Guacamole:

Don’t you agree that guacamole is absolutely wonderful?  It is a fresh, healthy dip that can be eaten with tortilla chips, fresh vegetables, or crackers.  My personal favorite way is to eat it with corn tortilla chips.

Short cut Guacamole: The easiest way I have come up with making the guacamole.

• 2 ripe avocados, reserve one of the pits
• 1/2 fresh squeezed lime
• pico de gallo to taste (see pico de gallo under food recipes)
• salt to taste

Peel the avocado and mash with a fork or a potato masher.  Squeeze in the juice of half a lime.  Add a little pico de gallo,  I would start out with 1/8 cup, mix well and taste. Add more pico if needed to taste then salt to taste.  You are done.  This is best eaten fresh.  The lime juice will help prevent it from becoming brown.  If I am not serving it right away, I also take one of the pits and stick it on top of the dip, pushing it down just a little. This also will help it not brown.

If you do not have fresh pico made up, no problem, we can make the guacamole up right this way:

•  2 ripe avocados, peeled and reserve one of the pits
• 1 Tablespoon of fresh jalapeno pepper, chopped you can add more depending on how warm you want it.
• 1/2 onion, diced small
• 1/2 tomato, diced small
• 1/8 cup fresh cilantro, chopped small
• 1 clove of garlic, minced
•  1/2 lime, freshly squeezed into guacamole
• sea salt to taste

Peel the avocado and mash with a fork or a potato masher.  Squeeze in the juice of half a lime.  Add each of the vegetables and the cilantro to the avocado, mix well and salt to taste. You could also use the food processor if you prefer not to cut up the vegetables, just process the other ingredients, then add the avocado and process again until smooth.  Super easy! In my opinion, guacamole is best eaten fresh.  The lime juice you have in it will help prevent it from becoming brown.  If I am not serving it right away, I also take one of the pits that you reserved when  you peeled the avocado and stick it on top of the dip, pushing it down just a little. This also will help it not brown. When you go to serve, just remove the pit, mix guacamole again to make it look pretty and you are ready to serve!  Enjoy!

Health Benefits of Avocados: To learn more about why avocados are so healthy for you even though they may be high in fat (high in good fat) go to: http://www.avocado.org/nutrition/ and to see the actual nutrition in avocados go to: http://www.avocado.org/avocado-nutrients/  This site also compare the nutrition to avocados compared to butter, oils, etc.

Here is another variation on guacamole that is recommended by the Mayo Clinic:

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/healthy-recipes/NU00362