Avocado Lime Sour Cream Sauce

If you follow me on any social media at all* you probably know by now that I write for an online magazine called The Grit and Grace Project. It’s an amazing thing to be a part of, with a mission to redefine strength as “grit and grace” for women everywhere. Something that I can definitely get behind, as these are two things I work to master every single day of my life. 

I’m not even sure how I found them or what confluence of grace brought us together giving me the blessing of sharing my work with them. But somehow, I stumbled upon this new-ish online mag and fell in love with their message and their team and their mission. And to be a part of it is sort of a dream, especially because it is new and I have complete faith it’s going to grow wildly and do big things. And I get to have a front row seat to it all, which is very cool. 

Right now GnG is running a Strong Mom challenge on their social media (follow here and here) highlighting the strong moms out there and giving away prizes for those that nominate them in a post. (It’s pretty cool and there’s still time to enter–it ends 5/20/18) To promote this they wanted the writers to help by sharing our “mommy-hood” with our readers, starting with a picture of us with our children. Which seems like such a simple ask, right?

Yeah, I thought so too until I started searching.

8,000 food photos: check

2,000 random solo kid shots: check

1,000 videos of school performances/baseball games/gymnastics moves: check

500 pictures of my dog: check

100 random saved memes: check

Pictures of me with my children: ZERO

Friends, I’ve got nothing. 

Of all the approximately 1 million pictures I have on my computer, SD card and phone, there isn’t a single recent shot of me with my children. Not one.

This is so sad for so many reasons, one of them being the fact that I don’t believe it’s unique to me. After extensive research** and a very unofficial poll of family and friends I have discovered that this is, in fact, a mom epidemic. Always relegated behind the lens, the family documentarians, we are the ones noticing the moments that are worthy of documenting. We are the ones taking the shots. We are the ones trying to record our history somewhere other than our own leaky memories. 

This is not to say that our husbands don’t also suffer this same fate, for sure mine takes his fair share of the shots as well. And, no, he’s not in them either. Somehow as parents we have both managed to document almost an entire decade of childhood without including ourselves in it at all. 

No shots of tender goodnight moments or bedtime stories and snuggles. No close-ups of boo-boo kisses, impromptu hugs and silly dance parties. No mother daughter shots as we bake in the kitchen together. No father-son games of catch caught on film. No trampoline jump party action stills or Jenga tournament outtakes. 

These are the small moments that seem insignificant, but they’re also the ones I know I’ll want to see in print when I’m 80 and straining to remember this life. These are the moments that make up our lives, and while they happen in the blink of an eye, they are every bit as worthy of a capture as that one time little Timmy managed to get on base in T-ball or the morning we wrestled our children into fancy (read: unstained) clothes and bribed them with candy and hours of unlimited ipad time so they would smile for the photographer in the annual family photo shoot. 

I want and crave these memories and I regret that I didn’t put them to ink. And when I went searching for just one simple pic of me and my kids and came up empty, it broke my momma heart just a little. 

So from here on out, I have made a vow to change this. Yes, I may have missed toddler kisses and baby hugs, but I won’t miss childhood moments together. Life is fleeting, and as anyone who has raised and released their children into adulthood will tell you, these years are so short. I don’t want to miss them behind the lens, but I don’t want to miss being in front of it either. 

Friends, take those pictures. Get IN those pictures. Husbands, if you see your wife in a particularly tender or particularly silly moment with your kids, take that shot. Wives, when your husband is giving your son a heartfelt post-game pep talk or tucking your daughter into bed, take that shot. Friends, if you see one of your friends in a moment, just a small one, that needs to be a memory, make it one for them.

This is not for our carefully curated social media feed, either. This is for our lives. For our memories. For our children. And that is worth so much more. 

And for those in my life, this is one of my summer goals. Dear Mr. Burnt Toast, I plan on capturing as many of the small moments of your incredible parenting as I can. Friends, I vow to take the pictures of you and your children doing the small things–playing at the pool, picnicking together, laughing at a joke no one else knows. I want you to have those moments too.

Because our lives our beautiful in the little things and I want to always remember that.

Thank you, too, to Mr. BurntToast for honoring my one Mothers Day wish of getting a shot, one that’s not a selfie, of me and my kiddos. It’s one I will cherish forever. And not even because all three were smiling and looking at the camera. More because I didn’t even have to bribe them to do so. 

And what better recipe to share on a day that I’m talking about pictures than the one that has, hands down, given me the most trouble in that area. I have taken roughly 200 pictures of this Avocado Cream Sauce alone, always searching for that one elusive perfectly lighted shot. Finally, I got what I was looking for this morning. Tricky little devil, that sun.

This sauce, though, no matter how hard it is to photograph, is delicious. I first created it as an afterthought to a recipe I was trying to perfect, Sweet Potato and Black Bean Tacos. I’m still working on that one, but this sauce, man, it stole the show. Since that day I have made sure to always have a jar of it in the fridge. It goes perfectly with any kind of taco, I just had it on pork tacos just this week. It also goes well with eggs, chicken, shrimp and even can be used as a dip. It’s just one of those versatile little gems that you should always have in your back pocket. And get this, it’s pretty healthy too.

So make it today. Share it with your friends and family. And take those pictures. Share them with me on Facebook, I want to see my beautiful readers in their beautiful, imperfect lives. Because I really do love and appreciate you all.

Peace, love, and memories,

Meg

*If you don’t follow me on any social media you are basically dead to me. Just kidding. But you really should. Because I like to share good stuff and fun stuffy and speak life into those around me. Oh, and I also love a good food shot. (Surprise, surprise). Follow me on Instagram and Facebook. And if you can, share your candid mom shots with me there. I’d love to see them!

**Extensive research=two days of thinking about it. 

Avocado Lime Sour Cream Sauce

November 4, 2019

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By: Meaghan Dawson

Ingredients

• 2 ripe avocados, pitted
• 1/4 cup packed cilantro
• Juice of 1 1/2 limes
• 1/2 jalapeno, seeds removed (more if you like a little heat)
• Olive Oil
• Salt and Pepper

Directions

• Step 1 Combine avocados, cilantro, lime juice and jalapeno in the bowl of a blender or food processor.
• Step 2 Drizzle with Olive Oil and season with salt and pepper.
• Step 3 Blend until smooth, adding in more olive oil if it seems too thick.
• Step 4 Taste, season with more salt and pepper if necessary.
• Step 5 ENJOY!

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