Cottage Cheese Guacamole

Cottage Cheese Guacamole

🥑 Cottage Cheese Guacamole 🥑

Sitting at a bar in the M Resort Spa Casino in Las Vegas….I was playing video poker, waiting for my hair appointment in the spa. The engaging bartender was about to go on break. She told us what she brought for her lunch: Cottage Cheese Guacamole. Several of us were intrigued. And as sweet as she is, she offered us a taste of her lunch. She said that she grew up in Arizona, and this is how they always made their guacamole.

A few gamblers took her up on the offer. She brought out plastic spoons from behind the bar and gave them a taste. They all nodded, oh that’s good…

I graciously turned down the sample, but decided to try the idea at home, with my guacamole recipe paired with cultured cottage cheese.

Cottage Cheese Guacamole Recipe

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Loaf-Pan Focaccia and Avocado Toast

Small-Batch Focaccia and Avocado Toast

🫒 🧀 🍞 Loaf-Pan Focaccia 🍞 🧀 🫒
and
🥑 Avocado Focaccia Toasts 🥑

Small-batch focaccia dough is topped with olive salad, mozzarella and parmesan cheeses, and baked in a loaf pan. It is heavenly, served warm with herbaceous fruity olive oil and aged balsamic vinegar for dipping.

The leftover portion is wrapped up and saved for the next morning’s breakfast – avocado toasts served two ways, plain and loaded. Focaccia is great as a sandwich bread, and loaf-pan focaccia makes for the absolute best avocado toast!

The dough is made with five simple ingredients – bread flour, instant yeast, salt, water, and olive oil. Compared to all-purpose, the amount of protein found in bread flour is higher in order to contain and produce more gluten and achieve the desired rise in bread. Because of this higher protein level, bread flour is able to absorb more liquid, allowing it to hold its shape and rise upward. The high amount of gluten in bread flour also creates a more elastic dough, which helps achieve focaccia’s airy crumb and chewy texture. Olive oil is added to the dough for tenderness and flavor.

Loaf-Pan Focaccia and Avocado ToastSmall-Batch Focaccia and Avocado Toast

Loaf-Pan Focaccia and Avocado Toast Recipes

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Spicy Salmon with Shrimp Chips

Spicy Salmon with Shrimp Chips

Spicy Salmon with Shrimp Chips
Avocado Mash with Lemon, Sliced Jalapeños

This tasty snack was inspired by Nobu Restaurants’ “Crispy Rice with Spicy Tuna” where fried sushi rice cubes are served with a little bowl of spicy tuna and light soy sauce on the side. A version of the Nobu recipe went viral a while back on TikTok with the addition of avocado and jalapeño.

The original authentic dish can be enjoyed at many of the over 50 Nobu Restaurants around the world including all three in Las Vegas – Caesars Palace, Paris Las Vegas, Las Vegas Virgin Hotel.

With the remainder of a nice piece of sockeye salmon leftover from making an Aguachile de Salmón for my guests, I decided to make a quick snack paired with store-bought shrimp chips. These puffy-crisp chips are made from a dough of tapioca flour and ground shrimp. The dough is steamed, thinly sliced, dried, then fried. The result are crunchy little crackers full of umami flavor.

Topped with a tiny scoop of spicy salmon and/or avocado plus an optional jalapeño ring, these make a zippy one-bite snack bomb that is packed full of flavors, textures, and spice! And unlike the original dish which has many steps to prepare the fried sushi rice, this appetizer is quick and easy…

Spicy Salmon with Shrimp Chips Recipe

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Crab Avocado Rice Bowl

Crab Avocado Rice Bowl

Dungeness Crab & Avocado Rice Bowl

Crab and avocado have been a happy couple long before the invention of the California sushi roll. And in addition to melted butter, mayonnaise has long been a classic sauce to pair with crab… Here, warm seasoned rice is topped with steamed Dungeness crab leg meat, sliced avocado, diced cucumber, and creamy umami-rich Kewpie mayonnaise. The dish is seasoned with a flavorful furikake and drizzled with a syrupy tamari glaze. The combination of flavors, textures, and colors is wonderfully balanced and extremely tasty. Pretty too.

Crab & Avocado Rice Bowl Recipe

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Chilled Carrot Avocado Soup

Chilled Carrot Avocado Soup #raw #vegan #glutenfree

🥕🥑 Chilled Carrot Avocado Soup 🥑🥕
#raw #vegan #glutenfree

Chilled soup, in January? Let me explain.

Rock Stars in the Kitchen Kelly Hansen, lead singer of Foreigner; and Mary Moore, Founder and CEO of Atlanta’s The Cook’s Warehouse teamed up last Sunday at The Las Vegas Market for a gourmet cooking demonstration.

The presentation was delightful and the food was divine. Along with Chilled Carrot Avocado Soup they prepared Kelly’s Kickin’ Guac with Blue Corn Chips, Ensalada de Noche Buena, and Argentinian BBQ with Chimichurri.

In addition to sharing his enthusiasm for cooking and how clean healthy eating was important to his career as a singer, Kelly captivated us with stories about his gourmet food competitions, life as a rock star, and a bit of history of Foreigner whose first album debuted in 1977.

Las Vegas Market Cooking Demonstration

Las Vegas Market is a trade show held twice a year at the World Market Center located in downtown Las Vegas. It is a 5 million square-foot showcase for home décor, furniture, lighting, textiles, housewares, gifts, gourmet products, hospitality furnishings and more. Additionally, the trade show features many excellent seminars, presentations, and cooking demonstrations.

Kelly & Mary’s soup demonstration was so fast and easy. Fresh vegetables, fruit, and spices just go into a blender, et voilà – a very tasty, raw, vegan, gluten-free, healthy soup is born! I’VE BEEN WAITING FOR A SOUP LIKE YOU, TO COME INTO MY LIFE.

Chilled Carrot Avocado Soup Recipe

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