My Latest Fave Avocado Treat

Lately, I've been working out first thing in the morning, and when I'm done, my body is hungry for something really healthy. I've always loved avocado, but never craved it in the morning until recently, when a vague memory of reading about spreading avocado on toast resurfaced. I happened to have a really nice whole wheat bread and an avocado and I thought, "Hm, that might be nice," and I tried it and it's unbelievable. It's delicious. Plus, it's better than butter because you're actually getting a health benefit from the fats you're consuming (avocado is a "good" fat) and it's better than dry toast because...well, unless you're hung over or sick, who really likes dry toast? ("Me," says my husband, Leo, who actually does eat dry toast occasionally, but frankly, he likes to dip dry toast into sunny-side-up eggs, so as far as I'm concerned, it doesn't count)

Now, I have a couple of tips for your avocado toast treat. First, use bread that's substantial. I'm currently in love with Nature's Pride Extra Fiber Whole Wheat bread because it doesn't have any of the weirdo partially-hydrogenated nonsense or creepy high-fructose corn syrup, and it has a nice flavor. 

Second, get an avocado that's ripe, but not too ripe. It should have a little give to it when you give it a gentle squeeze, but it shouldn't be mushy. If it's rock-solid when you squeeze it, you can put it next to some apples for a day or so to ripen it up. Apples give off a gas that makes other produce ripen faster. We have a three-tiered wire basket that hangs from our ceiling where we keep apples separate from other stuff, and it works great for ripening avocados, but you could also put an apple and an avocado in a paper bag overnight and it works even better.

Prepare your toast normally. While your bread is toasting, cut your avocado in half as in the photo. I use an avocado peeler (left) from Pampered Chef that I bought for $6.50 years ago. It's one of the best kitchen purchases I've made, because it's quite versatile. 

Once you've sliced your avocado, take the side that doesn't have the pit and use your avocado peeler (or a table knife or a butter knife) to sort of...scuff the top of the avocado. You're not slicing here- you're creating a spread. Then you just spread the avocado over your toast. I probably use 1/8 avocado for one piece of toast, if even that much. 

I save my avocado and use it daily until it's gone. If you're easily icked out, know that avocado changes color rapidly and will go from green to brown as it oxidizes. This doesn't mean anything about the quality of the avocado, but if it bothers you, squeeze a little lemon over the exposed part of the avocado. Alternatively, the next day you can just scuff off the icky brown part and underneath it'll be perfectly bright green. Enjoy!