Rockin' Guac!

This is from Hungry Girl.  Haven't tried, but it sounds good.

Ingredients:

One 15-oz. can early/young peas, drained
1/2 cup mashed avocado (about 1 medium-small avocado's worth)
1/3 cup chopped cherry or grape tomatoes
1/4 cup finely chopped onions
1/4 cup fat-free Greek yogurt (like Fage Total 0%)
4 tsp. lime juice
1/2 tsp. chopped garlic
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. pepper
1/8 tsp. cumin
1/8 tsp. chili powder
Optional: chopped cilantro, chopped jarred jalapenos, additional salt and pepper

Directions:
Place drained peas in a medium bowl and mash thoroughly with a potato masher or fork. Add all other ingredients except for the tomatoes, onions and optional items. Continue to mash until blended. Stir in the tomatoes, onions and, if you like, some chopped cilantro and/or jalapenos. Season to taste with salt and pepper, if needed. Enjoy! MAKES 6 SERVINGS

HG Alternative! This stuff is a great spread for sandwiches, pitas and wraps -- and it's an excellent omelette topper. Two tablespoons of it has just 29 calories and 1g fat, plus 1.25g fiber (POINTS® value 0*)!

Serving Size: 1/3 cup (1/6th of recipe)
Calories: 78
Fat: 3g
Sodium: 320mg
Carbs: 10.5g
Fiber: 3.5g
Sugars: 4g
Protein: 3.5g

POINTS® value 1

[JoyRenee]

*drool* I love guacomole!!! Avacodos are amazing !

[kennedydp5]

i've never had guacomole (sp?) before...  what does it taste like?  i actually bought an avacado this weekend at the store b/c i wanted to try it and i'm scared, lol.  what's another way i can eat it?  (or should i start another thread for this question?)

[swampcritter]

Avocados are very high in fat for a vegetable! Fortunately, its not nearly as bad for you as other kinds of fat.

Hard to describe the taste...light green and oily is the best Swampy can do.

Feel your avocado to make sure it is ripe. It should not feel hard to the touch, nor should it be mush, a little springy is right. If it is hard, leave it on the counter for one more day. If it is mush, make guacamole. If its mush and brown colored, buy another one.

The easiest way to eat an avocado is to cut it in half (around the pit, which is quite large). Usually, the outer skin peels right off. Swampy's parents used to put a spoonful of mayonnaise on top, but Swampy just cuts it into bite sized pieces, puts on some salt, and goes to town.

[kennedydp5]

i did read about the high fat in an avacado...  but does the good outweigh the bad for this?  i'm honestly even more scared to try it now...  it doesn't sound very tasty!  its a fruit, right?  i'm used to sweet or tangy fruit!  oh, well...  i gues i won't know unless i try it, right?  i'll make sure its ripe and try it at lunchtime.

[swampcritter]

> it doesn't sound very tasty!

Everybody tastes things differently. The oil adds a powerful richness, and the vegetable green adds a depth. It is mild and savory, not sweet.

The texture of a good avocado is like a soft cheese.

[TrudieC]

I would describe avocado as having an almost buttery taste.  The fat in an avocado is the healthy kind and like everything in life eat in moderation and it is good for you.  I do love it like Swampy described but do make a lot of guacamole (just simple with chopped onion, jalapeno, chopped tomatoes, lime juice and salt and sometimes even a slog of tequila!) and dip in baked nacho chips.  You can also put it in a sandwich as a spread.  I love them in salads and rice paper rolls.  They will go brown if you don't sprinkle them with lime or lemon juice.

There are many health benefits for avocados - here is info from a web site describing them.

Promote Heart Health

Avocados contain oleic acid, a monounsaturated fat that may help to lower cholesterol. In one study of people with moderately high cholesterol levels, individuals who ate a diet high in avocados showed clear health improvements. After seven days on the diet that included avocados, they had significant decreases in total cholesterol and LDL cholesterol, along with an 11% increase in health promoting HDL cholesterol.

Avocados are a good source of potassium, a mineral that helps regulate blood pressure. Adequate intake of potassium can help to guard against circulatory diseases, like high blood pressure, heart disease or stroke. In fact, the U.S. Food and Drug Association has authorized a health claim that states: "Diets containing foods that are good sources of potassium and low in sodium may reduce the risk of high blood pressure and stroke."

One cup of avocado has 23% of the Daily Value for folate, a nutrient important for heart health. To determine the relationship between folate intake and heart disease, researchers followed over 80,000 women for 14 years using dietary questionnaires. They found that women who had higher intakes of dietary folate had a 55% lower risk of having heart attacks or fatal heart disease. Another study showed that individuals who consume folate-rich diets have a much lower risk of cardiovascular disease or stroke than those who do not consume as much of this vital nutrient.

Promote Optimal Health

Not only are avocados a rich source of monounsaturated fatty acids including oleic acid, which has recently been shown to offer significant protection against breast cancer, but it is also a very concentrated dietary source of the carotenoid lutein; it also contains measurable amounts of related carotenoids (zeaxanthin, alpha-carotene and beta-carotene) plus significant quantities of tocopherols (vitamin E).

In a laboratory study published in the Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry, an extract of avocado containing these carotenoids and tocopherols inhibited the growth of both androgen-dependent and androgen-independent prostate cancer cells.

But when researchers tried exposing the prostate cancer cells to lutein alone, the single carotenoid did not prevent cancer cell growth and replication. Not only was the whole matrix of carotenoids and tocopherols in avocado necessary for its ability to kill prostate cancer cells, but the researchers also noted that the significant amount of monounsaturated fat in avocado plays an important role. Carotenoids are lipid (fat)-soluble, which means fat must be present to ensure that these bioactive carotenoids will be absorbed into the bloodstream. Just as Nature intends, avocado delivers the whole heath-promoting package.

Increase Your Absorption of Carotenoids from Vegetables

Enjoying a few slices of avocado in your tossed salad, or mixing some chopped avocado into your favorite salsa will not only add a rich, creamy flavor, but will greatly increase your body's ability to absorb the health-promoting carotenoids that vegetables provide.

A study published in the March 2005 issue of the Journal of Nutrition tested the hypothesis that since carotenoids are lipophilic (literally, fat-loving, which means they are soluble in fat, not water), consuming carotenoid-rich foods along with monounsaturated-fat-rich avocado might enhance their bioavailability.

Not only did adding avocado to a salad of carrot, lettuce and baby spinach or to salsa greatly increase study participants' absorption of carotenoids from these foods, but the improvement in carotenoid availability occurred even when a very small amount-as little as 2 ounces-of avocado was added.

Adding avocado to salad increased absorption of alpha-carotene, beta-carotene and lutein 7.2, 15.3, and 5.1 times higher, respectively, than the average amount of these carotenoids absorbed when avocado-free salad was eaten.

Adding avocado to salsa increased lycopene and beta-carotene absorption 4.4 and 2.6 times higher, respectively, than the average amount of these nutrients absorbed from avocado-free salsa. Since avocados contain a large variety of nutrients including vitamins, minerals, as well as heart-healthy monounsaturated fat, eating a little avocado along with carotenoid-rich vegetables and fruits is an excellent way to improve your body's ability to absorb carotenoids while also receiving other nutritional-and taste-benefits.

Avocado Phytonutrients Combat Oral Cancer

Oral cancer is even more likely to result in death than breast, skin, or cervical cancer, with a mortality rate of about 50% due to late detection, according to Great Britain's Mouth Cancer Foundation. Avocados may offer a delicious dietary strategy for the prevention of oral cancer. Phytonutrients in Hass avocados, the most readily available of the more than 500 varieties of avocados grown worldwide, target multiple signaling pathways, increasing the amount of free radicals (reactive oxygen species) within pre-cancerous and cancerous human oral cell lines, that leads to their death, but cause no harm to normal cells. ? Semin Cancer Biol. 2007 May 17. Earlier research by UCLA scientists also indicates that Hass avocados may inhibit the growth of prostate cancer as well. When analyzed, Hass avocados were found to contain the highest content of lutein among commonly eaten fruits as well as measurable amounts of related carotenoids (zeaxanthin, alpha-carotene, and beta-carotene). Lutein accounted for 70% of the measured carotenoids, and the avocado also contained significant quantities of vitamin E. J Nutr Biochem. 2005 Jan;16(1):23-30.

[kennedydp5]

thank you for that information!!!  :)  i knew it was healthy... but i didn't know all that!  adding it to a salad or salsa sounds a little easier than trying it as is.  

[peekawho]

Here in SoCal you slice them and put them on your hamburger.  

[1nana]

I cut mine in half, remove the pit, (keep peeling on), then fill the hole with salsa, sprinkle with salt and pepper, get a spoon, and go for it!

[JoyRenee]

You can do so much with avocodos and you should really get in one a week. When I worked at a coffeehouse we had BLT sandwiches with avocodo slices on it. It's very delicious when you have something WITH it. I couldn't eat it plain.

Avocodos are a fruit, interestingly enough!

I LOVE avocodos on burritos, enchiladas, and other Mexican dishes (you can kind of see a Mexican theme with salsa and guacamole).

Try it! You'll love it, kennedydp. And if you don't like it, send it my way!