Avocado Bravado

This simple sandwich is created with spicy brown mustard, lettuce, tomato, swiss cheese, sliced portebello mushrooms, and sliced avocados on toasted buttertop wheat bread-- no need to miss the meat. This is both filling and delicious. And the simple sandwich provides much needed nutrients, vitamins, and omega 3 complex.

Many variations abound. Mayonnaise, Ranch dressing, or any favorite condiment complements this delightfully simple meal. French or Ciabatta breads usher in a sense of luxury. The addition of grilled tofu or alfalfa sprouts will provide extra texture as well as protein. Roasted red pepper, various cheeses, and sliced almonds are wonderful. In short, your imagination provides the makings of the perfect simple sandwich, which may, after all, become something that is no longer simple. It may become awesome!

Have you ever felt like you were starving? This is the cure. The "Giant Honkin' Burrito" fills a nine inch pie pan and is guaranteed to satisfy one famished person or two to three people with a normal appetite. When first becoming vegetarian, it's common to feel extra hungry for awhile. Also, if sharing a home or meal with meat eaters, it's easy to create two "Giant Honkin Burrito's" and throw a little fully-cooked brisket, hamburger meat, or grilled chicken into the second. Canned chicken is an easy fully-cooked meat if meat is not usually kept on-hand. The meals don't mix in the oven, and both eating styles may be easily accommodated at one time.

This recipe is for a smothered burrito covered in a homemade cueso (cheese sauce) plus garnish. This is best eaten with knife and fork. This is not the kind of burrito that one can carry around in a napkin. By the way, this meal is loaded vitamins, antioxidants, protein, calicium, and omega 3's. It's the energy track for every savvy vegetarian.**Warning: Okay the "Giant Honkin' Burrito" doesn't honk. However persons who eat the "Giant Honkin' Burrito" have been known to emit strange honkin' noises from their bodies within minutes or hours of completion. This unusual side effect is intermittent and conclusive of the fact that the diner is well-nourished, full and happy.

For a complete vegan diet, try substituting soft tofu flavored with 1/4 tsp. cumin 1/4 tsp. paprika, and 1 tsp. chili powder for the cheese plus a couple of tablespoons of tahini. Also, soy milk is good instead of milk. Please leave results on comment section as the author is ovu-lacto vegetarian and this alteration is yet untried.

Here's the recipe with step by step photos and instructions. Eat hearty. Life is short.

Giant Honkin' Burrito Recipe

Ingredients:

Oven: 350
Servings: Makes 2 Giant Honkin' Burritos

Aluminum foil
Large tortillas (tomato basil tortillas were used here)
1 can vegetarian refried beans
1 can roasted tomatoes
Velveeta cheese log (will need about 1/4 of log for this) (or soft tofu)
1/4 cup milk (or soy milk)
1/4 cup mild salsa (or rotel for slightly spicy)
Shredded cheese cheddar or Mexican blend
Fresh cilantro (coriander in Europe)
Sliced portobello mushrooms
Jicama (julienne)
Red Onion sliced thinly
Olives (sliced green olives used here. Black olives are good too.)
Avocado sliced in chunks
**For spicy burritos finely chop one fresh jalapeno and add to friole (bean) sauce mixture before warming. This recipe as written is mild.

Directions:

1) In a medium sauce pan, empty refried beans, roasted tomatoes, and about an inch square of Velveeta cheese. Stir over low to medim heat until smooth and warm. This is the friole (bean) sauce for inside the burrito. This probably makes an excess for the filler sauce. Save the excess. It's great warm or cold for a bean dip with corn chips.
2) In a small saucepan, mix milk, salsa, and about an inch square of Velveeta cheese. This is the homemade cueso (cheese) sauce. Stir over low to medium heat until smooth and warm. *Note: Steps one and two may be done at the same time.
3) Lay one tortilla in each of two 8 or 9 inch pie pans.
4) Stir sauces often and chop fresh vegetables.
5) Slather bean sauce onto each of the tortillas. Add mushrooms and cilantro. *See first photo below.
6) Sprinkle shredded cheese over the mixture. *See second photo below.
7) Fold the sides and bottom of tortilla. *See third photo below.
8) Flip tortilla and cover with homemade cueso (cheese sauce). *See fourth photo below.
9) Cover with aluminum foil and bake for fifteen minutes.
10) Garnish with red onion, jicama, olives, avocado, and serve. *See fifth and sixth photo below.
11) Variations include sour cream, guacamole, salsa for your taste. Complements may include chips or Mexican rice. But the "Giant Honkin' Burito is a complete meal in its own rite. Enjoy.

The ancient origin of the avocado is in the South American heart of the Aztecs. It was first used as a stimulant for arousal for men, probably because of its perceived shape by this brilliant but supertitious people. This fruit was first called ahuacatl, meaning "testicles". Many past primitive cultures speculated that eating food that resembled body parts aleviated ailments associated with that corresponding body part. In that tradition, primitive cultures religiously believed in the idea, "you are what you eat", something that is simply cliche' in modern culture.

Even though the fruit was renamed in the late 1600's as avocado, it did not achieve popularity until the 1950's when it was first touted as a salad item. Avocado is still popular in salads, but with current investigation into its wonderful nutritional benefits, its role in culinary circles has been greatly enlarged.

As to any truth in its early claims of virility, it must be left only to speculation as no scientific evidence is available to support such boasts.

Avocados are rich in enzymes, antioxidants, vitamin B6 and many other things. It's cited as the "good" cholestoral because it provides much needed Omega 3 and 6 fats, something that vegetarians have to watch with the omission of meat since meat is the primary supplier of these great fats. Yes, fat is good if it's the right kind. Over three fourths of the human brain is composed of fat. The omega fats retain brain function and contribute to beautiful skin and hair as well as a healthy immune system.

Eating avocados is one great way to supplement much needed fats, vitamins, and enzymes, especially if a vegan or vegetarian is opposed to the standard supplement of fish oil capsules. Why experiment with new dietary restraints or stand for a cause if it means losing brain function and turning old overnight, right? Regular use of the tasty avocado in a vegetarian diet is more than indulgence. It's the steak and potatoes the body craves sans meat. Meat-eaters also crave avacado as it lowers hypertension and has so many healthy benefits.

Besides diet, avacados are popular in skin care products, particulary masks, because of the nutritive properties that sustain skin. The fats inside avacado help with dry, damaged, wrinkly effects associated with aging, cellular deterioration, and nutrition deprivation. So feeding the skin, internally and externally with luxuriant avocado is incredibly beneficial to anyone regardless of diet.

Avacados are an incredible delight, splurge, and maybe a necessity to today's modern vegan.