Quick and Easy Guacamole Fix Without Grains

I love Mexican food, including Tex-Mex and I have to say it was quite an adjustment when I stopped eating grains in January.  I live in Texas, I'm married to a Mexican, and I even speak Spanish.  So when I say I love Mexican food, I mean I LOVE Mexican food, authentic, Tex-Mex and everything in between!  Before that, practically the only grains I was eating was organic corn tortilla chips to get my Mexican fix.  I think that was the hardest thing about giving grains up was the tortilla chips.  Sometimes, you have to weigh what you've got with what you want and I finally got to a point where those chips were the only thing holding me back and what I've found is that if something has that big of a hold on you, it's probably not that great for you.  So, I let it go and I am so glad I did.  In the beginning it was hard, but now I don't even enjoy the taste of tortilla chips.  Once or twice, I've tried a chip just to see and there was no pleasure in it, no flavor, just blah...empty calories. There’s almost always meat involved when it comes to Mexican food, at least for our family, so to make a taco I’d just use a piece of lettuce to wrap it in.  I talked about that in a previous blog.  I’ve seen some recipes for paleo/primal tortillas and I’m sure they’re really good but I just don’t have the time for that, so I keep it simple and just use lettuce.   However, for the chips there’s really no alternative.  I tried kale chips and although they’re great, they don’t hold up for guacamole, at least mine didn’t.  L So, what I’ve found that’s very satisfying is to eat my avocado and pico de gallo with cucumber.  You get the crunch like you would with a chip and it’s very refreshing.  Now for someone who’s not eating clean, they may not like the idea, but for those of us who are sticking to the primal/paleo way of life, it’s great. I kept my avocado separate from the pico de gallo because I like to douse it in lime juice.  You could definitely put them together to make guacamole, but I like to have the tomato, onion and cilantro sit in the lime juice.  I also put lime juice on my cucumbers too.  I learned this from my husband’s grandma when we lived in Mexico with her years ago.  Add a little sea salt to everything and dig in! Pico de Gallo ingredients: diced tomatoes diced onion chopped cilantro lime Serrano or jalapeno peppers (if you like, I actually prefer it without)