Ok, truth: who else is eating avocados these days like they’re the only thing on earth? Maybe it’s my Costco-size portion every week (guys, it’s six for just $4.25 right now in my area! Insane) so I’m finding creative ways to use them. For a fun lunch with two girlfriends for a little Target beauty projects I have in the works (you might have seen loads of the pixi product on my Instagram feed), I made this quick and amazingly delicious avocado bruschetta, plus a salad (will be sharing that soon), which included some turkey bacon. Want to beef these up? Consider putting real turkey bacon or regular bacon large crumbles on top for added crunch. We did that impromptu style and it was so, so good.
Ingredients
Loaf of French bread, sliced on a diagonal
Two large avocados
1/4 chopped yellow onion
Juice from 1/2 of a small to medium lemon
Kosher salt, to taste
Prep
Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees, lay slices of bread on baking sheet and lightly drizzle with olive oil. Cook three to five minutes.
Scoop out two large avocados; for ease, cut in half lengthwise. With a sharp knife, cut vertical lines in the avocado, being careful to not pierce the skin. Then cut horizontal lines to create little squares. Use a spoon to scoop into a bowl. Do this for all avocados (takes three minutes total!).
Add in lemon juice, which helps to retain green color.
Chop 1/4 to 1/2 of yellow onion, add in.
Mix together, slightly mashing to taste. I prefer it to be chunky.
Add salt, and place mixture on top of bread.
You have Bruschetta!
Happy Super Bowl Sunday! Did you know it’s also World Nutella Day? Yum, yum! With both delicious days in mind, here’s a few recipes shared by TAGG in the past year that are two things: crowd pleasers and delicious! For the posts that are a bit older, apologies in advance for my crazy small photos. What was I thinking?! I can hardly see them. File this under ‘blog lessons learned.’
{Apps}
Baked Brie: Cheese and croissant? Make a cheese platter and then add this as something special.
Seven-layer Dip: made this last Super Bowl Sunday. A perk? It’s not too bad for you! Make it and feel like you can indulge in something without breaking the calorie bank.
Greek Pasta Salad: a great party dish, simply add chicken or shrimp to make this the main course. No worries about keeping it cold: it’s best at room temp.
{Desserts}
Monkey Bread: holy heaven. Make some of this sugary goodness and head over here. STAT.
Rugulah: yes, it’s a more traditionally Jewish dessert, but your guests will hardly realize. It’s rolled up dough with chocolate!
Nutella Bread Pudding: a HUGE favorite that is the PERFECT dessert for a party. Peeps went nuts for this at my little girl’s birthday.
Two-ingredient (healthy) chocolate muffins/cupcakes: a personal fave, it’s just two ingredients that make these pop-in-your-mouth tasty treats. I pinky swear promise you that 1. no one will realize they are healthy and 2. they’ll never guess your secret ingredient.
photo credits: 1 / 2
I’m compelled to share a few pics from my daughter’s recent 2nd birthday at a local park. I thank Pinterest (what’s that? read about it here!) for giving me the vision for these cupcakes and cake since I am am pretty much the least creative person ever (I’m sure you’ve noticed the lack of DIYs on this bloggie!). Ignore the smudged “happy”… that pen was kind of liquidy (dammit!).
Want to make the cupcakes? My rec is to buy store-bought mini cupcakes (top level is vanilla, bottom level is chocolate) and have a professional baker (I used Cakes Etc in West Palm) create the Minnie Mouse-esque bows. Those are chocolate discs for the ears — bought a huge bag from the baker - and assemble. For the cake, it’s just one large round cake and two smaller cakes (these were low fat: just use a box of cake mix and a can of Libby’s pumpkin, that’s it. No egg, no oil. YUM!), and perfectly frost.
Other fun Minnie finds? That custom shirt was a steal on Etsy by MyIttyBittyShoppe, and I found these awesome Minnie invites (everyone asked if I made them myself!) by whimsycreationsbyann and even Minnie confetti by sweetheartpartyshop.
The party was so fun — our girl was running around for two hours straight before starting to fall asleep in the swing! — and we were fortunate to have so many family and friends with us. This is where massive amounts of the nutella bread pudding was consumed, by the way! And, must give a shout-out to Heather, who works at my PR company yet provided major creative guidance on the major “minnie” vision. She’s also the genius behind this amazing tutu! Majorly thankful!
Ok, one more gratuitous cupcake shot… they’re that delicious!
I’m pretty sure you’ve noticed by now my clear obsession with nutella. I’ve already given some loved it up here and here, and now I’m sending an incredible nutella-filled recipe your way. Unfortunately, this is not one you’ll find in any of my Hungry Girl or Weight Watcher cookbooks — but is so crazy good that you will become the hit of the next party you serve it at.
This recipe for Nutella Bread Pudding from Inspired Taste was shared with me via Twitter and I instantly knew I had to serve at my daughter’s 2nd birthday. Since I have no gauge of quantity, I created two (one with pecans and one sans the pecans). It was a monstrous hit that everyone raved about so if you want hugs, love and kisses…make this!
Since Adam and Joanne’s recipe was for two, I did my best to amp it up for a large crowd.
{Ingredients}
- 12 croissants (based on standard size, and preferably 1-2 days old)
- 2 1/2 - 3 cups Nutella (I used about one of the regular sized jars; recommend not even measuring this… just schmear it on each croissant however much you like. This is a fool-proof step. Never too much Nutella!)
- 1 cup pecan halves
- 8 eggs
- 1 pint of cream
- 1 tbsp vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 cups sugar
{Recipe}
-
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- Slice each croissant in half lengthwise then slather one side with Nutella. Put the halves back together to make sandwiches and cut into 2-inch pieces.
- Add sandwich pieces and pecans a casserole dish (I used my beloved corningware).
- To make the custard, add eggs, cream, vanilla extract, salt and sugar to a medium bowl and whisk until combined.
- Pour the custard over the sandwich pieces then gently push down the bread so the custard starts to absorb.
- Cover with aluminum foil and bake in a 350 degree oven for approx. 45 minutes then remove the foil and continue to bake uncovered for about 10 to 15 minutes longer until the bread pudding is golden brown, has risen slightly and the liquid has been completely absorbed. Note: timing is a little tricky as you increase the size of the recipe so just keep an eye on it!
Here’s a pic of the half-way mark (I only ate four or six of these nutella ‘wiches… ya know, the “bad ones”). Great pics of the process are available at Inspired Taste!
PS: laughable moment. Guess who absolutely destroyed this recipe the first time around when instead of pouring in all that sugar she poured in two cups of… salt? True story. Realized before baking, but needless to say… garbage!
