Skydreamer Eats: For the love of Avocado

Over the weekend, I bought a kilo of avocado at a nearby fruit market because they were selling them for only P30 per kilo (that's less than a dollar!). Avocado is one of my favorite fruits, and I love mixing it with sweetened milk and shaved ice.

Me being me, I checked other avocado recipes out there, and I found a couple that I wanted to recreate.

First, I tried making avocado pasta.
I first read about it in Rosie's blog and found other variations in Pinterest (which is my new addiction).

For my pasta, I used Del Monte's Pasta Italiana in Merienda Pack (175g), one big avocado, one strip of bacon, parmesan, juice of half a lemon, and salt and pepper to taste.

First, I cooked my pasta. Once done, I set it aside and sliced my bacon into smaller pieces. I then cooked it in a non-stick pan without oil to let all the oil out. While my bacon was cooking, I took out my avocado, opened it and mashed the avocado meat in a bowl.

After it's all nicely mashed, I added my hot pasta to the avocado and mixed them up. I added all the bacon, and tossed in a pinch of salt and a little bit of pepper. I also added just a little bit of the bacon's oil for flavor. Lastly, I added shredded parmesan and lemon juice. I gave it one more toss, took a not so clear picture from my ipod touch and served it to my son - and me.

Here's what it looks like:

A non conventional way of eating avocado

Second: I tried making avocado salad based on Pinterest inspiration, but did not recreate it from any particular recipe. This is very easy to make and the entire preparation will literally take you less than 5 minutes!

I used one avocado, one tomato, a little bit of lemon juice, parmesan and salt and pepper to taste.

First, I sliced an avocado into thick strips, and sliced my tomato the same way. I placed that it a bowl and mixed it with shredded parmesan, and salt and pepper to taste. Check and see if it requires more parmesan or lemon juice and eat it all.

Here's what it looks like:

Avocado Salad

Now, if you ever do try any of these two recipes and you've never eaten avocado other than with sweetened milk, it will definitely taste different, and for some it may be an acquired taste. But for avocado lovers out there, I'm sure you will embrace these recipes as I did.

Skydreamer Eats: Homemade Pesto Pizza

I've always loved pesto - ever since I tasted pesto pasta, pesto porkchop, pesto spread OR anything I ate that had pesto on it. I started to incorporate it into some of the meals I cooked at home, but I was using store-bought pesto - I was fine with it, until...

Last year, as I was reading Rosie's blog (the famous blogger of The Londoner), I read a post about making your own pesto, and that it punches in more flavor than any store-bought variety. I was intrigued, but couldn't find pine nuts anywhere here. 

Just this week, I tried looking for pine nuts again, and we had them in Ayala but they were expensive - one big pack costs P1340 which is about $35. There were no small packs so I didn't buy it.  I read somewhere that you could substitute almonds or walnuts so I bought almonds instead. One small pack only costs P40 or $1. Now that I had all the ingredients, I made my pesto.

Here's my basil pesto recipe (patterned from Rosie's blog) but I tweaked some of the measurements too:

You will need:

A handful of basil

1/2 cup grated parmesan

30 grams salted almonds

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

1 small clove of garlic

First, you would want to toast your almonds. Slice them unevenly, and place in a nonstick pan without oil. Slowly toast them in slow fire. Once the almonds are glistening with its own oil, you can stop.

In a blender or food processor, add all of the ingredients. Blend until you get the consistency that you want. 

You can add more olive oil or parmesan to suit your taste.





My homemade pesto - first attempt



Now, for my homemade pesto pizza:

You will need:
Tortilla wrap or Pita Bread
Pizza Sauce (I used Del Monte Sweet Blend)
Mozzarella cheese
Homemade pesto

Bake in the microwave for 1 minute. Enjoy!




Homemade Pesto Pizza


I would've really wanted to make my own pizza dough and tomato base but I don't have resources for that. Right now, this is what I made and I can definitely vouch that homemade pesto - added into my very own pizza is really really great! My 1 year old toddler loves this pizza and would even eat this over chocolate cookies.