Friday, July 1, 2011

Avocado. Doughnuts.

I love Fridays. Especially when my “Friday” is actually Thursday.  Now that school is out for the summer, I have been working four 10-hour days at work—so Thursday night marks my weekend!!! 

I love having Friday off, because I then I have an extra day to do all of my errands.  I got up early, went to spinning, and came home and did a Yoga video.  

Have you ever done spinning? O.M.G.  Whenever I sit on that bike, I go through three phases of emotion…

For the first ten minutes I feel happy, thinking,“ Oh, this isn’t so bad, I could do this forever”

But then, I start to feel it in my legs, and begin to feel out of breath. The next feeling, anger, comes and I think “Only 15 minutes have gone by?!?!? How is the instructor able to talk and smile and move her legs so fast!!!..." 

This phase lasts for about half an hour…

Finally, with the last 10-20 minutes left, I feel so happy and strong and proud of myself that I accomplished this feat.  I can’t stop smiling through the sweat streaming down my face and lower back.  I love workouts that push me like this.

Spinning and I are like “this”. 

After my workout, I cleaned the house and started sorting out the fridge for food that has long been forgotten. 

This gave me an idea, and a segway into today's recipe : )

So today, I plan on giving you some tips on what to do with leftovers.  After, all I am a grad student, and I need to get creative so money doesn't get thrown away.  

Example 1:
What am I supposed to do with a large container of plain yogurt leftover from doughnut-making the night before?

A simple, yogurt parfait with fresh fruit from the farmers’ market:
Omigosh Yum

 And for lunch....

A Healthy Curry Chicken Salad (1 serving)
¼ cup plain, non-fat yogurt
Rotisserie chicken, shredded
Handful of chopped almonds and grapes
¼ teaspoon of both cumin and curry

This recipe is totally an estimate, but is really delicious.  Also, it doesn’t have the dreaded mayo that I hate to have in salads!  You can use whatever you have on hand to make this salad--instead of curry, you can add a dash of ground mustard with some celery and craisins to have a classic chicken salad.
After letting it rest in the fridge for a bit, so the flavors can get to know each other, I made a quick wrap.
 I used:
1 tomato wrap
1 wedge of Laughing Cow Swiss
Some lovely, peppery arugala and some sprouts (love the crunch it gives)


A perfect, light sandwich for lunch!!!

Example 2: 
I also found a lonely avocado on my counter that desperately needed attention.  See, Jill and I have an (un)healthy obsession with this tasty fruit (?) and we want to use it in everything that we eat!

SO that led me back to doughnuts.

Avocado doughnuts.

No, that wasn’t a typo.

I looked around for recipes, and apparently, there are no (non-vegan) recipes that incorporate avocados into these tasty treats.  (Surprise Surprise) I guess no one else is crazy enough to do this.

I looked at this avocado bread recipe and used it to start from.

Avocado Doughnuts
By: ME : )

2 cups flour
¾ cups granulated sugar
¼ cup brown sugar
1 ½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
1 egg
1 mashed avocado
½ cup plus one tablespoon buttermilk
1 tsp cocoa powder
½ tsp allspice and nutmeg
1 tsp vanilla

Preheat the oven to 350 F. Mix flour, sugars (I thought this weird, but just trust me!), baking powder, baking soda, salt, cocoa powder, allspice, and nutmeg in a large bowl.

Mix mashed avocado, vanilla and egg together.  Then add buttermilk.  Add this mixture to the dry mix.  Mix together and fill doughnut pans.

It may not look pretty now, but trust me.

This makes A LOT of doughnuts—36 by my count.  After they cooled for 10 minutes, things started to get a little crazy. 

I brought out the powdered sugar.  And let my skirt fly up, as Pioneer Woman would say.
Then I brought out caramel—o dear me.  I would have made it from scratch, but I got a little antsy and couldn’t wait that long.  So I melted some caramel in the microwave, added some cinnamon, and went to town on the second batch.
For the non-avocado lovers, have no fear.  When I told my roomie about them, she was said, "Dear God get them away from me." Then I made her take a bite. And she said (and I quote!) "O crap, these are good!!"  

So give them a try : )
Enjoy!!!

2 comments:

  1. Love this idea!!! Very unique! I've only used my donut pan once!

    xo

    ReplyDelete
  2. Rachel - you have such great ideas! Your daily routine rocks as well; no wasting any time (or food!) for you. :)mom

    ReplyDelete