Caribbean Kitchen: Avocado!

This week's ingredient for the Caribbean Kitchen Challenge is avocado. Easy, peazy since 1) avocados are in season and 2) I LOVE avocados.  Sometime I eat them plain, just a tasty bowl of plain, sliced avocado. I can devour a whole one by myself, no problem... they are so tasty!!! Needless to say, I'm pretty pumped about this week's challenge, and I may post more than one avocado recipe. But here's one, for starters.

I recently discovered a website with delicious, healthy recipes: skinnytaste.com featuring Gina's Skinny Recipes. So far I have made a few things from the site and have been very impressed with them all, especially the recipe below which I adapted for this challenge. It was easy and super tasty! Thanks, Gina!

[caption id="attachment_941" align="aligncenter" width="510" caption="{ Gina's Skinny Recipes }"][/caption]

Shrimp Quesadillas with Tomato Avocado Salsa

• 1 medium tomato, diced


• 1/2 a huge local avocado, diced


• 1 lime, juice of


• 1 tbsp parsley or cilantro


• 1 small onion, finely minced


• 2 handfuls of frozen shrimp, thawed


• cumin


• garlic salt


• salt and fresh pepper


• cooking spray or small amount of oil


• shredded cheese (I used Colby Jack)


• 4 huge garlic herb wrap-style tortillas (found at Picard grocery in the freezers in the back)

In a bowl, combine tomato, avocado, onion, lime juice, herbs, salt and pepper to make the tomato avocado salsa.  Set aside.

Season shrimp with salt, pepper, cumin, and garlic salt. Lightly spray or add oil to a hot skillet on medium heat and add shrimp. Cook 2-3 minutes on each side until shrimp are cooked. Remove from heat and set aside.

Heat skillet on medium heat and lightly spray or add oil. Add tortilla, top with cheese, shrimp, and tomato avocado salsa. When the cheese is melted and the bottom of the tortilla is golden brown, place the other tortilla on top. Put a plate on top of the quesadilla to flip it over onto the plate. Then slide the other side onto the skillet. Cook another minute and remove with a spatula. Cut into wedges and serve immediately.

Charlie gave these two thumbs up. These were so delicious that I ate them for breakfast the next day!  {I know, I'm weird!}

* Gina's recipe called for garlic powder, scallions, and red onions, but I didn't have any of those ingredients, so I substituted garlic salt, parsley and a local yellow onion -- it still turned out delicious! 

{Check out all the avocado recipes from the Caribbean Kitchen Challenge on Monday at Spouses Kitchen!}