Spinach Avocado Grilled Cheese

This is not your mother's grilled cheese sandwich. And it's certainly not your son's.

In the summer, we tend to do summery meals--more salads, sandwiches, more quick things and cold things and simple things. Which can get boring if you're not careful.

So I made this. It wasn't boring. And it's awesome. And definitely filling enough to be a meal. And kind of green. I wasn't sure how I'd feel about the avocados. I don't generally like mine hot; once I tried them as a pizza topping and HATED it. But in this they just get mildly warm and add a nice creaminess to the sandwich.

Spinach Avocado Grilled Cheese
adapted from Taste Spotting
Makes 1
Prep time: 5 minutes
Cook time: 5-10 minutes
Cost: $1.20
bread: .20, avocado: .20, spinach: .05, pesto: .20, mozzarella: .15, goat cheese: .40)

2 slices bread (any type will work, so go as wholesome as you wish)
6-8 leaves of baby spinach
1/4 avocado (use the rest in a smoothie if you wish)
2 Tbsp pesto (or even mayo if you don't have pesto, though mayo won't have as much punch)
2 large slices mozzarella or cheddar
2 Tbsp crumbled goat cheese (optional, but good)

Spread the pesto on your slices of bread. Add sliced cheese to one slice. Add spinach leaves (layer them only in a single layer; otherwise, they feel crunchy and don't feel right with your warm sandwich). Add avocado slices. Add goat cheese. Top with other slice of bread.

Butter each side and put in a frying pan on medium low heat. You'll need the heat low-ish so the cheese melts. Once one side of the bread is lightly browned, flip and do the other side.

Note: If you're having trouble getting your cheese to melt, take the pan off the burner and put a lid over the sandwich. This will hold the heat in and melt your cheese without burning your bread.

PRINTABLE RECIPE

Avocado Salad Dressing

Now that we've learned how to know when to cut open our avocados, let's talk recipes. I made this last night for a lettuce-based salad. It was delicious. It would also be delicious as a mayo sub for chicken salad. It would also be a fabulous veggie/cracker/whatever dip. It'd be so amazing with hamburgers I might have to make some this week just to have them together. And while it could be spread on your hamburgers, it could also be used as a dip for your fries. Or chips. Or to give your potato salad a little pizzazz. It's just that kind of a thing--a be-whatever-you-need kind of a condiment.

You can use Greek yogurt or sour cream to make it. I'd planned to use Greek yogurt, but them my kids ate it all for lunch, so I used sour cream. To make it more dressing-y, a yogurt would be perfect. To make it more dippy, use sour cream. Although I cannot emphasize enough that you could use either for anything and it will be great.

Avocado Dressing
makes about 1 cup
Prep time: 5 minutes
Cost: $2.00
avocado: 1.00, yogurt: .50, olive oil: .40, other stuff: .10 (this will be considerably cheaper with sale avocados which is what I used--mine were .60 and bulk yogurt--mine only cost about .25 for 1/2 C)

1 avocado, mashed
2 tsp lemon juice
1/2 C Greek yogurt, regular yogurt, or sour cream
1/4 C olive oil (another oil would work as well, but I really like it with olive)
1-2 garlic cloves
3/4 tsp salt
dash of cayenne or hot sauce (optional)

Mash the avocado. Add lemon juice and combine. This should keep it's color nice longer as well as add a nice punchy flavor.

Add other ingredients and mix until it's combined.

PRINTABLE RECIPE

How to Know When an Avocado Is Ripe

I'd never eaten an avocado until I was an adult. And after that, it was a really hit or miss experience for me. I didn't like my avocados under ripe and as a result I would generally let them ripen and ripen until the skin was entirely dark and the area around the stem was quite wrinkled and the fruit was softish. Then I'd open my avocado up and occasionally I'd get a decent avocado, but much more often I'd have a nice rotten piece of fruit. I blamed stores for this--stores with their hopelessly bad avocado selection. This went on for years.

Then, the last time I visited my sister, she showed me how she could tell if an avocado was ripe. And it worked. Every time. Every single time.

You ready?

Your avocado is ripe when the little stemmy area is just about ready to fall out. If you wiggle it, it will start to pull off and sometimes even pull off completely. Then your avocado is ripe and you can cut into it with full confidence. Every time. Every single time.

(See, when I wiggled this guy, the stem came off, but it took a little wiggle. By which I mean, I didn't touch it and it fell off--if that had happened, it would have been a little over ripe.) 

Ahh, avocado perfection, right there.

By way of warning, I should say that you must start with a decent avocado--one that is a nice, firm fruit. Not one that is bruised or squishy.

Also, for this to work, you've got to get an avocado with a little stemmy thing still on. I haven't found this to be too much of a challenge.

The great thing about this tip is that it also helps with meal planning. If you need the avocado soon, then pick one from the store with a wiggly-about-to-fall-off stemmy thing. If you need it in a few days or a week, pick one with a stemmy thing that is still pretty firmly stuck to its fruit.