10 baby-friendly avocado recipesAvocados have always been an integral part of my diet - mainly because I'm Chilean and well… it's true, we Latin Americans LOVE our avocados! When my son began eating solids, I was one excited mama. I still remember seeing his face when he first tasted pureed apples - it was priceless. I was very happy to see how well he responded to the foods I was giving him because it propelled me to come up with more combinations and recipes. Naturally, avocado was on my list of foods to give him, and as the months went by, I would mix it with his other foods. Not only is it tasty and easy for babies and toddlers to eat, but as Avocado Central states, they are packed with nearly 20 essential vitamins and nutrients such as fiber, potassium, Vitamin E, B-vitamins and folic acid.

Here are 10 different ways you can prepare and introduce avocado to your baby or toddler - be warned, they WILL most likely love it and so will you!

1. Avocado on Toast - A personal favorite! (as shown in picture above)
One

I LOVE dessert. I have a sweet tooth to beat the band. The only thing is that I am trying to loose the baby weight and I need to keep my dessert intake in check. That means I try and concentrate on skinny desserts, or things that satisfy my sweet tooth without filling me up with a billion unnecessary calories. This is not always easy, as you might imagine, but I manage. Here are a few of my favorite sweet and skinny spring desserts! - Kelsey Banfield

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Cooking with watermelon is always a pleasure in the summer months. Watermelon is naturally sweet and refreshing due to the high water content of the fruit. So many great treats can be made from its sweet juices. Usually these treats start from watermelon that has been pureed and strained so the juice is collected. Once you have a pitcher of sweet juice on your hand you can make almost anything. Here are some of our favorite refreshing watermelon treats that are perfect for kids and adults alike! - Kelsey Banfield

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This recipe calls for fresh corn, but you could also use frozen kernels; thaw and drain to add to salad.

Related: Easy, Everyday Meatless Recipes

Chili-Lime Pork with Corn Salad

5 ears corn (4 cups kernels)
1 small jalapeno, seeded if desired, minced
1 scallion, thinly sliced
1/2 cup fresh cilantro
1 avocado, sliced
4 tablespoons olive oil, divided, plus more for grill
2 limes
Coarse salt and pepper
1 teaspoon chili powder
2 pork tenderloins (1 pound each), each cut into six 1-inch-thick medallions

Related: 10 Healthy and Delicious Smoothie Recipes to Try

1. Boil corn 5 minutes in a pot of salted water. Drain and rinse under cold water to cool. With a sharp knife, cut kernels from cobs. Transfer to a bowl and toss with jalapeno, scallion, cilantro, avocado, 2 tablespoons oil, and juice of 1 lime. Season with salt.

2. Combine chili powder, 2 teaspoons salt, 1/2 teaspoon pepper, and remaining 2 tablespoons oil.

The perfect combination of chicken and veggiesThis is one-pot cooking at it's finest! Simple enough for an everyday meal but so delicious and impressive it's even perfect for entertaining. Slow braising makes these chicken thighs fall-apart tender while the vegetables soak up all of that beautiful chicken and herb flavor! Easy prep and an hour in the oven makes this a simple dinner or create it in a slow-cooker for an even easier option.

Ingredients:
8 chicken thighs, skin on
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 teaspoon canola oil
6 small new potatoes, halved
1 cup baby carrots
1 onion, sliced in half rings
1/2 cup pitted olives
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves
1 tablespoon fresh oregano, chopped
1 cup chicken broth

Related: 26 of our favorite light-and-easy chicken dishes

Helpful Tip:
This can be made in a slow-cooker. Simply place potatoes, onions, carrots, and garlic in the base of a large crock pot. Sear seasoned chicken thighs according to the directions. Place the chicken

Learn how to DIY baconWhat's not to love about bacon? The super crisp texture and rich smoky flavor of bacon is tough to beat. Whether it's on the side of your morning breakfast, on a BLT sandwich, or even in desserts like maple bacon cookies, everything is better with bacon. But, if you're like me and love to be adventurous in the kitchen, how about making your own bacon, from scratch? With "The Original Bacon Kit," a piece of pork belly and a little bit of time, you can make fantastic bacon right at home!

"The Original Bacon Kit" ($16.99) comes with almost everything you need to make bacon: curing salt, maple sugar, a large plastic bag for curing, and a thermometer. Bacon is made from pork belly, which is not included in the kit. Luckily, you can find pork belly at most butcher shops or specialty supermarkets like Whole Foods.

Related: Quick Bacon Recipes

According to the instructions, you begin the process by placing a five pound piece of pork belly into the bag with the curing salt and maple sugar.

Esquire

By Eric Vilas-Boas

Don't get us wrong: The evidence that America as a whole is moving into some bold new direction of healthy eating is tenuous at best. The fact that Burger King and McDonald's tiffs are national news is still a sign we have a long way to go. But there is some wisdom, a few shining lights of gastronomic intelligence that our nation as a whole can't hurt to reference. Heck, we just learned that eating salt is kind-of OK, after all. You don't have to deny yourself life's purest pleasures. As nutrition consultant and author Karen Ansel puts it: "It's really what you're doing the majority of the time." So keep these notes in mind when sitting down for your next meal:

1. We want our products local, "fresh," and "healthy," according to Food Technology magazine. Eighty percent of consumers specifically look for the word "fresh" in stores and 58 percent do so in restaurants. Seventy-eight percent of people are also making a strong effort to get more vitamins out of

Find out which cupcakery is home to the number one cupcake in AmericaIt's a fact: America loves cupcakes.

These cute little confections first stole our hearts on a national level in the early 2000s thanks to a famous reference from Sex and the City. Soon, bakeries dedicated just to cupcakes - or cupcakeries, as they prefer to be called - popped up around the country, and people saw potential for greatness. Later on, when the cupcake craze exploded into a full-blown industry, there was talk of a "cupcake bubble" and everyone speculated as to when it would pop.

The Top 50 Cupcakes in America

Clearly, they were wrong. Today, cupcakes have grown into much more than bake sale fodder. From gowns literally made of cupcake tiers to $55,000 red velvet cupcakes used to pop the question, cupcakes have become a food trend that just won't die.

America's Weirdest Cupcakes

In fact, they're kind of everywhere.

To help you tell the good from the bad (and the ugly), The Daily Meal has come up with a list of the 50 best cupcake shops in America - and the must-try