Avocado

[sbgrace]

Oh please, please tell me this is ok to serve to my sons. They are three and gluten and casein free and NT but I'm really struggling to come up with calories. Really struggling. I've been using avocado for the minerals/vitamins/protein and the fats.

[Taedareth]

Avocado is probably the best food on the planet. Eat up!

[Kundalini-Mama]

You can make a delicious ice cream out of coconut milk, avocado and honey. Just blend and put in an ice cream maker. OMG, so good

[tboroson]

I put avocado in my smoothies. I use raw milk kefir, but if I were cf, I would use coconut milk instead; I found that coconut milk kefir is super thick, so maybe a little coconut milk kefir and some plain coconut milk. Half an avocado, half a banana, a sweet fruit (strawberry, mango, etc.), egg yolks, cod liver oil, fresh ground flax seeds.

My kids also totally groove on guacamole. Quick and easy guac is just mashed avocado with lime juice and celtic sea salt to taste. If I want to get fancy, I add finely chopped tomato, onion (or green onion), garlic, cilantro, jalepeno, maybe a little tomatillo.

dd2 also likes to just eat avo out of the skin. When I split an avo for my morning smoothie, she'll often eat the other half of it with a spoon.

[velcromom]

We make "ice cream" or "pudding" out of avocado, almond butter, banana pureed together - chilled for pudding, frozen for ice cream - if you want chocolate, add cocoa and a bit of whatever sweetner you like. If it needs a little liquid, anything mild in flavor works. It would make a good popsicle in the summer too.

Avocados rock. I wish we could grow an avocado tree! Right now they are sooo expensive here!

[kdmama33]

Avocados are great for your kids! Full of really wonderful, healthy fats! If they like them, let them eat as much as they want.

Just like Tara, I put an avocado in our morning smoothies every day. We don't like banana in smoothies, and the avocado really thickens things up, like a banana would. It's a good way for me to get DS2 to eat fat (and something green ), as he is such a picky eater.

I eat avocados all. the. time. Wish we had avocado tree of our very own!

[tboroson]

I find that avocados thicken the smoothie much more than bananas do - in fact, I didn't like how thick they were when I used a whole avo, so I switched to 1/2 avo and 1/2 banana. They also don't sweeten it, so it was more health-food-y I like the compromise position, there, half of each.

[JessicaS]

Originally Posted by Taedareth

Avocado is probably the best food on the planet. Eat up!

I agree.

Avacadoes contain, monosaturated fats, a natural source of chromium, they are the highest fruit source of Vit E and are the highest fruit source of Lutien

[Feb2003]

I think they also have lots of potassium...I remember something like the same as/more than a large banana.

my boys and I just shared an avocado...we each had a 1/4 sprinkled with a little sea salt and scooped out with our spoons (we shared the last 1/4) yum

[tboroson]

Last night I made the Chocolate of the Gods Mousse. OMG, dh and I were in heaven dh couldn't believe it was mostly avocado! My kids found it a little too dark; they ate some (they couldn't resist the chocolate!), but they didn't utterly scarf it the way I thought they would. I think I might try adding a banana to sweeten/lighten it a bit. I made it with the dates instead of maple syrup, and all cocoa, no carob.

I've also considered, creme bulgare (yogurt made from cream instead of milk) might give it a "milk chocolate" kind of flavor, and be incredibly healthy from a TF perspective. (Alas, I don't have any cream on hand to make any, so that experiment will have to wait for another week.)

[cupofjojo]

Originally Posted by sbgrace

gluten and casein free and NT .

New to the site, can you tell me what NT means. Thanks.

Avacado's are truly wonderful. I'm still trying to concoct the best shake I ever had in my life. It was in Indonesia and it was mostly avacado.

My DS loves them and we eat them almost every day.

[Feb2003]

NT = Nourishing Traditions, a book by Sally Fallon that explains Traditional diets and offers many recipes

most people use it interchangably with TF (= Traditional Foods)

[moneca]

Avacado also has one of the highest amounts of enzymes for veggie/fruits (except for papaya, mango, pineapple of course). I second the avacado tree!

[Pandme]

Avocado is currently my favorite food in the world and I eat it every day. Seein some of the recipes on here is making me drool. Does anyone have a good recipe for a chocolate shake made with avocado?

[Periwinkle]

Avocado is seriously one of the few staple foods in my family. It was my son's first food - and they all still love them. And they'll eat just about anything if they can dip it in my homemade guacamole (which is just mashed/diced avocado and lemon juice. They eat WW mini pitas, carrot/cuke/pepper/celery sticks, raw broccoli and caulif. florets, etc. Anything for avocados.

The problem is.... it's sometimes hard to find good ones. We'll go weeks and only find those grainy ones or overripe ones. When is avocado season anyway??

[quietserena]

I'm having a really hard time working avocado into my locally grown food philosophy. (They haven't started to grow in MO, have they?)

But man are they good.

[jessicaSAR]

Originally Posted by quietserena

I'm having a really hard time working avocado into my locally grown food philosophy. (They haven't started to grow in MO, have they?)

But man are they good.

This is my problem too. No avocado trees in CT. I still buy one or two every other week from Whole Foods, but they are $2.50 a piece. My three year old would eat them every day, but at that price we would be in the poor house.

[Periwinkle]

Avocado trees are actually easy to grow indoors. For anyone who has a greenhouse or a spare room with some good windowsills lol, that is. Totally aware this is a commitment to have avocado trees and few of us have space for them lol, but just wanted to say, for anyone who is REALLY into gardening and has some hot houses or whatever... you can grow them anywhere.

Citrus on the other hand.... ugh.

[Kundalini-Mama]

I have 2 avocado plants that I grew from pit. I'm in Vermont and have no greenhouse or anything. They will not bear fruit unless I graft them---which is something I would have to have someone do. For now, I just love them and they remind me when it is time to water them and the other plants as their leaves droop rather significantly.

[Janelovesmax]

My DS eats avocado at least 5 times a week.