Avocado Lime Cilantro Dressing

1 ripe avocado, halved and pitted
juice of 5 limes
1 small bunch of fresh cilantro, about 1 oz
1 teaspoon sea salt
4 cloves of garlic, peeled
1/4 cup water

Place all ingredients in Blendtec. (Of course, scoop the avocado out and discard the skin. But leave the stems on the cilantro.) Hold pulse button down until smooth. The resulting dressing is very thick, like smoother, creamier guacamole. Thin with water or olive oil if desired.

Note, this is a good use for overripe avocados that have begun to brown. The addition of cilantro and lime juice guarantees a beautiful, bright vibrant green color.

Reduced for Quick Sale Meets Farmer's Market Smoothie

If I have one weakness as a shopper, it's reduced for quick sale produce. I have no qualms about eating a bruised and even slimy pear, a slightly wrinkled bell pepper, and I love eating overripe bananas out of hand. The vast majority of the produce I purchase comes from the farmer's market or the local co-op, and I aim for in season and local as much as possible. But the reduced for quick sale produce rack at the local grocery store sometimes offers foods I can't resist. In this case it was a lumpy cantalope and a couple bunches of small red bananas.

half a medium cantalope, cubed
1/4 pound of green leaf lettuce
1/4 pound of cos lettuce
one medium navel orange, peeled and segments separated
3 ripe small red bananas (or one large regular banana)

Blend until smooth.

I'm not a huge fan of the cantalope flavor, so I tossed in an orange to balance it. After a taste I decided it could use something else, and tossed in a few baby bananas. Sweet and creamy.

Red Walnut and Banana Bean Bars

1 can kidney beans (15 oz), rinsed and drained
1/4 cup organic sugar
1 very ripe medium banana
1/4 cup raw walnuts
1/4 cup brown rice
2 tablespoons flax seed
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
a generous pinch of cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350 and oil a 8 by 8 baking dish, or Pyrex pan of similar size.

In a very dry Blendtec, place brown rice and flax seed. Press the speed up button until the level reaches 9; allow Blendtec to run full 50 second cycle. Add the remaining ingredients to resultant flour, but first stir the contents of the jar, taking care to get the flour out of the corners of the jar where it may have collected. Speed up again to level 9 and allow to run until smooth and well-blended. Scrape contents of jar into pan, smoothing with the spoon or spatula as necessary. Bake for 26 minutes. Allow to cool on counter and then refrigerate for a few hours before enjoying.

This was inspired by Celine's recipe on Have Cake, Will Travel several weeks ago. I have long been infatuated with the Black Bean Brownie recipe that started this all and have been keen on trying some kind of baked good where I could grind the grain myself and then mix it all at one go---Celine's ingredients included stuff like brown rice flour and nut butter that one can make in the Blendtec. I wanted to use fresh fruit, though, instead of preserves, so various experiments ensued. I was always surprised at how thick and sticky the batter seemed and Celine recommended replacing some of the flax with more flour; on a whim I decided to switch the amounts of flax versus brown rice flour entirely. I think it did help, but feel free to tinker with it yourself. The kidney beans were kind of a whim also; I had a super ripe banana that needed using and thought I would give this one more try and kidney beans were the only cooked beans on hand. I loved the flavor, especially the cinnamon that came through.