Every week in The Hipster’s Cookbook, Meghan Bongartz shows you how to make delicious food for not a lot of money.

Avocados are kind of a staple in my apartment. It’s not unusual for me or my roommate to come home from the grocery store with ten or so of them in varying stages of ripeness, with the assumption that we’ll just eat guacamole a lot over the next week. Occasionally, though, both of us buy avocados on the same day, and then we really have a lot of them. It’s the good kind of problem. I don’t think you even have to get very creative to get rid of avocados–but then, I’m perfectly happy eating them sliced with salt and pepper. I also stand by my belief that an avocado is an acceptable meal. They contain tons of fiber, vitamin K, potassium and good fatty acids, and they’re filling enough that you don’t feel like you need to eat something else afterwards. Also, I’m just incredibly lazy after work some days. And storing avocados is a pain. No matter how much people say that you can preserve them longer by sprinkling lemon juice on or leaving the pit in, the truth is that the other half of the avocado is just not as delicious on day three.

In a recent effort to use several avocados before they went bad without having to go buy more tortilla chips for guacamole, this salad was born. I had it for dinner three days in a row without getting bored (and I hate eating the same thing more than once consecutively unless it’s, you know, a bowl of ice cream), so there’s your endorsement for how delicious it is. I’m a little over winter foods at this point even though we still have snow on the ground, so salads are at least helping to trick my taste buds into thinking that it’s spring. One of the more interesting health benefits of avocados is that they help your body to absorb carotenoids and other nutrients so that you get more out of whatever you’re eating when you add avocado to it. This makes a salad the perfect home for avocados because you’re getting lycopene from the tomato and calcium and vitamin C from the lettuce. Try to find the freshest ingredients possible (this will become easier as we get further into March and start seeing local greens) for maximum winter-blues-fighting.

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Guacamole Salad

4 large romaine lettuce leaves, torn into small pieces

1/3 cup tomato, chopped

¼ cup sweet onion, chopped

1 ripe avocado, peeled, pitted, and chopped

2 tbs cilantro, chopped

2 cloves of garlic, crushed

Salt and pepper to taste (preferably freshly ground)

Juice of ½ of a lime

Tortilla chips to garnish

1) In a medium bowl, toss lettuce, tomato, and onion. Top with avocado, cilantro, garlic, salt and pepper.

2) Squeeze lime juice over all and toss again to evenly coat, allowing some of the avocado to be crushed so that it combines with the lime juice.

3) Crush tortilla chips over the top to garnish.