Creamy Salsa Dip

My friend’s boyfriend was in town for Labor Day weekend, so we decided to have a late lunch, despite the fact that I’d had 3 plates of food about 1.5 hours before heading over. My church feeds me well, and I have a problem with eating everything on sight.

Homemade whole wheat roll, potato salad, vegan mac n cheese (made with “cashew cheese”), stuffed zucchini + salad (romaine lettuce, bell peppers, half a drizzle of vidalia onion dressing).

Twas delicious! He recreated one of their favorite salads from Panera (Spinach Power Salad). “Fresh baby spinach, roasted mushrooms + onion blend, diced eggs, applewood smoked bacon, frizzled onions + smoky Vidalia onion vinaigrette.” I’m gonna have to try to recreate this one of these days.

I had to pick all the bacon bits out, but it was well worth it. :O

The salsa wasn’t made from scratch, but perhaps next time! We enjoyed them on almond crackers, which are a new discovery to me. They are delicious, and come in a bunch of different flavors!

Creamy Salsa Dip

Ingredients:
-salsa
-cream cheese

Instructions:
1) Mix until smooth.

(It’ll be less lumpy if you use a block of cream cheese instead of the fluffy one that she had at the time. :O )

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Avocado Pesto

I meant to add nutritional yeast flakes too, but forgot about it. It was late. :/ You can use this as a spread, a dip, a pasta sauce (probably best not to reheat it though)…the possibilities are endless! :D I didn’t have pine nuts (they’re morbidly expensive), so I subbed with cashews instead.

Avocado Pesto

Ingredients:
-2 avocados, peeled with seed removed
-handful of basil leaves
-2 handfuls of cashews
-garlic powder, to taste
-black pepper, to taste
-splash of lemon juice

Instructions:
1) Combine everything into a food processor and blend until smooth.

Guacamole

If avocados weren’t so expensive, I’d hella make this all the time. :o

Guacamole
Sorry about the picture. :/ I should’ve turned on flash…and perhaps also not waited until we’d finished half the bowl/it’d been sitting for a while. :[ It was amazing though, just so you know.

Ingredients:
– 3 Haas avocados (halved, seeded, peeled)
– 2-3 limes (depending on how lime-y you want it; juiced)
– 1 tbsp finely chopped cilantro
– 2 cloves of garlic (add more if you like stronger garlic taste), minced
– 1/2 of one medium sized onion, diced
– 2 Roma tomatoes, seeded and diced
– 1/2 tsp of cayenne pepper
– 1/2 tsp of cumin
– 1/2 tsp of kosher salt

Instructions:
1) Put scooped avocados into a mixing bowl, pour (or squeeze, if you didn’t juice) lime juice over avocados evenly (to prevent avocados from browning/give them more flavor).
2) Drain and reserve the lime juice. Add the cayenne, cumin, and salt, then use a potato masher (or spoon+fork) and mash the avocados.
3) Fold in cilantro, onion, and tomatoes. Add reserved lime juice.
4) Let sit at room temp for 1 hour, and serve!