Guacamole: A VegOut Inspired Love Letter

Guacamole is amazing for so many reasons. Here are a few of my personal favorites: It’s DELICIOUS, it’s easy to make so also-- hard to screw up. You can dip things into it, you can plop it on top of things, or you can just grab a fork/spoon/finger and eat it all by itself.

Guacamole is also magical. When I make a meal for my kids I often put sliced avocado on their plates. Half of the time they just eat it without comment and the other half I get a “I don’t like avocados, REMEMBER?” That’s when I feel like reminding them they happily ate avocados two days ago for lunch, but, you know, pick your battles. I take their plates, scrape the avocado into a bowl and mash it with a fork. Here’s where the magic happens…  I sometimes honestly don’t add one thing, I just mash them, put it back on their plates and then my kitchen blows up with all kinds of “Oh, GUACAMOLE! I love this. It’s the best EVER.” So there’s something we can all agree on.

Making guacamole is pretty fool proof and almost every recipe you see will offer a measurement and then say “or to taste” because it’s really about what you like. When you have a recipe like that it is always a good one to plan ahead and get your kids involved. The only special tool I would recommend is a potato masher for young kids. It tends to be easier than a fork for them to handle and mash with.

Step 1: mash

First things first: Find some medium sized non-breakable bowls that your kids can go to town on with a fork or a masher. Next set out a big selection of things they can add and let them get busy. That’s what my kids love to do. Some ideas for things you can experiment with when you make your own guac:  kosher salt, fresh cracked pepper, red onion, white onion, green onion, onion powder, tomatoes, cilantro, jalapeno, lime juice, lemon juice, minced garlic, garlic powder, cumin, cayenne or your favorite hot sauce.

Step 2: sprinkle, switch to fork

Step 3 : SQUEEEEEEZE

Even though I have a recipe, in real life I never follow the same recipe twice. I see what I have in the fridge, throw in a pinch of this or that until it tastes just right. Make sure and keep some extra veggies on hand, because (another magical quality) guacamole is a vegetable (and also technically a fruit) that you can dip other vegetables in. Pure genius. We like to put out sweet peppers, carrots, celery, tomato slices, hollowed out cherry tomatoes, raw and roasted cauliflower, and the list goes on. If you have these out while the kids are busy mashing, they automatically have something to dip and try out their creations.

Step 4: Dump

Here are two of my favorite guacamole combos. The one I make most often for the kids is quick and easy. The other one is great when you have a group and all of the ingredients on hand. I cut the quick recipe down to 1 avocado portion so you can multiply by the number of avocados you use. The other needs a few more to back up the fresh garlic and jalapeno. Both recipes use large hass avocados that will be close to the size of your hand from wrist to mid fingers.

Quick and Easy Guacamole

1 large haas avocado
¼ tsp garlic powder
½ tsp maldon flaked salt or ¼ tsp of regular kosher salt
a few cranks of fresh pepper
1 to 2 tsp of lime juice

Throw it all in a bowl and mash. Taste and adjust flavors as needed.

Party Guacamole

3 large haas avocados
1 clove of garlic, minced
¼ of a red onion, finely chopped
2 roma tomatoes, seeded and chopped
2-3 tablespoons of cilantro, chopped
1 medium jalapeno, seeded and chopped
1 tsp fresh cracked pepper
3 tsp maldon flaked salt or 1 ½ tsp regular kosher salt
1 lime, juiced (should be 2 tablespoons of juice)

Throw it all in a bowl and mash. Taste and adjust flavors as needed.

If you ever find yourself with fresh pico de gallo, you can make the easiest guacamole in the world by throwing it on top of fresh avocados and mashing away. 

My last bit of guacamole love is reserved for how much it helps me introduce new foods to my kids, making it a perfect tool when you VegOut with your family. Certain foods that seem a little different are much friendlier when you can dip them in guacamole. It helps us get past that initial new appearance or strong flavor hurdle.  Get creative with your guacamole and have fun with your kids in the kitchen. 

Popularity Challenged: A Recap

I have yet to figure out the key to what makes one blog post more popular than another. Sometimes I write a post I really like and it bombs. Then I'll try to crank something out when I'm tired and just want to sleep. I'll think it is awful but people will really like it. I have a lot of special powers behind the scenes thank to blogger. I can see the popularity of my posts based on specific clicks. So really this isn't an overall basis of who saw them, but who clicked on a direct link. Either way, let's recap my four least popular posts. I'm trying to learn something here. 

Least Popular Post 1: Chicken, Mango, and Avocado Summer Salad

I love this salad. I reread the post. It was from June and I think I was still working out some kinks. But really, cook this salad. It is so good. It might not be right for this time of year, but it was 90 degrees today in Houston, so there is a time and a place for everything. 

Case of the Mondays with Antihistamines. Not good.

Least Popular Post 2: Under the Influence of Antihistamines 

This one is just bad. So... sorry about that. It makes sense that it is least read. Don't even bother clicking above. It's three paragraphs of complaints. 

Heroic

Least Popular Post 3: Pretending to Be an Indian Olympian 101

I really liked this post, and BONUS we had this for dinner tonight. I LOVE Maya Kaimal's Indian Simmer sauces and talked about the opening ceremonies of the Olympics and what a huge joke Matt Lauer and Meredith Viera were. I still think all of those things. This was probably one of the ones that I really liked that just didn't get a killer reaction.

This one. LOVE

Least Popular Post 4: I is for Independence: Two Days of Hard Fought Ladybug Meals

So here I'm pretty sure I know what happened. Everyone who didn't have a kid was like "why the eff would I read this." That's true. But I still like this post for parents. If you have a toddler you know what it's like to have a few stressful days when they start getting picky with food or start to assert their independence. Reading this was like a trip down memory lane. It's crazy how quickly things change. Landy had her first meal at the big table tonight not in her high chair. This post was just two months ago. 

So here is your chance if you want to give feedback. Not on what is above, but on the blog in general. Do you want more or less of anything? I've been trying to work on the length of my posts because I can go off and type and type and type and type and type and type and type and.... you see where this is going. I would love to have some more guest posts from friends (HINT HINT). 

We've been cooking a lot lately, and that is pretty easy blog material. I have also undertaken fitness regiments for this blog. Wait for that on Friday. It's been four months since this whole blog journey began. I'm having a great time so far. Hope you are too! 

-RT

Recipe Review: Roasted Chicken Thighs with Mustard-Thyme Sauce

OH my Gravy. Or sauce, but WoW. This was a good one. Again, thank you Cooking Light for making recipes with gravy. Let's get started...

Fancy Photo Courtesy of Cooking Light

I didn't feel like skinning the chicken thighs and have yet to find bone in, skinless thighs at our HEB. Due to that, I picked up boneless, skinless thighs and will tell you how I edited the recipe to make up for the fact that the boneless meat would be more thin, therefore cooking faster. We roasted some new potatoes in the oven as well so we had a lot of oven time tied up.

Small red potatoes, salt, pepper, EV Olive Oil and sliced garlic

Chicken Thighs are being browned

Other side

Out of the oven

In the recipe it calls for you to brown the chicken thighs for 4 minutes per side. I just did 2.5 minutes per side with the boneless thighs. After that, we put them in a baking dish and instead of baking them at 425 for 16 minutes, I did them for 12 minutes. We pulled the thighs out and put them in the microwave to stay warm. We put the potatoes in the oven next and started working on the green beans and the gravy. 

I used the frozen haricots verts that were leftover from last week, defrosted them in the microwave for 3 - 4 minutes and dressed them with EV Olive Oil, a splash of White Wine Vinegar, a bit of honey, and a bit of rooster sauce. It was basically the same dressing I use on my salads, just on a smaller scale.

Frozen = Easier

Green beans ready while I mix up the flour and chicken stock.

We chopped the onions and thyme for the gravy/sauce and prepped the chicken stock & flour mixture. The pan had lots of stuck on bits and then, in a glorious bonus, we got to use the cooking juices from baking the thighs. This was all heading in a very good direction.

Sauce goes from here...

To here!! Gravy/Sauce is born.

The potatoes were ready to go just as we were finishing up the gravy. It didn't call for this, but we took the chicken thighs and put them in with the gravy and tossed them for a moment to both warm them up and also TO COAT THEM IN GRAVY. Here is what the final plate looked like:

I borrowed Landy's new place mat so I would know where my silverware went

Up close and personal and delicious. Every bit.

If you are from the South (especially the Louisiana area) then you know what it means when something is smothered. It is fabulous and not so healthy. These thighs tasted like they were SOUTHERN SMOTHERED DELISH. And they are from Cooking Light!!! You are saving calories and sodium and fat, but you are getting this amazing flavor. I really recommend this when you feel like eating something that tastes bad for you, but is actually good for you. You can also just cook it whenever you want because it is fantastic. Here is another on the side tip: The Gravy/Sauce tastes amazing on the potatoes. 

The full original recipe is below, or you can pull it up online here. This was great for the new bit of fall weather we got. We need to get back outside though. I miss by grill friend! What do you love to cook when the weather starts to cool down? 

Happy Gravy Day! 

-RT

Roasted Chicken Thighs with Mustard-Thyme Sauce
by Cooking Light

Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 8 bone-in chicken thighs, skinned (about 2 1/2 pounds)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt, divided
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, divided
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1/2 cup chopped onion
• 2 teaspoons chopped fresh thyme
• 1 cup no-salt-added chicken stock (such as Swanson), divided
• 4 teaspoons flour
• 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard 

Preparation:

1. Preheat oven to 425°.

2. Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add oil to pan; swirl to coat. Sprinkle chicken with 1/4 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Add chicken to pan; cook 4 minutes on each side or until lightly browned. Remove chicken from pan; place in an 11 x 7–inch glass or ceramic baking dish. Bake at 425° for 16 minutes or until a thermometer registers 165°. Remove chicken from dish; reserve drippings.

3. Return skillet to medium-high heat. Add butter; swirl to coat. Add onion and thyme; sauté 5 minutes or until tender. Combine 3 tablespoons stock and flour in a small bowl, stirring with a whisk until smooth. Add flour mixture, remaining stock, and reserved drippings to pan, scraping pan to loosen browned bits. Bring to a boil, and cook for 2 minutes or until slightly thickened. Remove from heat, and add mustard, remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper, stirring with a whisk. Serve sauce with chicken.

Winner Winner, Pork for Dinner!

The fancy people at Cooking Light have redeemed themselves! You really can't go wrong when you cook whatever is on the cover of a cooking magazine. The thing is, usually what is on the cover is not quick, inexpensive, or easy. This time it was all of the above, and delicious!

I dogear pages.

Last night we made Pork Chops with Roasted Apples and Pearl Onions and a side of Green Beans with Mustard Vinaigrette.  The recipe was from our newest Cooking Light. To recap, chosen because it was fast, easy, and inexpensive. 

Assembled Ingredients

For the mustard vinegarette we just needed EV Olive Oil, Fresh Pepper, Kosher Salt, Cider Vinegar, and Mustard Powder. I couldn't find frozen Haricots Verts so I just went with some extra fine whole green beans.

Part of the speed of this recipe that I really enjoyed was that it used frozen pearl onions and frozen green beans. It saved time in washing and prepping and often times frozen vegetables taste better than what is in the produce section. The things you buy fresh at grocery stores are picked before they are ripe to make up for the travel time. Frozen vegetables are picked at the peak of their ripeness and then frozen right away to preserve their state. A great time saver all around and I use them ALL of the time with Landon.

I preheated the oven to 400 degrees, took out the pork chops to come to room temperature, chopped the apples, thawed the onions, and measured out the flour and oils. I put a pan on the stove to warm up with the olive oil. Then added the onions. It's important to only stir them once while they cook so that they get nice and brown bringing out a bit of carmelization. You use canola oil in this pan because it is going in the oven and unlike olive oil, and some others, will not go rancid at very high temperatures.

Then we added the apples and stirred before putting the pan in the oven for ten minutes. 

While the apples and onions cooked, I chopped the thyme and put a pan on the stove to warm up for the pork chops.

Pork Chop pan. Sprinkled with Salt and Pepper and the pan is coated with Olive Oil.

The thyme mixture ready to stir in the onions and apples.

The apples and onions came out perfectly and I stirred in the thyme mixture while S finished the pork chops. 

With everything mixed in together. Smelling fabulous!

Pork chops ready to come off.

Here's a handy tip... try not to forget that the pan that is currently on the stove with the apples and onions was formerly in the oven. I grabbed the handle. Smart girl. It hurt. So if you can remember, my advice is to put one of those handy little oven mitt sleeves on the handle. Then when you grab it you won't burn your hand off. I don't have one of those, so I used this:

Hard to tell, but it's just a giant regular valentine's day oven mitt. Not a gift from S, don't worry.

I had already mixed up the chicken broth and flour so when Seth pulled off the pork chops, we were ready to make the gravy/sauce in the pan. 

Boom. Gravy.

Gravy is best when you are supposed to "scrape up the bits" from the bottom of the pan. YUMMMMM! 

Then we got to the green beans. I had already thawed them in the microwave and patted them dry. I eyeballed the vinaigrette and probably shouldn't have. They were too "mustardy" for S and the flavors weren't exactly subtle. I think it was just fine though and would have been better if I would have used the correct measurements. 

Vinaigrette

Coated Green Beans

Finally we assembled the plates. Prior to the gravy:

 And with added gravy deliciousness:

This was fantastic. The onions and apples were so sweet and flavorful with the thyme. The gravy on the pork chops was so savory. The green beans were a nice added crunch and vegetable. It was also very fast and very easy. Also, again THE GRAVY... OMG. Fantastic. When is gravy not fantastic?

There are lots of different ways you could do this. Possibly with a pork loin all baked at once. While eating I was thinking mostly yum yum yum, and nom nom nom, and how can we cook fast, easy and gravy every night. It was really a wonderful flavor combination and something that would taste delicious year round.

Here is an update on the Orzo from Monday: Even Landon won't eat it. She tried it and cleaned off her tongue with her hands. I have decided to give it up. No use trying to reinvent the plain, boring, orzo pasta that had no flavor. 

So go ahead and cook this. NOW or next week. But soon. It was delicious. If you cook as a couple it will only take you 30 minutes from start to finish. If cooking as a couple makes you want to murder each other, then it will take you 40 minutes and tell your second chef to leave you alone. 

We had the leftovers today. Then I had a skinny cow cookies and cream ice cream sandwich. Sorry. Just needed to get that off of my chest. 

- RT

PS Shameless self promotion: Have you "liked" the Raising Texas facebook page yet? You should!

Pork Chops with Roasted Apples and Pearl Onions

Ingredients:

    2 1/2 teaspoons canola oil, divided
    1 1/2 cups frozen pearl onions, thawed
    2 cups Gala apple wedges
    1 tablespoon butter, divided
    2 teaspoons fresh thyme leaves
    1/2 teaspoon kosher salt, divided
    1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, divided
    4 (6-ounce) bone-in center-cut pork loin chops (about 1/2 inch thick)
    1/2 cup fat-free, lower-sodium chicken broth
    1/2 teaspoon all-purpose flour
    1 teaspoon cider vinegar

Preparation:

1. Preheat oven to 400°.

2. Heat a large ovenproof skillet over medium-high heat. Add 1 teaspoon oil to pan; swirl to coat. Pat onions dry with a paper towel. Add onions to pan; cook 2 minutes or until lightly browned, stirring once. Add apple to pan; place in oven. Bake at 400° for 10 minutes or until onions and apple are tender. Stir in 2 teaspoons butter, thyme, 1/4 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper.

3. Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Sprinkle pork with remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Add remaining 1 1/2 teaspoons oil to pan; swirl to coat. Add pork to pan; cook 3 minutes on each side or until desired degree of doneness. Remove pork from pan; keep warm. Combine broth and flour in a small bowl, stirring with a whisk. Add broth mixture to pan; bring to a boil, scraping pan to loosen browned bits. Cook 1 minute or until reduced to 1/4 cup. Stir in vinegar and remaining 1 teaspoon butter. Serve sauce with pork and apple mixture.