Avocado Smoothies

Doesn't that sound disgusting?

But if you can muster the courage to taste one, then your thoughts might change.
Avocado smoothies are one of the most refreshing drinks I've ever had. It was much appreciated during the seemingly never-ending heat that we endured as teachers in Honduras. I'm thankful for the people who invented this masterpiece.

I had my first avocado smoothie in Indonesia at the end of my semester abroad. It's not uncommon to see this beverage on a menu in an Indonesian restaurant. It is served cold- a blend of milk, ice, and sugar, and garnished with a bit of chocolate.

It was easy for me to try because my roommate from Indonesia, Beddy, once had me try a bite of avocado sprinkled with sugar. I was hooked! Besides the occasional guacamole night, I made it a habit of emptying the insides of an avocado into a cup, adding sugar and powdered milk, mixing it with a spoon, and eating the paste. Since avocados "only" costed 1,000 rupia (or, 10 cents) in the highlands of Papua, I had an avocado this way nearly every day!

Avocados are incredibly high in potassium, by the way. Much more so than a banana, even. One of my favorite factoids, and I got it from wikipedia... who would've guessed?

Go ahead... try one for yourself!

Just close your eyes, it'll be okay...

My parents bought me a food dehydrator for Christmas, which is my new favorite toy. Actually it's quite boring once you plug it in. It doesn't even make noise. Thanks a lot, Mom and Dad...

I've been focusing on drying apples, since it is the season and I just bought a bushel BOGO (I recently lerned there is a cheesy acronym for this meaning)at Masonic Homes. Additionally, my parents gave me a Pampered Chef Apple Peeler, which is peels incredibly fast with an insanely small amount of waste, cores the apple, and leaves it spiral sliced. It's about a 10 minute process to wash, peel, slice, and core the apples, including cleanup.

The smell of drying apples permeates the house overnight and when I open the door to the kitchen in the morning I no longer smell a burst of Asher's breakfast pancakes (it is possible that he has switched to granola and yogurt) but instead it smells as if an apple pie has been baking.

I tried Pink Lady apples to start - a beautiful variety with great flavor, which only multiplies through the dehydration process!

The peeler/corer/slicer does all 3 things in about 20 seconds... truly amazing, especially if you have many apples to do (see my previous post about unnecessary kitchen gadgets). You can see that there is very little waste. Something awesome about this style of food dehydrator is that it is made up of a base, five stackable circular trays, and a lid. The size of the dehydrator is dependent on how many trays you are using and it is easy to rotate the trays for even drying! However, the opening in the center makes it more interesting to make fruit leather and more food could be dried if the opening wasn't there.

Apples sliced thin enough make a very crispy and tasty chip after only a day of drying. Since I do not pretreat the apples, they end up with a brownish color and a superb taste. Just close your eyes, it'll be okay...