Thrift Kitchen: Guacamole with homemade chips!

I’ve been trying my best to stay the heck away from bad food. I did pretty well not stuffing my face with one hundred cookies over Christmas, but now I’m facing New Years! How do I indulge and celebrate when I’m trying to keep my alcohol at a minimum and my food healthy and in small portions? Well, make a plan, that’s how. I’m going to make a tasty treat that I love and I will have no problem sticking to. And as far as alcohol goes, well, some sparkling apple cider will tide me over, no problem.

I love guacamole dip. Since you can’t keep it too long, it’s great to make when you will be sharing it. I know my friends like it too so I’m making an extra large batch, but you can cut the ingredients in 1/4 or 1/2 for a 2 or 4 person serving size.

Guacamole Dip

ingredients:
4 ripe avocados (mashed)
2 small plum tomatoes (diced)
1/4 small onion (minced)
4 cloves garlic (minced)
Juice of 2 limes (about 4 T if using those lime shaped lime juice containers)
Salt and pepper to taste

directions:
Remove the pit and all the avocado meat from the skin (check out how to grow an avocado tree from the pit) {here is how you remove the meat} and mash it up in a bowl.

Dice and mince the other ingredients as indicated and stir them into the bowl with the mashed avocado. Season with salt and pepper until it’s delicious to your taste buds. Transfer to a fancy bowl (or transportable bowl) and refrigerate for up to 12 hours. I actually make it right before we head out the door so it’s fresh and bright green.

Baked Pita Chips

This is so easy, you will love it. You can make them in your conventional oven if you are making a ton, or the toaster oven if you are making a few.

ingredients:
1 pocket pita per person
olive oil in a spray bottle
Sea Salt

directions:

Preheat oven to 375 — I know we will have at least 6 people, so I am making 10 (because 2 are tall and need loads more food than me!).

Cut the pitas into wedges. You can do 8, 10, or 12 wedges per pita, just depends how you want to slice it. I cut it into 12 wedges. The neat thing about the pocket pitas is that once you have your wedges, you can cut the rounded side of the wedge and voila two chips! (pictured above)

Spritz 2 cookie sheets with olive oil and line with the pita chips. Give the pitas a spritz of olive oil and sprinkle with sea salt. Bake for 7 minutes, then flip and 5 minutes more until golden brown. Transfer to a tea towel lined basket and keep covered and warm. Do as many batches as you need for your party.

If they chill out before you get there, or you want to make them in advance, just pop them in the toaster oven and hit the “toast” button set to medium and they will crisp and warm right up.

Yum yum yum! I can’t wait to dig in to this yummy stuff tonight!

Happy New Year!
Kristin