Holiday Gift Idea: Paradise Grove Avocados PLUS RECIPE!

I absolutely LOVE avocados, and I eat them often. For one, guacamole is one of my all time favorite dishes, and I put it on literally everything...But another reason I love avocados is because they're super healthy and packed with vitamins and healthy fats. They also make wonderful facial masks, but that's a different post entirely!

With the Holidays coming, a lot of people are giving edible gifts like fruit baskets or the dreaded fruit-cake. (Yuck...I swear if I see another fruit cake anytime soon, my stomach will get sick!)

Why not step outside of the norm and send a Holiday Gift Basket from Paradise Grove Avocados? They have some wonderful gift options, and are guaranteed to arrive fresh. I especially like their Holiday Gift Basket. This deliciously edible holiday gift basket contains eight premium avocados, nestled in festive green and red crinkle cut paper. It will bring cheer to all this holiday season.

Why are avocados from Paradise Grove so special? Simple! The way they're grown and harvested, and the love that goes into this process! Here is more info about Paradise Grove, taken from their website:

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About Paradise Grove Avocados:

"Our delicious California Hass Avocados are hand grown and hand picked. Blessed by the Pacific coastal climate, we nurture the finest Avocados for the American palate. Because we are a privately owned grove, we are able to harvest our fruit only when it reaches optimum size and quality.

Contrary to popular belief, all Avocados are harvested green. An Avocado left on the tree until it turns black will fall off the tree while still hard and then ripen on the ground. All harvested Avocados are cut with clippers by hand, leaving a stem nub. Any Avocado you see in the store without a stem has either fallen off the tree or been knocked off by accident. This amazing fruit retains its quality through shipment and shelf ripens to perfection after a short time.

We grow our avocados in Ventura, California, just a few miles from the Pacific Ocean coastline.

Paradise Grove is located in a unique microclimate in the foothills between Santa Barbara and Ventura, California. Paradise Grove is one of the largest independent avocado ranches in California.

Our unique mountain location with a coastal influence allows us to maintain our crop on the trees for extended periods. With care, we are able to harvest Avocados nearly ten months out of the year.

Our water comes partially from wells tapping underground grottos hidden deep in the Sespe sandstone formations of the Santa Ynez Mountains and partially from Lake Casitas, one of the premier Bass fishing lakes in California.

Unlike Chilean and Mexican groves which often harvest when the fruit is still under-mature and watery, we wait until our fruit has fully matured and reached a size of 8 oz. You will rarely find Avocados of that magnitude in your local grocery store. Since the fruit that you purchase from our website ships directly from our trees to you, we are able to guarantee freshness. Don’t be surprised if your fruit is hard when you receive it. It may take up to seven days for it to ripen. Once ripe, we guarantee that our avocados will stay fresh and tasty up to seven days in your refrigerator.

We only grow Hass avocados which are full of anti-oxidants, rich in lutein (protects eyesight), beta-sitosterol (helps lower cholesterol), glutathione (may prevent throat and mouth cancers) and vitamin E (good for the heart). Avocados also have more potassium and magnesium (good for your brain) than bananas and, as for fat, the kind in avocados is healthy, mono-unsaturated fat - the good kind!"

Avocados are great in dishes other than guacamole, too! As a matter of fact, I have a festive, Holiday Salad recipe to share with you. I love the way to creaminess of the avocado compliments the tangy bleu cheese and the sweetness of the fruit. This is so unique, but easy to make. It's sure to wow everyone around your table this year!

Holiday Side Salad Recipe:

Ingredients:

• 1 package mixed salad greens with spinach
  
• 3/4 cup sweetened dried cranberries
  
• 3/4 cup glazed walnuts
  
• 1 can mandarin oranges, drained 

• 3/4 cup crumbled bleu cheese (Can use feta as well!)
  
• 1 Paradise Grove avocado - peeled, pitted and diced
  
• 4 tablespoons cranberry vinaigrette salad dressing, or to taste
  

Directions:

Place the salad greens into a salad bowl, and sprinkle with dried cranberries, walnuts, mandarin orange sections, blue cheese, and avocado chunks. Drizzle the salad with the dressing, toss, and serve.

So when you're pondering last minute gift ideas, be sure to to check out Paradise Grove Avocados. They're absolutely delicious, HUGE in size, and make grocery store avocados just look silly.

HOW TO CONNECT :

You can purchase Paradise Grove Avocados on their website.

You can also follow them on Facebook and on twitter for some wonderful recipes and all of their newest promotions!


***Disclosure: I received complimentary samples to facilitate my post. No other compensation was provided, and all opinions are 155