Learning to cook again.

Three years ago while in L.A. visiting with wonderful Lisa, she took me to a cute 50's diner and I had a chicken salad sandwich. It was good, but the part that blew me away was the avocado they placed on top! Avocado on a sandwich?! For almost 25 years I thought avocados were meant for one thing and one thing only: guacamole. Which I love- but it never occurred to me to simply slice it up and eat it some other way.
Brenda, my lovely neighbor, eats it out of the shell with a spoon and some lime. Genius.
Nowadays I will try any recipe that involves avocado, no questions asked.
I've also been cooking more and more vegan foods, not just sweets. The lack of milk and cheese actually seems to help Johnny's little tummy work.
I saw a version of this on FatFree Vegan Kitchen and mixed it up a bit for a cold winter day.

Red beans and roasted corn on quinoa and avocado.


Cook one cup of quinoa according to directions on package.
While it's cooking, on a cookie sheet spread 1 1/2 c. frozen rinsed and drained corn and 1 chopped red bell pepper. Sprinkle with a generous amount of olive oil and roast in oven at 500˚ until edges start turning brown.
De-seed and chop one tomato, mix with one can of rinsed and drained kidney beans. Stir in 1/4 tsp. chili powder, and hot sauce, salt and pepper to taste. I threw all this into the microwave for about 1 minute just to get the chill out of the beans.
Once the corn and peppers are done, mix them with the beans and tomatoes.
Chop two avocados. Place a large scoop or two of quinoa in a bowl, top with 1/4 the avocado and 1/4 the bean/corn mixture. Add more hot sauce if you want it nice and spicy :)

The start recipe called for lime juice as well but I forgot it- try sprinkling it on top!