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Tomatillo Guacamole (and Positivity in Eating)

Mmm. Tomatillo Guacamole. Just add chips or chopped up veggies.

Tomatillo Guacamole

But this isn’t your typical guacamole. This one is infused with the tart fabulousness of tomatillos, a relative of eggplants and gooseberries. It’s unexpected, but delicious all the same. We have a big crop of tomatillos growing in our garden this year, so I foresee a lot more Tomatillo Guacamole in our near future.

Recently I served this fun take on guacamole as an appetizer at a family birthday party and the bowl was completely cleared. Not a stitch of leftover guac. I don’t know who liked it the best: the kids or the adults. If you (or your kids) like avocado, guacamole and the like, then this is a fabulous thing to serve. Even if they don’t like avocado, this is delicious.

On a side note, kids do eat avocado. And like it. I know plenty of children who are practically addicted to it (and guacamole too!). But when I recently featured this recipe in my Tablespoon column, in a post about Kid-Friendly After-School Snack Ideas, I got a surprisingly negative reaction. I took some serious heat on Tablespoon’s Facebook Fan Page for suggesting that kids (or anyone) would enjoy this.

Guess what? Kids do eat this. They do. Not all of them (because seriously, everyone has preferences and tastes). But there are plenty who do.

When I spoke at BlogHer last month, I made the point that approaching food and eating with positivity is so important to getting kids to eat well — and really it is. Avoid negative statements (“I don’t think you will like this but..” “You usually don’t eat this …” “It’s okay if you don’t like it …”) and kids will be more likely to try things. Will this work every time for every child? Of course not! But even if it only works sometimes, it’s better than having your child married to a diet of white foods or whatever. Just my two cents.

What do you think?

Some more recipes you might like:

Tomatillo Guacamole

Tomatillo Guacamole

Yield: 4 servings
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Total Time: 15 minutes

Ingredients

  • 1 avocado
  • 1 to matillo
  • 1 tbsp lime juice
  • 1 jalapeno, seeded
  • salt and pepper, to taste

Instructions

  1. Cut the avocado in half and remove the pit. Peel the skin off. Then, slice the avocado. Transfer to a food processor.
  2. Remove the skin from the tomatillo. Wash carefully to remove the stickiness. Roughly chop the tomatillo and add to the food processor.
  3. Add the lime juice, jalapeno and salt and pepper to the food processor. Pulse until smooth.
  4. Transfer to a serving bowl and serve. Alternatively, this can be tightly covered and refrigerated until ready to use.

The Teacher Cooks

Thursday 9th of September 2010

I love your two cents! When I teach Child Development I do a unit on changing negative statements to positive ones when speaking to children. Being postive really makes a difference!

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