sweet promise of a new fangled and healthy twist on one of my favorite meals.

My lunch crunch salad.

I have a version of a salad nearly every day for lunch and it’s often a dish I’m requested to bring to pot luck dinners. It usually includes some sort of protein (rotisserie chicken, tuna, leftover salmon or chickpeas), fresh veggies (roasted tomatoes or beets, avocados, maybe peas) and just a sprinkling of firm cheese (feta or blue are my faves.)

But it wasn’t until recently that I veered from my trusty spring mix or crunchy hearts of romaine to jump into the land of kale as my main salad base. I’ve added it to several of my favorite dishes like my Kale and Cabbage Coleslaw and White Bean and Pumpkin Pork Chili but for some reason it didn’t make it into my usual lunch crunch rotation.

Until I roasted the kale leaves for the salad.

continue to the recipe… about Roasted Kale and Fennel Salad with Avocado Caesar Dressing Plus 20 More Kale Recipes to Love

Game Day Chicken Nachos with Avocado

Back in high school I considered myself a pretty good cook. Or at least better than most of my friends who subsisted on string cheese and instant cup o’ noodles. I’ve never been one who was too lazy to cook when I’m hungry and if the pangs struck I would come up with some pretty satiating recipes. And anything with melted cheese was my favorite snack of all. Slices of cheese, tomato soup and of course tortilla chips.

In our house my dad was the nacho maker, and I’ll share that recipe and his tenacity with you sometime soon, but today I have another nacho recipe for you, something hearty and spicy and cheesy.continue to the recipe… about Game Day Chicken Nachos with Avocado

Mexican Turkey Meatball Sandwiches with Avocado Smash and Game Day Sweepstakes

Enter Avocado from Mexico’s Game Day Sweepstakes via FoodieCrush here. See what you might win and details at the bottom of this post.

I’m just saying it now. So get out your cute little Moleskins, grab a pen and take heed.

2013 is the year of the meatball.

No matter it’s nationality—Italian, Swedish, Vietnamese, Greek, every country has it’s version of meatballs—the meatball is a ubiquitous culinary staple that is the figurehead of basic, down-to-earth, comfort food. In. My. Mouth.

The meatball has even made its way into popular culture, including as the title of one of my all-time favorite movies now being made into a T.V. series by none other than the creator of Friday Night Lights (I’m so ready to discover who will become my new Riggins, IF, and that’s a big IF, he can be replaced.) Are you ready for the summer? Are you ready for the good times? Ah, yes, about now I certainly am.continue to the recipe… about Mexican Turkey Meatball Sandwiches with Avocado Smash and Game Day Sweepstakes

Shrimp and Scallop Ceviche Stuffed Avocados

The most tasteful things in life are usually the simplest. And this dish is a shining example.

After weeks of nipping at our ankles like border collies herding sheep, Christmas Eve is here and New Years Eve will be scurrying right up behind it. I for one am ready to welcome in a new year of hope and gratitude with clinks of champagne and air kisses galore.

These occasions scream for something decadent, but with the flurry of social activities, travel time and overall high expectations, why don’t we all decide to keep it simple, shall we? Simply decadent.

This year I’ll be celebrating New Years on a beach in Mexico. No, not just in my mind as I settle into below freezing temperatures as my husband suggests I warm up that snow shovel. No, this is all real life baby. Sand, surf and shrimp will be tops on my itinerary, and not necessarily in that order.continue to the recipe… about Shrimp and Scallop Ceviche Stuffed Avocados

Fried Avocado Tacos Recipe

Creamy Avocados from Mexico might just be one of my favorite fruits.

I eat them for breakfast in my egg white omelets with a little feta cheese. I love them on turkey sandwiches with a little cranberry sauce and a thin slather of mayo on fluffy white bread. And I absolutely crave them as a base for tostadas topped with a ton of lettuce and spicy hot sauce.

I really don’t need much else.

continue to the recipe… about Fried Avocado Tacos Recipe