May 26 (day 12)

I'm not having any problems staying vegetarian, but every once in a while, I feel my hand reach out for some meat....

I had a tasty Matador breakfast burrito this morning.  I really like the Harmony Valley Foods TVP sausage.  With some of our maple jalapeno hot sauce, I almost forget it is vegetarian.  However, the smell of bacon drives me nuts.  It was torture walking past the hot table today. 

A little potato and bean taco for lunch.  Nothing fancy.

For dinner, my lovely wife picked up a pizza.  Thai Pie hold the chicken.  Not too shabby. 

All in all, nothing too exciting on my menu today.  I did get a chance to have some great conversations with some of my favorite customers today.  Great food talk and I learned lots of good stuff.  I gotta say that chatting with the Cruz Clan on Friday night was great too, but they are always great. That is why I love the restaurant business......  The peeps.

I have to go off on a little rant here, but follow with me for a second.  It drives me nuts when people say they "don't want any guacamole because they don't want the fat."  The first few times I heard customers say that, I tried to explain why they were wrong.  I could tell people didn't want to hear it.  Fat has a bad name and people aren't willing to listen to a pro-fat argument. I have given up trying to explain this years ago, but now that we are all here talking about food I think it is time to give it another run. 

Avocados do have lots of fat, but it is good fat.  Not all fats are created equal.  Plant fats, like those found in avocados, are the holy grail of fats.  To make things simple, basically, there are two types of fat, saturated and unsaturated.  Saturated fats come from animals, unsaturated comes from plants.  Yea, there are exceptions and science can run you in circles here, but to keep it simple lets just follow this.  Saturated fat raises your cholesterol.  Unsaturated fat lowers your cholesterol.   Animal fat bad, plant fat good.

When in comes to cholesterol, there are two types of that too.  LDL (low-density lipoprotein) or bad cholesterol and HDL (high-density lipoprotein) or good cholesterol.  Avocado had a pile of unsaturated fat and boosts your good (HDL) cholesterol.  Long story short, eat an avocado and you will lower your cholesterol. When you lower your cholesterol, you get to live longer. Those ugly little pear shaped buggers are really good for you.  They taste great and they soak up cholesterol.  Think of it as a hangover cure for a meat bender.

Bottom line, just remember... eat an avocado, live longer.   If you don't like the taste of avocado, then cover it up.  Make it swim in ranch. The ranch/guac mix may be the best duo in the food world.  Even if you cover up the taste of the avocado, you are still getting the benefits of the green goddess. 

My advise, add avocado to everything.

Here is a link to my second favorite guacamole recipe.  (Matador is the best)

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/guacamole-recipe/index.html

 I hope everyone has a great holiday weekend.  Be safe, remember our vets, share good food.  Cheers