Blended For Wellness: Avocado Love

Did you know that avocados are a fruit? Delicious, creamy, grown on trees, and packed with plenty of healthy fats and other nutrients that fuel your body, brain, and skin. Half of a medium avocado has about 130 calories, 12g of fat, 1 g of protein, 5 g of fibre and 0g of sugar along with tons of key vitamins and minerals, which we get into below.  We've also included blends and recipes to help you get yours in on the daily. 

Health benefits of avocados 

Avocados have many great health benefits, including being packed with these key vitamins and minerals: 

Vitamin K: plays an essential role in clotting your blood, bone metabolism and helps to regulate calcium in blood. 

Vitamin C: needed for the growth and repair of tissues in all parts of the body. It supports the formation of collagen, the absorption of iron, your immune system, and the maintenance of cartilage, bones and teeth.

Vitamin B6: helps to turn food the food you eat into energy, important for maintaining a healthy body and brain development. It supports cell health, the formation of red blood cells, good digestions, eyesight, nerve function and more.

Vitamin E: supports healthy brain, blood, vision, reproduction, skin, and keeping your immune system strong.

Potassium: one of the most important minerals, potassium helps to regulate fluid balance and blood pressure, supports the maintenance of bone density and muscle mass, healthy nerve function. 

AVOCADO-PACKED BLENDED SMOOTHIES

Our love for green smoothies cannot be denied. We've packed avocado into most of the green blends for mega nutrition boosting and a creamy texture. Find them in our Deep Greens & Easy Green website sections. 
Look for: Be green, Green Beginnings, Greens Daily Dose, Green Mo, Matcha Morning, Greens Daily Keto, Greens D-Tox 

Berry lovers that want to share in the avocado love can check out our Blue Coconut keto, The Athlete & Blueberry Boost blends.  Please note that the Blue Coconut Keto and Blueberry Boost fall into our low-carb smoothie options and are not sweet tasting.  The Athlete is a great in-between for those who like a little fruit-sweetness

Ingredients
For the roasted veggies:
3 small sweet potatoes, peeled and chopped (4 cups)
4 cups brussels sprouts, trimmed and halved*
1 medium cauliflower, chopped into small florets (4 cups)
1 medium red onion
2 large red bell peppers
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided
Salt and pepper, to taste
For the quinoa:
2 cups uncooked quinoa**

For the fresh veggies:
1 medium English cucumber, chopped
1 medium  bunch green onions, chopped
2 cups grape tomatoes (1 dry pint)

Power bowl topping add-ons:
Chopped lettuce/greens (base)
1/2 medium avocado (topping)
Cooked beans or lentils (topping)
Nuts and seeds (topping)

Lemon tahini dressing:
1 large clove of garlic 
1/2 cup of lemon juice
1/4 tahini 
3 to 4 tablespoons of nutritional yeast 
3 to 4 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil 
1/2 teaspoon of sea salt 

Directions:
Position two oven racks near the middle of the oven. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C) and line two extra-large (15- x 21-inches) rimmed baking sheets with parchment paper. It’s important to use extra-large baking sheets so there’s enough room for all those healthy veggies.

Divide the chopped, “to-be-roasted” veggies onto the baking sheets. Drizzle 1 1/2 tablespoons of oil over top each sheet and toss the veggies until they’re fully coated in the oil. Sprinkle generously with salt and pepper.

Roast the veggies for 30 to 40 minutes (I find 35 minutes is perfect in my oven for lightly charred veggies) until fork tender and golden. There’s no need to rotate/move the pans or flip the veggies halfway through baking unless you’re particular about even cooking.

While the veggies are roasting, add the quinoa to a large pot along with 3 1/2 cups (875 mL) water. Stir. Bring to a simmer over medium-high heat, then immediately reduce the heat to low-medium, cover with a tight-fitting lid, and cook for 12 to 14 minutes, until the water is absorbed and the quinoa is fluffy. Remove the lid and fluff the cooked quinoa with a fork.

While the quinoa cooks, chop the cucumber and green onions. Rinse the tomatoes (I hold off slicing them until just before serving).

Remove the roasted veggies from the oven. Once mostly cool, transfer all of the veggies and quinoa into containers, seal with airtight lids, and place into the fridge for up to 4 days.

To make the power bowls: Add a couple generous handfuls of chopped lettuce/greens to the bottom of a large shallow bowl. Drizzle with a bit of dressing and toss the lettuce/greens until coated. Top with spoonfuls of your prepped food (quinoa, roasted and fresh veggies)—you can warm up the quinoa and roasted veggies first if cooled! Now, add diced avocado, more salad dressing, cooked beans or lentils, nuts and seeds, and hummus or pesto. Keep the power bowl flavours interesting by changing up the toppings each day!

Click here for the online recipe

 THE MINIMALIST BAKER'S: AVOCADO BOATS TWO WAYS   

Ingredients