Snack of the Week...

I'm cheating a little since this was my guest blog post on Living Graciously Blog yesterday...but I really love my guacamole and it's the perfect snack of the week!

So...here we go....

I was surprised to read that when you buy store bought guacamole, that it's mostly made from other ingredients than avocados. In fact, there's about 2% avocado when you buy a tub of it at the grocery store...which makes you wonder, what the heck is the other 98% that I am eating. I was never a big avocado fan and never really ate a ton of guacamole either. At some outing with friends, someone brought a really fresh guacamole that was delicious and I then went on a mission to attempt and make my own.

I can't say that Mr. Allan and I were successful on our first attempt a few years ago. By mistake, I bought lite avocados which were huge, hard and we could barely peel them. At that time I didn't even know you could buy different kinds or that there was this odd large light version of an avocado. So, after our first disastrous attempt, we did tackle it once again and it was a success. This fresh chunky guacamole is a quick, easy recipe that is a sure fire crowd pleaser and it's healthy- full of good ingredients! Here's a little step by step on how to make a fantastic guacamole! (full recipe is below!)

First Step...getting your ingredients. When you pick out your avocados, you want to make sure they're ripe. I always buy Hass Avocados. To tell if an avocado is ripe, give it a little squeeze. You want it to be soft to the touch. If it's hard like a hockey puck, throw it back. It will be a nightmare to slice up and you'll have to resort to a food processor.

avocados, some garlic and tomatoes...the main ingredients!

First, seed and dice your tomatoes. You also want very ripe tomatoes..the riper the better! Just slice the tomato and discard of the seeds inside. Why do I seed the tomatoes...to avoid runny, watery guacamole!

Next up..garlic! I typically use one big clove or two smaller ones. This little blue tube is one awesome little kitchen gadget I discovered. It's made by Martha Stewart and is a garlic peeler. Ever hate sitting there with trying to peel the skin off of a clove of garlic? You just pop the clove into the little tube and roll it between your hands.

and...the skin rolls right off. If you don't have this neat little garlic roller, you can also take a large knife, place the garlic clove under it with the flat side of your knife pressing against the clove, and give the knife a little whack. It will partially crack your garlic open and make it a bit easier to peel it.

Then, throw your garlic in your garlic press and add it to the tomatoes. If you don't have a garlic press, finely chop or dice it.

Next, come the stars of the guacamole...the avocados. Slice the avocado open and first discard of the pit. You can take a spoon and the pit should gently pop out.

Then, take the spoon and gently scrape out the flesh of the avocado. If your avocados are ripe, it should come right out.

Here's all four of my avocados on my cutting board. One thing I love about this recipe...all you really need is a knife and cutting board...makes for an easy preparation and clean up!

I take a large kitchen knife and simply start cutting up the avocado in long horizontal strides.

Then, I just start doing the same thing vertically. You don't need to be precise or perfect here. It doesn't matter if you have some pieces larger than others.

After you throw the chopped avocados in with the tomatoes and garlic, you then need to juice 1 lime. A little trick when you're juicing a lime or lemon...give a good roll on your cutting board with the heel or your hand to loosen up the juices. You can either just slice it and squeeze it..or I have this great citrus juicer. Just your lime in half, throw it in the juicer and press. The lime juice will keep your guacamole nice and green. The citrus juice helps to avoid the avocados from turning brown..because no one likes brown guacamole!

now..for a little zip to the guacamole. I add about 10-12 dashes of hot sauce. Any kind will do..but we always have Frank's in our refrigerator

Here's the guacamole with Frank's hot sauce added and about 1 tsp of salt and about 1/2 tsp of pepper

The final product!

Fresh Chunky Guacamole

4 ripe Haas Avocados, pitted and chopped
1-2 ripe tomatoes, seeded and diced
1 large garlic clove, minced
1 lime, juiced
10-12 dashes of hot sauce
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper

Seed and dice tomatoes. Add in garlic. Pit the avocados and roughly chop then add to mixture. Add the juice of 1 lime. Add 10-12 dashes of hot sauce and salt and pepper.

Why do I love this recipe and use it so much..because it's healthy, pretty easy and fast to make. You can also mix it up a little. If you like it hot, add a few more dashes of hot sauce (which I generally do!). You can also adjust the salt and pepper if you need more of less seasoning to it. Some great additions to this recipe--dice up half of a red onion for a little crunch. I've also added a TBSP or so of Hormel's real bacon bits...it gives the guacamole a smoky taste to it.

Enjoy!