Tag Archives: avocado

St. Patty’s Day Secret Ingredient Bread

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Cornbread is usually a recipe for health disaster with loads of butter and sugar. Ask Paula Dean what the end result of that combo is. Gasp.

So as usual I changed things up a bit.

Enter secret ingredient, I swapped avocado for butter. The avocado keeps the bread’s richness from it’s healthy fats, taking out the saturated fats and replacing with unsaturated. Plus, essential fats from avocado and Vitamin E, so good for your skin. And, there should always be a little green for St. Patrick’s Day.

The sugar was also replaced with unsweetened applesauce, agave and corn. Corn? If you ever did one of those low carb diets, then you know corn is a starchy carbohydrate (because you couldn’t eat it). Good thing those days are over!

Well carbs, especially starchy carbs, are broken down into sugars during chewing (and that’s all I will go into that). Voilà, a subtle layer of sweetness, plus a little fiber to slow the insulin spike. Also, slowing that spike is fat from the avocado and Greek yogurt, as well as protein from the yogurt and eggs.

I didn’t intend to make the flour Gluten-free, but I wanted to keep this on the healthier side and avoid white flour (no nutrients, or fiber) to pair with the cornmeal. And, whole wheat flour is great, but sometimes a little dense for baking. So, why not try brown rice flour? Brown rice  is a power house for nutrients, fiber, Vitamin E, protein, iron. Some of that is stripped as it is processed into flour, but still better than white flour…

The oven is set at a lower temperature to avoid destroying the fragile bonds of the unsaturated fats in the avocado.

Whew, so here is a moist delicious nutrient packed energy breakfast, snack, or side dish for your St. Patty’s Day weekend. Top O’ Morning to Ya! Did I say that right?  I don’t have a lick of Irish in me ;) .

Avocado Cornbread

Dry

1 Cup yellow cornmeal

3/4 Cup Brown rice flour

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

Wet

1 avocado

15 ounces whole kernel corn

2 Tbsp- 1/4 cup agave nectar ***

1/2 cup applesauce

2 eggs

1/2 cup almond milk

1/4 cup Greek yogurt

1. Preheat oven to 350. Lightly grease 9X 12 (or 8X8 if you want thicker pieces than the pic above) baking pan.

2. Mix together dry ingredients in bowl and set aside.

3. Using a Mixer or Kitchen Aide mix avocado, eggs, Greek yogurt and almond milk until smooth. Mix in remaining wet ingredients.

4. While mixer is still going slowly pour in dry ingredients. Mix until combined.

5. Fold in corn.

6. bake for 20-25 minutes (double the time if you are using (8X8).

*** If you like a sweet corn bread definitely use the 1/4 cup of agave. 2 Tbsp will give you only a hint of sweetness.

Seaweed in my dinner?

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Due to the time change I’ve switched my workouts to the morning. I eased into it, the first week waking up 15-20 minutes earlier, and now 30-60 minutes. I actually really like it. Now I come home from work and chill instead of trying to find motivation to workout. Plus, the food I eat goes to my recovering muscles- bonus! Variety=good.

So I like looking through fitness magazines. They keep me motivated, and sometimes I find an exercise or meal that I haven’t tried before. This weekend I was looking through my recipe binder and found a “eat right” dinner in Fitness Magazine from Feb. 2010. I was disappointed. You can check out the original recipe here.

The meal is better than eating out, and quick. But, it is not really balanced. Way too much protein, and no (that’s right!) veggies. Goes to show you- even though it’s in a healthy magazine- read carefully. However, I liked the sauce and foundation so of course I changed it up a bit. ;) The secret power food I added was seaweed. Not the new seaweed snack, but the kind you can buy in large sheets. It adds tons of nutrients and a great nutty flavor.

New and Improved Shrimp Rice Bowl

Prep time: 10 minutes, Cook time 50 minutes (I used slow cooking brown rice) Serves 4-5

Ingredients

16 medium cleaned, shelled, shrimp

2 teaspoons sesame oil

1 teaspoon honey

1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper

2 eggs

2 Tablespoon light soy sauce

2 Tablespoons rice wine vinegar

2 teaspoons sesame seeds

1 cup brown rice

1 cut ripe avocado

2 seaweed sheets

1/2 bag chopped frozen peppers ( I used Trader Joe’s)

1/2 bag chopped frozen spinach

Directions

1. Cook rice according to directions. Get out all ingredients cause it goes fast.

2. When rice has 15 minutes to go start remaining portion. Add 1 teaspoon of sesame oil to Wok. Turn to med heat, add frozen veggies cook until thawed.

3. While frozen veggies are defrosting, whisk 2 eggs and set aside.

4. Check on veggies, add in whisked eggs if veggies are tender.

5. Cook eggs and veggies and as if you are making an veggie/egg scramble 5-6 minutes.

6. While eggs and veggies are cooking, stir together soy sauce, rice wine, honey and Cayenne pepper and set aside.

7. When rice is done cooking add half of soy sauce mixture to it and stir.

8. Rip seaweed into little pieces and stir into rice.

8. Add rice to veggie/egg scramble in wok. Turn heat to low and stir.

9. Add in remaining sauce. Fold in shrimp.

10. Serve with cut avocado on top.

This recipe was featured at Fit Sugar.

Using honey reminded me of the news I read that Agave Sweetener is a scam. Read it here at The Healthy Home Economist. Thoughts??

Taco Tuesday

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All right my friends the correct answer to the following post in Dee-Lite. Check out her groovy song sometime if you are feeling down ;) .  This recipe my Husband chose from the 1000 Recipes with low fat, sugar, cholesterol cookbook. His go to, but I think he could have created this entirely on his own.

Perfect dinner or snack. Tasty filling and super healthy with lean protein, healthy fats, nutrient rich veggies, and clean burning carbs. Couple of bonuses with this one: easy to throw together, can add what ever variety floats your boat and of course super tasty.  The only down fall to this recipe was the amount of bowls used for all the toppings. Which of course then have to be washed. And when you don’t have a dishwasher, well let’s just say your hands end up very soft.  You can have these a couple of different ways:

                                      Or         

Whole wheat tortilla, or  Double style corn tortilla

Avocado Crab Tacos

8 whole wheat or corn tortillas

10 oz cooked crab meat

1 avocado

1 Tomato

1/2 Onion

handful or spinach or lettuce

1 green chili

1/2 Limes

2 Tbsp cilantro

Pico De Gallo Salsa to taste

Lite Sour Cream to taste

1. Cut avocado in half and remove pit. Spoon out inside and mash with a sprinkle of lime juice (so it doesn’t turn brown). Set aside

2. Chop your tomato, onion, and chili. Set aside.

3. heat the tortillas in an ungreased nonstick skillet, sprinkling them with a few drops of water as they heat; wrap in a clean dish cloth as you work to keep them warm.

4. Spread a tortilla with sour cream. top with spinach or lettuce, then crab meat a squeeze of lime juice and then add chile, tomato, onion, cilantro and avocado, and salsa.

Now, who do you think made the double style corn one? ;)