Creamy Avocado Pasta

We are leaving for Disney World this week, so we will be eating mostly left overs as I don't want to fill the fridge full of food and then leave. But I'll be back middle of next week.

I really really thought this recipe sounded good. I had an avocado, tomatoes, and pasta, I was excited. Bust. I really hate to say this but we didn't like it. I'm going so far as to say not Nichole approved. This is a first.

Creamy Avocado Pasta Sauce
makes 4 servings
recipe adapted from Oh She Glows

prep time: 10 minutes
cook time:1 hour 10 minutes

INGREDIENTS
10 - 12 small Campari tomatoes, quartered
3 - 4 tbsp olive oil
4 servings of fettuccine noodles
2 ripe avocados, seed and skin removed
2 garlic cloves, peeled
1/2 tsp salt
2 tbsp lemon juice
1/4 cup pine nuts
grated fresh Parmesan cheese
salt and cracked black pepper to taste

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 300 ºF.

2. Wash and quarter the tomatoes. Place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Drizzle with 1 - 2 tbsp olive oil, just enough to make the tomatoes glisten. Bake for 1 hour in the oven.

3. Ten minutes before tomatoes are finished, fill a large pot with water and a sprinkle of salt. Bring to a rapid boil. Add the dry fettuccine to the water and cook until al dente.

4. While the pasta is boiling, add 2 tbsp olive oil, avocado, garlic, salt and lemon juice to a food processor. Pulse until the ingredients are smooth and creamy.

5. Strain the pasta, and combine with the sauce in a large bowl, until all the pasta has been covered.

6. Add the roasted tomatoes, sprinkle with Parmesan cheese and pine nuts. Add some salt and black pepper to taste.

note: add some grilled prawns or chicken for protein. 

My Notes

I don't really have any, this was like guacamole on pasta... which in theory sounds good. But the more Jeff and I ate the more we disliked it. Bummer.

Avocado Egg Salad

Pinterest strikes again! Avocado egg salad, why didn't I think of that? I'm glad that skinnytaste.com did. I'm not doing weight watchers anymore but this recipe included points for WW which is cool b/c it gives me an idea of how not-bad this is for me :)

I know this will not be kid-approved. Only because it's green. My kid is prejudice against green food, sadly my efforts to change this have not worked. But that won't stop me, I'll keep trying.
Jeff hates hard-boiled eggs, so this is definitely not Jeff-approved I don't even bother to get him to try them anymore. The last time I made egg-salad he tossed it in the trash the next day on 'accident'. Uh huh. Suuuuure.


Avocado Egg Salad
by Skinnytaste.com

Servings: 6 • Size: 1/2 cup • Old Points: 3 pt • Points+: 4 pt (w/ light Flatout 7 pts)
Calories: 154.7 • Fat: 11.7 g • Protein: 9.3 g • Carb: 4.6 g • Fiber: 3 g • Sugar: 0.5 g
Sodium: 132 mg (without salt)

Ingredients:

• 4 large hard-boiled eggs, chopped
• 4 hard boiled egg whites, chopped (discard the rest)
• 1 medium hass avocado, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
• 1 tbsp light mayonnaise
• 1 tbsp fat free plain yogurt
• 1/2 tablespoon finely chopped chives
• 2 teaspoons red wine vinegar
• 1/2 tsp Kosher salt
• pinch freshly ground pepper

Directions:

Combine the egg yolks with the avocado, light mayo, yogurt, chives, vinegar, salt and pepper. Mash with a fork. Combine with egg whites and adjust salt as needed.

My notes:

This was tasty! I added about a tsp of yellow mustard to this, mainly because I like mustard in my egg salad. Also, I had fat free greet yogurt so I used that instead of just the plain yogurt. I think next time I make this I might add some carrot or celery, I like a little crunch to my egg salad. This could be pretty easily converted to a 'guacamole' style egg salad. Throw some cilantro (leave out the chives), tomato, onion, maybe a little jalapeno and voila! I think that's worth exploring.

My lunch

Corn and Avocado Salad

This recipe is from Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything. Everyone enjoys this, I end up making it just about everytime we grill in the summer (which is a lot).

Corn Salad with Avocado

2T oil (recipe says corn, I use vegetable)

4-6 ears corn, stripped of kernels (2-3 C)

1 small red onion, diced

1/2 red bell pepper, diced

1 t mild chile powder

1 medium tomato, seeded and chopped

1 medium ripe avocado, diced

S&P to taste

juice of 2 limes

1/2 C chopped cilantro leaves

Put oil in large skillet and turn to high heat. When oil is hot toss in the corn. Let it sit for a minute then stir or shake pan to toss the corn. Brown for about 5 minutes then turn off the heat stir in onion, pepper, chile powder, salt, and pepper.

Cool for a few minutes then toss in remaining ingredients. Serve hot, warm, or at room temperature.

My notes:

This recipe is hard to mess up, it's very forgiving. I love cumin, so I always add cumin to this. I prefer to grill the corn and then lightly heat in a pan w/the pepper, onion, chile power, salt, pepper, and cumin. This recipe serves 4, but I just keep adding stuff til I think it's enough for however many people I have. Cutting the corn off the ear can be tricky, my Mom stands the ear up in a bowl and cuts from the top down. Most of the kernels stay in the bowl. This probably goes without saying, but it does not keep well b/c of the avocado.