Learn the five great ways to serve avocado that will help you boost your intake of healthy fats and liven up your diet plan.
t Looking to boost your healthy fat intake? Healthy fats are a necessary part of any good, well-rounded diet plan but many people simply gravitate to the same varieties time and time again: olive oil, nuts and nut butters, and fatty varieties of fish.
t While all three of these are excellent choices of fats and will help you get your intake in without a problem, it can get boring at times. Furthermore, you’ll risk vitamin and mineral deficiencies if you’re always eating the same foods over and over again, which is why changing it up every so often is a very wise move.
t That’s where avocados come into play. This fruit is one of the healthiest fat varieties you can eat and is loaded with vitamin E, fiber, and monounsaturated fats. It adds moisture to foods and doesn’t offer a very strong taste at all, so it can easily be added to almost any dish that you’re serving.
t That said, if you’re still stuck for ideas on how to get it into your diet plan, we’re here to help. The following are five great ways to serve avocado that will help you boost your intake of healthy fats and liven up your diet plan.
Add it to your sandwich
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t The first way to add avocado to your diet that far too many people overlook is simply adding it to your lunchtime sandwich. Most sandwiches, assuming you use whole wheat or Ezekiel bread along with a source of protein and some veggies on top, are going to be low in dietary fat content.
t Avocado changes that. And with the addition of this fruit to your sandwich, you may not even need to use other high-fat, but unhealthy condiments such as butter or mayonnaise.
t Serve it with a little mustard, which is a very low-calorie condiment and fine to add to your diet, and you should be all set.
Make a spread
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t Another way to serve up avocado is to make a spread or dip with it. Many people already know it can be created into guacamole, but that’s not the only recipe that you can make with it. Have a look online and come up with some unique ones. Whether you choose to whip it up into a spread to serve on crackers or make a dip with it such as creating your own avocado and fruit salsa, the options are virtually endless.
t Since it does have that mild flavor, you can really add it into any dip recipe you see without it impacting the taste all that much.
Toss it into salads
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t Next, don’t overlook adding it to your favorite salad recipe as well. Simply chop it up and add it in; it’s a great way to boost the healthy fat content of the salad and add more taste and moisture.
t Avocado works great especially when chopped apples and nuts are used in the salad, so consider that unique combination.
t As temperatures heat up in the summer months, salads are a great way to get your vegetable needs met while taking in some lean protein as well, so the addition of avocado adds the final fat nutrient you need.
Add it to smoothies
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t Smoothies are another great way to get avocados in. More and more people are starting to get into “green” smoothies, which entails adding various green leafy vegetables like spinach and kale, but don’t forget about the option of adding avocados as well.
t This fruit will enhance the creamy taste of the shake and also add a great deal of thickness to it as well, so that’s a perfect combination for what you’re after with it.
t Smoothies can provide superior nutrition on-the-go for those who are very busy on a day-to-day basis and don’t have time to make full-on meals, but do realize that you need to balance these smoothies out.
t If your smoothies typically contain only carbs from fruit and protein from protein powder, you’re missing out on the critical fat nutrient that will add the staying power you need from the smoothie.
Puree it into soups
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t Finally, the last way to serve up more avocado in your diet is to consider pureeing it into a soup. Soups are a great option for the colder winter months when you need something warm and soothing to bring your temperature up, and with so many healthy recipes that are fast to whip up, more and more people are turning to them on a regular basis.
t Soups can be low in dietary fat, however, or else rich in the wrong fats due to the addition of cream to make it creamy, so this is what you need to avoid.
t Using avocado adds the good fats and still gets you that creamier taste, so it is the much wiser route to go.
t So there you have some perfect serving suggestions to help you get more avocado into your diet plan. It’s a fruit that is available year-round, and keeps quite well in the fridge, so you can easily use it as you need to.
t Keep in mind that it is more calorie-dense than most fruits being that it is higher in total fat content, so just watch how much of it you eat at a time. A quarter of the avocado would represent about a serving of fat, so that is what most people should be aiming for, assuming they are looking to lose or maintain their body weight.
t If you’re on a muscle-building diet plan, then adding half or even more of the avocado can help you get your calorie needs met effectively.
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