Meatless Monday: Green Eggs Sans Ham

If you are like me you probably got a bit carried a way with dying eggs for Easter with little regard to what you would do with said eggs after the holiday was over. This happens to me every year! And every year people recommend the same old deviled egg or egg salad recipes. If you follow this blog you know about my intense aversion to Mayo. So you can imagine my delight what I stumbled upon We Are Not Martha's Avocado Spinach Egg Salad recipe. It was truly serendipitous! I loved the idea of substituting Avocado and Greek yogurt (both things I love) for Mayo in a revamped version of egg salad. Inspired by Sues's version I used the same basic ingredients in my version with a couple new spices to amp up the flavor profile. It turned out delicious (and I  normally dislike egg salad) plus its healthy!

This egg salad tastes even better than it looks! The avocado/Greek yogurt mix creates a nice creamy texture and the celery gives the perfect amount of crunch. The cayenne and hot pepper flakes just send it over the top!

Ingredients:

• 8 hard boiled eggs, peeled 
• salt and pepper
• 1 7oz plain Greek yogurt (I used Fage, of course!)
• 2 avocados, pitted and fork mashed
• 1 cup baby spinach, coarsely chopped
• 2 stalks celery, diced into 1/4 inch cubes
• 1 lime, zest and juice
• 1T freshly chopped chives
• 1/8t cayenne pepper
• 1/2t red pepper flakes
• 1 clove minced garlic

Dying eggs is one of my favorite Easter traditions! These were so fun to make and turned out gorgeous. 

All that remains of my masterpiece. Turns out peeling hard boiled eggs is harder than it looks! I finally figured out that running cool water over the eggs helps.

I've been spending a tone of time in the garden lately. My herbs are thriving and I love getting to incorporate them into my recipes! Hence the chives in this egg salad. 

Directions: 

1. In a medium sized bowl fork mash the hard boiled eggs until no large chunks visible then season eggs with salt and pepper to taste.
2. Mix yogurt and avocado into your eggs until fully incorporated.
3. Mix in chopped spinach, celery and lime until evenly distributed. 
4. Finally stir in the chives, cayenne pepper, red pepper flakes and garlic. Transfer finished egg salad to an air tight container and store in refrigerator (the lime juice will keep your avocado fresh for up to three days). Serve on a bed of lettuce or as a sandwich on your bread of choice (I went with pumpernickel-rye swirl bread,YUM!). Enjoy!

Fork mashed Easter eggs from step 1. You can still see some spots of blue where the dye soaked into the egg!

The best part of this recipe is how quickly you can whip it together. Mix all the ingredients together and  

voilà its ready to serve! 

I got these picnic plates form Pier1! Aren't they just the cutest?

Easter Macaroons

It's such a joy to feel spring in the air again! I spent the entirety of last weekend gardening. The plethora of colors and textures spring flowers provide a garden got me thinking about how to incorporate these element into a spring themed treat. I decided to put a twist on my go to coconut macaroon recipe. adding some food coloring to make the coconut a nice pastel green and topping with on of my absolute favorite things, chocolate covered sunflower seeds! This sweet treat embodies all the joy of spring and is the prefect treat for any Spring celebration. They bring to mind all the fantastic Easter egg hunts I used to love as a kid. Remember those? Hope you all are enjoying spring as much as I am. Happy Easter to everyone celebrating this weekend!

Ingredients:

• 1 (8oz) can sweetened condensed milk
• 2 large egg whites
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp cream of tartar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 16 oz of shredded coconut
• 2 table spoons of flour
• green food coloring (about 4 drops)
• 1/4C candy coated sunflower seeds

Directions:

1. Preheat your oven to 325 degrees. 
2. In a large bowl whisk together the condensed milk, egg whites, vanilla extract, cream of tartar and salt. 
3. Combine the coconut and flour in a separate bowl then gradually fold into the condensed milk mixture. 
4. Once the coconut is fully incorporated add your food coloring and mix until evenly distributed. Top each with a pinch of candy coated sunflower seeds. 
5. Place 1tbs scoops of dough onto a parchment paper lined baking sheet and cook for 20-25 minutes, until the edges are golden and the macaroons are firmly set. Let cool, then enjoy!