Guest Chef: Guacamole

I've decided to start a new segment entitled "Guest Chef."  Many of my friends are excellent in the kitchen as well, so periodically, we'll feature a recipe from one of them.  Today's recipe is for fresh, homemade guacamole! (Bear with these pictures, as they were taken with my iPhone and not originally intended for use in this blog)

Ingredients

2 avocados
1 tomato, diced (or you can cheat, and buy it already diced)
1/4 red onion, diced (or again, you can buy it already done for you...thank you, Publix)
Garlic salt
Cilantro
2 limes, juiced

1. Slice the avocado in half and take the pit out.  In a bowl, scoop out the flesh, and mash it with a fork.

 

2. Mix the tomatoes and the onions into the mashed avocado. 

3. Sprinkle the garlic salt and the cilantro into the mashed avocado, and blend well.  

 4. Slice the limes and squeeze the juice into the bowl.  Mix it well.

Hands in motion

 5. Let the guacamole sit for a few minutes to allow the flavors to blend together. Serve with chips.  Yum!

PointsPlus value: 2 (1/3 cup per serving)

Sweet Potato Pancakes

When I was in elementary school, one of my closest friends was Jewish. I remember the first time I had potato pancakes at her house during Hanukkah.  They were delicious. And for some reason, I had a huge craving for them the other day...and to my surprise, I found a Weight Watchers-approved recipe. Except instead of Idaho potatoes, these were made with sweet potatoes. And they were phenomenal.

Ingredients

1 sweet potato, peeled
2 scallions, chopped
1 large egg (I actually used the equivalent of one egg in egg whites)
1 tablespoon of flour
1 teaspoon salt
Cooking spray


1. Slice the potato. Add the pieces to a food processor, and chop up fine.

2. Chop the scallions.

3. Add pureed potato, scallions, egg, salt, and flour into a bowl. Mix well.

4. Coat a baking pan in cooking spray. Create pancakes out of the potato mixture, using about 1/4 cup of the mixture for each pancake. Place the pancakes on the baking pan, leaving 2 inches between each one.

5. Cook the pancakes for 20 minutes in an oven heated to 425 degrees. Flip the pancakes over, and cook for an additional 10 minutes on the opposite side. 

PointsPlus value: 3 (2 pancakes per serving)