Food Favorite: Avocado Toast

This weekend up in Vail I ran into my friend Kari whom I hadnt seen in over a year. We got to talking about a brunch my friend Teale thru at her house a couple of years ago. Kari told me how much she loved the avocado toast I brought and asked me if she could have the recipe since she liked it so much. Around the time of this brunch, I was going thru a major addiction with avocado toast. I would have maybe three or four slices a day and I was buying avocados in bulk quantities. I was first inspired to try it after reading about it on The Wednesday Chef, who makes hers with a delish combination of mayo and mustard. I soon sought out other versions of the delicious toast, taking inspiration from the Cafe Gitane in NYC. Check out the recipes for my two favorite versions below. Happy Monday!

Ingrendients and Preparartion (makes one slice)

• One slice bread of your choice, toasted.
• 1/2 an avocado

For Wednesday Chef version...

• One teaspoon light mayo mixed with one teaspoon spicy ground mustard (I like mister mustard best)
• Squirt of Lemon Juice
• Red pepper flakes.
• Place Mayo and mustard spread on toast. Top with mashed avocado, lemon juice, and pepper flakes. Eat and enjoy!

For Cafe Giante Version...

• Tapito Hot sauce
• Truffle infused olive oil
• Top toast with mashed avocado. Add olive oil and hot sauce to taste. Eat and Enjoy!

Food Favorites: 4th of July Drink

Okay so maybe it didnt look like this, but my friend Belen came up with a 4th of July cocktail using bombpops, which happen to be one of my favorite desserts. Sure, it might be sickeningly sweet and give you a horrible hangover but isnt that what Americas all about? Happy 4th of July, everyone!

Ingredients and Preparation 

• Two Bomb Pops, removed from sticks
• One Cup Ice
• 3/4 cup Sprite
• Three Shots blueberry vodka
• 1/2 a cup frozen or fresh strawberries
• Blend and enjoy!

Food Favorite: Salsa Eggs

I have a love hate relationship with eggs. Even though they are healthy, in expensive, and filling I hate runny yolk so I struggle with finding new and yummy ways to eat them. One of my favorite ways to cook eggs comes from the "Eat This, Not that!" cook book. It only involves three ingredients, keeps me full for hours, and satisfies my love for spicy. 

Ingredients

• Two egg whites or one egg
• 2/3 a cup chunky salsa (I actually use tostinos brand since its incredibly chunky)
• 1/2 a cup tortilla strip salad toppers
• Cooking spray

Preparation

• Spray frying pan with cooking spray and ass salsa. Cook over medium heat till it starts to bubble. Crack in egg whites and slowly stir mixture together. The hot salsa will slowly cook ans scramble the eggs.
• When eggs are almost cooked add in crunchy tortilla strips. Stir mixture together and enjoy!

Food Favorite: Beach Bowl

Work at Rush for three years in college pretty much made me an expert in all things smoothie related. The smoothies there were delicious but our best sellers were with out a doubt our acai bowls blended and topped with granola and honey. When I first starting working there I had never even heard of the super fruit known as Acai. As it turns out, its pretty delicious. Packed with an astronomical amount of antioxidants, acai tastes sort of like a chocolate covered blueberry (or so my boss claimed). We had three different versions of the bowl but the best seller was the definitely the beach bowl. Wanna try one at home? Heres the dealio:

Ingredients and Preparation 

• 1/2 a cup guava juice
• 1/2 cup frozen bananas 
• 1/2 cup frozen mangos
• Two packs of frozen acai (sambazon brand), lightly softened in hot water.
• 1/2 cup hemp granola
• 1/4 cup honey
• Place all ingredients besides honey and granola in a blender and pulse till blended but still thick
• Top with granola and honey and enjoy!

Food Favorite: Sriracha Lime Quinoa

While I have been having a lot of fun with my Cooking 1.0.1 project, I have found myself falling a little behind schedule. This is in a large part due to the fact that I have certain recipe obsessions that I find myself going back to time and time again because they are just too damn good. Out of all of these recipes, sriracha lime quinoa is my greatest weakness.  While it wasn't part of my Cooking 1.0.1 project, I decided to to whip up this dish a few months ago after hearing about all the health benefits of quiona. I had never tried quiona   before but I was getting tired of plain brown rice and veggies and thought that it may be a good alternative. I found this recipe on one of my favorite blogs, JulipMade, and I have been literally addicted ever since. I don't exactly follow the original recipe to the T. I actually omit about half the ingredients (tomato, olive oil, cilantro, and protein  and I usually just cook the quinoa with water instead of broth, but the result is none the less fabulous. Sadly, it tastes alot better than it looks (i add so much sriracha and avocado that it kind of comes out looking like a bowl of orange gruel, haha) so I opted to use a picture from pinterest to show case the recipe. 

Ingredients For Original Version (serves 2):  

• One cup quiona
• 1 1/2 cups chicken or veggie broth
• 1/2 red onion
• One avocado
• One lime, juiced
• One tbsp olive oil
• Handful of cilantro
• Salt and pepper to Taste
• Tons of sriracha
• Fish or protein (optional)

Preparation

• Cook quiona according to package directions. Let cool
• Add avocado, red onion, tomato, and cilantro
• In a separate bowl mix sriracha, olive oil, salt, pepper, and lime juice. Drizzle on top of quinoa
• Serve with a protein of your choice.