Healthy Avocado Grilled Cheese

Grilled cheese is a favorite comfort food as well as a quick and easy meal to make when you don't feel like cooking.  The traditional grilled cheese sandwich is high in calories and fat, and low in fiber, since calls for bread, butter and processed cheese.  Because of this, if you go for the grilled cheese when you're hungry and trying to make a quick meal, it's not going to fill you up and may cause you to want to eat more! However, with a few tweaks, a grilled cheese can be made healthy, filling, and just as delicious.  Adding avocado to a grilled cheese is a great way to incorporate heart-healthy monounsaturated fats, and it also contains fiber and other good nutrients.  In addition, I used coconut oil instead of butter. Coconut oil is a saturated fat-- however, it's mainly made up of medium chain fatty acids which are converted into energy rather than getting stored as fat, unlike butter, and it also does not impact cholesterol. Coconut oil has many other benefits that I won't get into, but I highly recommend cooking with it regularly!

Ingredients:
2 slices of bread (I used a paleo coconut flour bread; I recommend using Ezekiel bread or an 100% whole grain bread)
3-4 tbsp low fat cheese of choice (I used low fat mozzarella. Low fat swiss and goat cheese are also good choices)
1/2 avocado sliced
1/2 - 1 tsp melted coconut oil
Non-stick cooking spray
*Feel free to add any other vegetables such as tomato, red peppers, etc.

Directions: Coat a pan with non-stick cooking spray and put on medium heat, or heat up a counter top grill. Spread the melted coconut oil on the 2 slices of bread. The bread I used was smaller so I only needed 1/4 tsp on each slice, but you may need to do 1/2 tsp on each. Form the sandwich so the first slice is coconut oil side down, then layer on the cheese, followed by the avocado, and then place the other slice of bread on top with coconut oil side up.  Place on the pan or grill.  If using a pan, flip when toasted and a golden brown color.  Make sure the cheese is melted.  Enjoy!