Avocado

East Coast meets West Coast in this dish. Chowder plus Tex-Mex equals a really good idea in any direction!

This one reminds me of the California surfer scene. It’s a way-cool mega-rito, dude!

This dish is preventative medicine; it prevents one from ordering and pigging out on bad Mexican-style take-out food. If you make this instead you won’t end up feeling too fat or too full.

When you’re watching the big game it’s important to have some smashmouth, tough-guy food like this.

This dish is one buttery, delicious, edible ode to spring. (Also, the flavor is so sexy, it could bring on some serious birds-and-bees action!)

I opted to make these only as soft tacos, as the filling is a bit too sensuous (a polite word for “messy”) for quesadillas. This is definitely a knife-and-fork dish.

Avocado is one of the most sensuous foods I know. Don’t be afraid of its fat content—it’s the kind of fat that’s good for you. See the menu with Tomato and Green Chili Quesadillas or Soft Tacos (page 173).

Soft scrambled eggs put a smile on my face in the morning. They are super easy to make and they require very little forethought. I first tasted “real” scrambled eggs while traveling through Paris as a starving college student. Café et des oeufs was just about all I could afford for breakfast. It was simple, but it was magic.

I love bacon and shrimp. It’s a classic combination that works really well in this Southwestern-inspired bistro dish.

This variation on the "little swamp" theme features sourdough bread and those ever-appealing Southwest seasonings: fresh chilies, cilantro, cumin, and corn.

Frying avocadoes may seem as strange to you as they did to me until I tasted them at Puntarena in Mexico City. They are a delight, so give them a try!

This veggie-licious burger provides 12 grams of filling fiber, nearly half of your recommended daily intake. Cool beans!

Yes, avocado is high in fat, but it's the good, monounsaturated kind that helps increase satiety so you feel full with fewer calories.

Anything grilled could be described as smoky, but our cover burger is a multi layered masterpiece thanks to chipotle chiles mingled with adobo, smoked paprika, and bacon. Seared avocado makes it almost too good to be true.

In addition to being a great source of good-for-you fat, avocados are full of fiber and bloat-busting potassium.

Arepas define Venezuelan cooking. These thick cornmeal patties are griddled, then baked, and then stuffed while warm with anything from white cheese to this zesty chicken salad with avocado mayonnaise.

I have to admit that making a vegetarian dinner is liberating. When I don’t include meat, I feel entitled to splurge on other riches, in this case avocado and pumpkin seeds. Nonetheless, these veggie-packed tacos are proof that something can be hearty and healthful at the same time.