{"id":8268,"date":"2013-08-13T22:06:54","date_gmt":"2013-08-13T22:06:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nutritionknowhow.org\/blog\/?p=8268"},"modified":"2013-08-21T00:05:24","modified_gmt":"2013-08-21T00:05:24","slug":"cooking-with-california-avocados","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nutritionknowhow.org\/blog\/h\/cooking-with-california-avocados\/","title":{"rendered":"Cooking with California Avocados!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I received free samples of California Avocado mentioned in this post.\u00a0 By posting this recipe I am entering a recipe contest sponsored by California Avocado and am eligible to win prizes associated with the contest.\u00a0 I was not compensated for my time.<\/p>\n<p>Avocados are a summer staple.\u00a0 They are so versatile\u2014I keep them in my kitchen as a wonderful edition to family meals.\u00a0 Whether I make guacamole for our tacos, or slice them up on a grilled cheese, or add them to a salad\u2014they are a nutritious and delicious way to zip up what could be hum-drum meals.\u00a0 I recently tried them as a replacement for fat in a pasta salad.\u00a0 The results were amazing!<\/p>\n<p>I attended my family reunion recently, and needed to bring a side dish that would help serve about 90 people.\u00a0 My Mother\u2019s side of the family has 199 decedents from my grandparents\u2014and more on the way!\u00a0 That\u2019s a lot of people to feed!\u00a0 I decided to bring a pasta salad, as my garden was producing more than we could eat right now.\u00a0 I saw and idea in the Family Fun magazine that made a dressing with an avocado, so I thought I would give it a try\u2014my way!\u00a0 I prepared the pasta per the directions, then drained and rinsed it, and added a little olive oil when done to keep it from soaking up the dressing and making the salad dry.\u00a0 I used multicolored pasta, but whole wheat would be terrific also.\u00a0 I cut up cucumbers, tomatoes, onions, and fresh basil.\u00a0 Then I added cubed chicken, a little cheese, and a few green olives.\u00a0 The chicken, cheese and olives were items I always have on hand.\u00a0 I made the dressing, with a few avocados that were nicely ripe, low-fat sour cream and a little skim milk, lime juice, garlic salt and a little seasoning salt.<\/p>\n<p>When complete, I had two HUGE containers of a salad chock full of vitamins and minerals, little fat, and LOTS of flavor.\u00a0 It went over very well at the reunion.\u00a0 When I make it again, I am saving and avocado to chunk up in the salad!\u00a0 My Mom wanted to know what was in it, as I am always \u201cexperimenting\u201d with recipes.\u00a0 One year I brought muffins made with pinto beans to the reunion.\u00a0 They were also a hit\u2014and no one ever knew they were eating a little healthier!<\/p>\n<dl class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" id=\"attachment_8272\" style=\"line-height: normal; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; font-style: normal;\">\n<dt><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nutritionknowhow.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/August-2013-CSA-044.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"I made more than one recipe for this group!\" src=\"http:\/\/www.nutritionknowhow.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/August-2013-CSA-044-300x225.jpg\" width=\"484\" height=\"396\" \/><\/a><\/dt>\n<dd>I made more than one recipe for this group!<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<p>Thanks to the California Avocado Commission for this contest.\u00a0 I love avocados, and it was fun giving them a new spin!\u00a0 For more recipes with nutritious avocados, check out Recipe Redux recipes below, or visit <a href=\"http:\/\/CalifoniaAvocado.com\">http:\/\/CalifoniaAvocado.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\">Avocado Pasta Salad<\/p>\n<p>Dressing:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\u00bd cup low-fat sour cream<\/li>\n<li>\u00bd cup skim milk<\/li>\n<li>1 ripe avocado<\/li>\n<li>1 heaping teaspoon chopped garlic<\/li>\n<li>2 tablespoons lime juice<\/li>\n<li>1 teaspoon garlic powder<\/li>\n<li>1 teaspoon seasoning salt<\/li>\n<li>2 teaspoons fresh chopped basil<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Blend all ingredients in a blender or food processor and set aside.\u00a0 Taste to see if it needs salt and pepper.<\/p>\n<p>Salad:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>1 bag multicolored rotini, cooked and tossed with 1 Tbs olive oil<\/li>\n<li>1 cup chopped tomatoes<\/li>\n<li>1 cup chopped cucumbers<\/li>\n<li>1 cup chopped onions<\/li>\n<li>1 cup diced cheese<\/li>\n<li>1 \u00bd cups chopped roasted chicken<\/li>\n<li>\u00bc cup green or black olives<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Mix dressing with salad ingredients and chill for at least four hours.\u00a0 Overnight is better to let flavors meld.\u00a0 Side note:\u00a0 Our blog has been down for a short period of time, but now we hope you enjoy all of our updates and changes.\u00a0 It will continue to morph for a little while, until we tweak it to just what we decide we want.\u00a0 Let us know if you like our changes!<\/p>\n<p style=\"line-height: normal; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; font-style: normal;\"><!-- start InLinkz script --><script type=\"text\/javascript\">\/\/ <![CDATA[\ndocument.write('<script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=http:\/\/www.inlinkz.com\/cs.php?id=292452&#038;' + new Date().getTime() + '\"><\\\/script>');\n\/\/ ]]><\/script><!-- end InLinkz script --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I received free samples of California Avocado mentioned in this post.\u00a0 By posting this recipe I am entering a recipe contest sponsored by California Avocado and am eligible to win prizes associated with the contest.\u00a0 I was not compensated for my time. Avocados are a summer staple.\u00a0 They are so versatile\u2014I keep them in my kitchen as a wonderful edition&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/nutritionknowhow.org\/blog\/h\/cooking-with-california-avocados\/\" class=\"read-more\">Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8269,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[780,551],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8268","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nutrition-2","category-h","cat-780-id","cat-551-id"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/nutritionknowhow.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/August-2013-CSA-045.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nutritionknowhow.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8268"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nutritionknowhow.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nutritionknowhow.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nutritionknowhow.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nutritionknowhow.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8268"}],"version-history":[{"count":21,"href":"https:\/\/nutritionknowhow.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8268\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8287,"href":"https:\/\/nutritionknowhow.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8268\/revisions\/8287"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nutritionknowhow.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8269"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nutritionknowhow.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nutritionknowhow.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8268"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nutritionknowhow.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}