This blog will be a view on some of the things I like to cook and eat and hopefully an inspiration for others to try new things!
Sometimes I use recipes. Sometimes I tweak recipes. Sometimes I do whatever the heck I want! But, one thing I don'd do is always use exact measurements or weight. I'm a firm believer in adding to taste, not just for salt and pepper but for every ingredient. So, I apologize in advance for usually not having exact amounts. I think you should make what you like!
Last week I went on a Sassy Water kick. Sassy water is a flavored water that's supposed to help detoxify your body and flatten your stomach. I figured, why not? It seemed like it tasted good and i definitely needed to drink more water, daily.
After about two days I kind of just stopped. I know, I know I barely even got started, but I just preferred plain old regular water. Loooong story short, I am now stuck with tons of mini cucumbers! So, when I came across a cucumber avocado recipe on Pinterest I made it as soon as I could!
Cucumber and Avocado Salad
(Please excuse the picture taking. I'm still working on trying to remember to just take pictures! Hopefully I'll get better over time!)
Since I was making it for myself I changed the recipe around a bit. Here is the original.
Ingredients I used:
- 3 mini cucumbers. (Probably the equivalent of 1 to 1½ if you have regular ones.)
- Salt.
- 1 avocado.
- 1 lime.
- About 5-6 mint leaves.
- 3-4 tablespoons feta cheese.
- 1 tablespoon olive oil.
1) Peel and chop the cucumbers into about half inch pieces. I choose not to scoop out the seeds because I was afraid it'd greatly decrease the amount of cucumber. Put the pieces in a colander, sprinkle with salt and let sit for 15 minutes. (I was too hungry to wait the whole 30 minutes! It still tasted good!)
This is to draw the water out.
3) Now is where I completely tossed measurements out the window. I squeezed the rest of the juice out of the lime, added about a tablespoon of olive oil and mixed it all up.
The original recipe says to put 2 T of olive oil with 1 T of lime juice. But I like lime waaay more than I probably should so I stuck with using all the juice.
4) Wash and chop up the mint. I didn't use nearly as much as the original. But I had frozen mint leaves instead of fresh, do I was hesitant to add more not knowing if it would make a difference.
5) Here, I ran into a problem. I was supposed to pat dry the cucumbers with paper towels...but we didn't have any. (As odd as this seems, it happens quite often at our apartment.) I ended up squeezing some water out of the cucumbers, small handfuls at a time. This seemed to work fine and they didn't get mushy at all.
6) Combine the cucumbers, avocado, mint and HALF of the lime & olive oil dressing. (So it doesn't get too liquidy and limey) Finally sprinkle on some feta cheese (however much you like) and fold it into the salad.
2) Cut the avocado into about 1 inch chunks. Squeeze some lime juice on and stir it up!
What I Do: I like to dice up avocados in the skin, like below, and then gently squeeze the pieces out. Or you can cut along the sides to get the skin off. Often, when you squeeze the half with the pit, the pit will pop out first so you can cut the part underneath before getting the rest of the pieces out.
3) Now is where I completely tossed measurements out the window. I squeezed the rest of the juice out of the lime, added about a tablespoon of olive oil and mixed it all up.
The original recipe says to put 2 T of olive oil with 1 T of lime juice. But I like lime waaay more than I probably should so I stuck with using all the juice.
4) Wash and chop up the mint. I didn't use nearly as much as the original. But I had frozen mint leaves instead of fresh, do I was hesitant to add more not knowing if it would make a difference.
5) Here, I ran into a problem. I was supposed to pat dry the cucumbers with paper towels...but we didn't have any. (As odd as this seems, it happens quite often at our apartment.) I ended up squeezing some water out of the cucumbers, small handfuls at a time. This seemed to work fine and they didn't get mushy at all.
6) Combine the cucumbers, avocado, mint and HALF of the lime & olive oil dressing. (So it doesn't get too liquidy and limey) Finally sprinkle on some feta cheese (however much you like) and fold it into the salad.
I quite enjoyed my lunch that day, especially because it felt healthy. Since I didn't use as much mint, there were just a few bites with a burst of minty flavor in them. But, I kind of liked that. I also didn't find leaving the cucumber seeds in to be a problem.
Well, that's all for now. I cannot wait to start planning more food to share here!
