These little egg filled avocados were created by mistake! (….it seems like quite a handful of my recipes are ‘mistakes’ – haha!) I actually tried cracking my egg into the avocado to bake them in whole form – bubbly yolk and all – but I kept breaking the yolk. SO! I always switch gears and go to Plan B.
Who doesn’t love avocados? Well, I guess there are a few of you out there who don’t like them (my daughter being one!) but I think these delicious fruits are more loved than not. I have fried them, softened them after being cut in half by laying them on a hot cast iron and baked them. And of course they are just amazing in raw form! I do like baking them though — the creaminess is perfection! No matter which way you prefer your avo’s, you know you’re getting the great benefits of healthy fats to help satiate you and keep your brain fueled. I remember back in my ‘low-fat’ eating days, I steered clear of these guys. I would order something while out to eat and say “no guacamole please”. OMGosh……really??? What was I thinking? Well, clearly I wasn’t thinking. I was going off of what the fad diets of the time were — ‘No and Low Fat Diets’ and was eating all the chemically processed “foods” that were keeping their shelf life stable and adding flavors by omitting the healthiest part of the meal — fats! At the time, I was actually a skinny/fat girl. I was also always hungry. AND I suffered from insomnia. BUT my scale approved so I was happy.
Fast forward and I’m all about the healthy fats. My scale is actually the same as back then — well, actually it’s about 7 lbs lighter than my ‘No and Low Fat’ days. I no longer suffer from insomnia ….in fact, quite the opposite! I lay down and my body goes into rest mode, even when I don’t want it to (picture me trying to stay awake for a movie while laying on the couch — haha). But seriously, when I go to bed I fall asleep, I stay asleep and rarely wake up during the night. I don’t feel hungry or hangry at all anymore …in the true sense of the word. And though I’m eating all these fats that were supposedly going to make us fat, I’m the leanest I have ever been. I never saw ab muscles back in the day and I’ve got them now! Well, I guess they were always there but now they are evident. I’m stating all of this because of the crazy myths that circled the mainstream diet world many, many years ago …..and has been debunked since then. It’s all about real food my friends and thankfully an avocado is just that – real food!
Here are some fun facts that will keep you eating these gems from The Daily Meal:
FRUIT
1. Although they’re often referred to as a vegetable, avocados are technically a fruit — they’re a single-seed berry that grows on a tree!
2. There are hundreds of different types of avocados, ranging from the oval-shaped, light-skinned bacon variety to the pear-shaped, thin-skinned zutano variety. Each type differs in shape, size, skin type, taste, and texture.
3. The color of an avocado’s skin isn’t the best way to determine ripeness. Hold the avocado in the palm of your hand and give it a gentle squeeze instead; ripe avocado will be firm, but will yield slightly to gentle pressure.
4. You can ripen avocados by placing them in a plain brown paper bag and storing them at room temperature. Adding an apple or banana to the bag will speed the ripening process.
5. You should wash avocados thoroughly before slicing into them; this helps prevent any germs that may be on the skin from getting on the fruit inside.
NUTRITION
6. Avocados help the body absorb more fat-soluble nutrients from foods that are eaten with them. So eating avocados and tomatoes together, for example, can boost your intake of beta carotene.
7. Avocados are naturally cholesterol-free.
8. “Over 75 percent of the fat in avocados is unsaturated fat,” according to Avocado Central, “and studies show replacing saturated fat with unsaturated fat while staying within calorie needs is more effective in reducing the risk of heart disease than simply lowering total fat intake.”
9. Better than a multi-vitamin? One ounce of avocado (about one fifth of a medium avocado) has nearly 20 different vitamins, minerals, and phytonutrients.
COOKING WITH AVOCADO
10. Use avocados in place of butter when you’re baking; they’ll help keep baked goods moister for a longer period of time.
11. Cook thick slices of avocado on a grill for a nice, smoky flavor — and some beautiful char marks.
12. Avocados make a healthy alternative to creamy frozen pudding pops. Just mix avocado with lime juice and honey to taste and then blend the avocado mixture into twice as much milk before freezing in Popsicle molds.
HISTORY AND CULTURE
13. Avocados have been around for a long time; the oldest evidence of their consumption dates back to almost 8,000 BCE.
14. Avocados are the Aztec symbol of love and fertility because they cannot self-pollinate. They even grow in pairs!
Alrighty guys — so go grab some avocados and get this party started 🙂
- 1 large avocado
- 2 eggs
- 2 slices of bacon
- Handful of spinach
- Garlic powder
- Salt & pepper
- Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
- Cook bacon in pan.
- While bacon is doing its thing, cut avocado in 1/2 & remove seed, then carefully slice off a small piece of outer part of avocado skin halves to create a flat surface for sitting in pan. Gently cut out some of the flesh to make more room for eggs. (Keep that part of gutted avocado for lunch!) Lightly sprinkle with salt and pepper. Place avocados in a small pan - I put down parchment paper for spillage.
- In a bowl, whisk eggs - add a little salt & pepper.
- Once bacon is done, remove and set on paper towels. Turn off heat. With remaining grease in pan, toss in the spinach and wilt. Dab your cooked spinach on the bacon paper towel to get rid of excess grease. Add the spinach to whisked eggs.
- Carefully spoon egg mixture into avocado wells, evenly.
- Bake at 425 degrees for 8 min. While in oven, chop up the bacon. At the 8 minute mark, top the eggs/avocado with bacon bits (you may have more bacon than needed but that's when you pick at the rest while waiting for the breakfast to be done!)
- Keep in oven another 8-9 minutes - pull out and let stand a few minutes before serving.
- This is a recipe for one -- so double, triple it up for 2 or more 🙂
