Chicken Avocado Salad

I love chicken salad, but I always felt kind of guilty because it is usually made with a lot of mayonnaise or cream, which isn't exactly the healthiest. But then I found this delightfully tasty and healthy recipe, and I may have gotten just a tinsy bit excited.
The salad still has a small amount of mayonnaise in it, just to help with flavor and consistency, but the major awesome healthy ingredient is avocado. I LOVE avocado, it's so versatile. You can even make healthy instant chocolate pudding with them! The avocado lends a great creaminess and flavor to the chicken and of course, it's super healthy.
The other thing I liked about this recipe is that is does not have celery in it. I have never like celery, but especially in chicken salad. Of course, you can feel free to add it to this recipe if you'd like!
I bought some delicious croissants from a bakery down the street from where I live, and toasted them very lightly under the broiler. French, Italian, whole wheat, white, rye..pretty much any bread would be fine with this.
This is hands down the best chicken salad sandwich I have personally ever had, and I will probably make this quite often, as it is a cheap (I figured out about $3 or so per sandwich), healthy, quick and very tasty meal that is great for breakfast, lunch or dinner.
This recipe did not have measurements, so I just tell you the approximate measurements that I used (enough for 2 sandwiches).

Chicken Avocado Salad
(Adapted from Becoming Betty)

4 chicken tenderloins, cooked and shredded
1 medium avocado, mashed or blended until smooth
1 Tbsp mayonnaise
2 green onions, thinly sliced
a tiny handful of cilantro, chopped (or more if you desire)
salt and pepper to taste
about 1/2 -1 Tbsp lime juice, or to taste

Mix all of the ingredients together, changing measurements to your taste. Serve on desired toasted bread. (Very good on croissants!)

Spiced Hazelnut Pumpkin Bread

It's pumpkin time of year. In other words, the best time of year. It's only halfway through October and I've already gone through 6 sugar pumpkins, and have 3 more waiting to be turned into pumpkin puree. Autumn is so my favorite season ever.
This bread originally called for pecans, not hazelnuts, but I don't think hazelnuts are used in recipes nearly often enough, and I thought that they would taste good with the pumpkin and spices.
I also used stone ground whole wheat flour to add a more hearty texture.
Another very important component of this bread awesomeness is what kind of oil is used. Mild oils like sunflower or grape-seed (which is what I used in this recipe) don't leave that odd aftertaste that oils like vegetable or canola oil can. And it helps keep the bread deliciously moist.

This bread is delicious by itself, but it is really the best with homemade pumpkin butter, which I will be posting a recipe for soon! I got the original recipe from the blog Season with Spice. Hope you all enjoy and happy Autumn!!

Spiced Hazelnut Pumpkin Bread (adapted from Season with Spice)
Makes one loaf

Ingredients:
3/4 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
3/4 cup whole-wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon allspice
1/4 tsp ginger
3/4 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup grape-seed oil
2 large eggs
1 cup fresh pumpkin puree
2/3 cup Greek yogurt
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup chopped hazelnuts (and more for toppings)

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour 9x5x3-inch loaf pan.
2. In a large bowl, combine flours, baking soda, salt, and spices.
3. In another large bowl, beat sugar and oil. Then mix in eggs, pumpkin puree, yogurt, and vanilla extract. Combine with the dry ingredients. Then stir in the chopped hazelnuts.
4. Pour into the prepared loaf pan and sprinkle chopped hazelnuts over the top.
5. Bake until a skewer inserted into center comes out clean – should take about 1 hour to 1 hour and 10 minutes. Then transfer to a rack and allow to cool for ten minutes. Finally, slide bread out from pan and allow to cool completely.

Avocado Chocolate Pudding (Vegan)

I was extremely skeptical about this recipe. Vegan chocolate pudding? No, I told myself, that should not work. That won't work. I tried it anyway. It worked. Ridiculously well, actually.

You can blend this up in about 5 minutes and it is ready to eat immediately. No chilling and no stove required. All you need is a food processor. Simple as dump, blend, eat.

The original recipe (found here) called for regular non fat milk. I used almond milk instead to make it vegan-friendly.
This was my first time using agave nectar, and I am very happy with it. I will probably still use regular sugar in most of my recipes, simply because of the cost difference, however.

This recipe was a huge hit with my friends, and I will be adding it to the keep file :)

Enjoy!

Vegan Chocolate Pudding

1 medium ripe avocado
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1/3 cup raw agave nectar
1/4 cup almond milk

Blend all ingredients into a blender until smooth and creamy. You may need to add more agave nectar depending on the size of your avocado. It's ready to eat immediately or you can also refrigerate.

Butternut Squash Whole Wheat Crackers

Crackers are one of the best snacks, in my opinion. They are basically little pieces of crunchy bread, so what's not to like?
That being said, buying crackers is expensive. Stupidly so, actually. Now that I've discovered how beautifully easy making your own crackers is, I probably won't be buying crackers from the store much from here on out.
The recipe I found originally called for sweet potato to be used, but I didn't have any sweet potatoes, but I did have a butternut squash. The only difference that really made was the flavor is milder, and I had to use more flour because butternut squash has a higher water content when cooked than sweet potato does.
You could make these with all-purpose flour, but you shouldn't because whole wheat is healthier.
Make sure you roll the dough out very thin, otherwise they will stay kind of gummy in the center, which will result in the crackers tasting stale within a day. If you get them nice and thin, they will brown up nicely and be deliciously crunchy, as crackers should be.
I sprinkled the crackers with paprika and sesame seeds before baking, but I found the sesame seeds didn't stick very well, even though I pressed them down before I put them in the oven.

Butternut Squash Whole Wheat Crackers
Adapted from Fuss Free Cooking

1 cup cooked butternut squash, mashed
2 cups whole wheat flour (more as needed)
2 1/2 Tbsp baking powder
3 Tbsp cold butter, cubed
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup milk
ground paprika (optional)
sesame seeds (optional)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.
Combine the milk and squash mash and set aside.
Combine the flour, baking powder, salt and cold butter in a food processor and process until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.
Add the squash and process until it forms a dough that is only slightly sticky, adding more flour as you need to.
Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead about 80 turns. Divide the dough into 4 pieces and roll each out very thin (about 1/16 inch). Cut into whatever shape you want and place onto the prepared baking sheets. Sprinkle with paprika and sesame seeds if desired.
Bake for 15-20 minutes or until the bottoms are slightly browned. Turn the crackers over and bake for 4-5 minutes longer.
Cool on a wire rack and store in an airtight container.