Posts Tagged by health
Mexican Cornbread Casserole
| March 1, 2016 |
Ok, so I realize this is my second Mexican dish in a row but what can I say? I’m Mexican. And I’ve always preached you can’t be on a diet eating food you don’t like. So made something I LOVE. I’ve had it planned in my meal prep for 3 weeks straight. I’m hooked! If a tamale and an enchilada had a baby, this is it.
Mexican Cornbread Casserole
Macros per serving: 12g Fat, 36g Carbs, 26g Protein (Serves 7)*
- 1 (8.5 oz) box of corn muffin mix
- 1 can of cream style corn
- 4 oz can of diced green chilies
- 1/3 cup fat free milk
- 4 tbsp liquid egg whites
- 1 tbsp taco seasoning
- 1 1/3 pounds (21 oz) of skinless boneless chicken breast – cooked and diced or shredded
- 10 oz can of red enchilada sauce
- 1 sweet onion
- 1 cup of shredded cheese
- sliced black olives
*Macros were calculated off Jiffy corn muffin mix, Del Monte corn, La Preferida green chilies, Fairlife milk (my favorite!), All Whites 100% egg whites, Las Palmas enchilada sauce, 220g onion, Kraft Mexican Four Cheese blend, and 32 grams of Pearls sliced black olives.
Directions
Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.
Combine the first 6 ingredients in a bowl (muffin mix, corn, green chilies, milk, egg whites, and taco seasoning). Mix until well combined. Pour into a glass casserole dish coated with cooking spray and bake for about 35 minutes. ~ This time will vary based on your casserole dish size, glass depth, oven, etc.
While that’s baking, slice (or dice) your onion and sauté or grill to your liking. If you grill in slices it will be like veggie fajitas. If you dice and sauté, it will act more as flavoring. Once cooked, mix the onion, chicken and red enchilada sauce in a bowl until everything is evenly coated and set aside.
Now your corn bread base may be ready to pull out of the oven. You’ll know it’s ready when the edges are golden. Use a fork and poke into the center of the corn bread base to allow for little pockets of space for the enchilada sauce to seep into.
Note: The mixture is raw if it is runny. If its solid enough that it sticks to the fork, its ready. It should be somewhat sticky and thick.
Pour the chicken mixture evenly over the top of the corn bread base. Top with cheese and olives. Place it back in the oven for another 10 minutes.
Slice and serve.
Meal Prepping tip! Since 7 servings is hard to cut a dish into, I slice it into 8 pieces. Then I weigh 7 slices and add bits and pieces from the last slice into my tupperwares until all 7 tupperwares weigh no more than 0.1 oz from each other so each serving is nearly identical.
- 1 (8.5 oz) box of corn muffin mix
- 1 can of cream style corn
- 4 oz can of diced green chilies
- 1/3 cup fat free milk
- 4 tbsp liquid egg whites
- 1 tbsp taco seasoning
- 1 1/3 pounds (21 oz) of skinless boneless chicken breast - cooked and diced or shredded
- 10 oz can of red enchilada sauce
- 1 sweet onion
- 1 cup of shredded cheese
- sliced black olives
- Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.
- Combine the first 6 ingredients in a bowl and mix well. Pour into a casserole dish coated with cooking spray and bake for about 35 minutes.
- Slice (or dice) your onion and sauté or grill to your liking. Mix the onion, chicken and red enchilada sauce in a bowl until everything is evenly coated and set aside.
- When you're corn bread base is done, using a fork, poke holes into the corn bread base to allow for little pockets of space for the enchilada sauce to seep into.
- Pour the chicken mixture evenly over the top of the corn bread base. Top with cheese and olives. Place it back in the oven for another 10 minutes.
- Macros were calculated using Jiffy corn muffin mix, Del Monte corn, La Preferida green chilies, Fairlife milk (my favorite!), All Whites 100% egg whites, Las Palmas enchilada sauce, 220g onion, Kraft Mexican Four Cheese blend, and 32 grams of Pearls sliced black olives.
Organic Farm Tour & Blueberry Banana Smoothie Recipe
| May 10, 2014 |
I was SO excited when Fairfield Farms invited me to take a tour of their organic blueberry farm. I’ve never been on a commercial farm before and honestly, I didn’t really know what to expect.
Fairfield Farms is in Pauma Valley, San Diego County CA. I drove with Tanaya from Tanaya’s Table, and driving there seriously felt like we were lost. We got off the freeway and it looked like there was nothing there. But as we kept driving, there were fruit stands and little mom & pop cafes … then we found the farm.
It was absolutely beautiful! We got to the gate and I was just in awe. Maybe other farms have beautiful gates, but I’d never seen anything like this other than movies. So for me, it was a little surreal.
What was even more exciting was Fairfield Farms has previously never been open to the public. We were invited the week before they officially open the gates to the public to launch their U-Pick weekend events. (More info on how you can visit to pick your own organic blueberries after the recipe.)
Meet Harrison (in the middle), our tour guide and blueberry expert for the day. He is also one of the family members that owns the farm. Yes – Fairfield Farms is not only organic, but also family owned! (I made him take a selfie, haha. #shameless)
It was really interesting learning about organic farming and what it’s like to work on a family farm with your parents and siblings. I asked if he ate a lot of blueberries and he said there are literally more blueberries than can ever be eaten. I guess that makes sense when they’re producing just over a million pounds of blueberries a season.
The packaging factory was definitely not what I expected. I guess when I think of any food that has a label, I think big, sterile, overwhelming warehouse, but this was nothing like that. Sure they label their berries and you can find them at major grocers on the west coast like Whole Foods and Sprouts, but it was very family friendly and Harrison knew everyone by name.
In the packaging warehouse, first the berries are measured by weight. They’re tracked by who picked them and where they were picked. And when they go through the sorting machine (which makes sure all the berries that get packaged are ripe and beautifully blue). At the end of this machine, they are packaged and the Fairfield Farms label finishes it off like a bow and stored in the biggest fridge I’ve ever been in.
Picking the berries was a lot of fun! I will definitely be going back with my mom and sister and making a day out of it. The views are spectacular and you can’t beat fresh blueberries right off the bush. They were so juicy and sweet! And the neat thing I learned was that the blueberries you buy in the store are actually a variety of blueberry types. This is why sometimes some look larger than others. It was so much fun tasting the different varieties as we picked. You can tell the different varieties by the bush. Some bushes leaves were greener while others had a yellow hue or rougher leaf. The difference in taste was very slight. I mostly noticed that ones on the first two rows (my favorite rows) were big and luscious and much sweeter than the other berries down the row. But of course, taste also has to do with when you pick them and those first two rows Harrison said he made sure no one touched so when Tanaya and I arrived, they’d be full of juicy fruit.
Want the insider secret to keeping your berries fresh?
I asked Harrison for the insider tip… He said the most common mistake people make is washing the berries and then putting them back in the fridge so they are ready to eat. But blueberries are very prone to mold when introduced to moisture. Only wash the berries you plan to eat or cook immediately. If you wash more than you need by accident, make sure they are completely dry before putting them back in the fridge. They can literally grow mold within hours of being exposed to moisture if you put them back in the fridge wet!
Blueberry Banana Smoothie
Macros: 1.5g Fat, 72.5g Carbs, 4g Protein
- 1/2 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk
- 2-3 ice cubes
- 2 frozen bananas
- 1 large handful of fresh blueberries (or 3/4 cup)
Directions
Add all the ingredients into a blender and blend on high until all the ingredients are well pureed. If you have a lower speed blender, you might not be able to fully liquify the blueberry skins but that’s ok. It will just look a little different but the taste will be the same.
Thanks you Fairfield Farms for inviting me to tour the farms and pick some berries to take home. If you want to visit the farm in Pauma Valley to pick organic blueberries, join them Thursday thru Sunday from 8am-6pm. The season ends June 1 so get out there before all the blueberries are gone!
Fairfield Farms
14224 Old Cole Grade Rd
Pauma Valley, CA 92061
Blueberries are $5 a pint and they accept cash and all major credit cards.
Follow Fairfield Farms:
Facebook: www.facebook.com/fairfieldfruit
Twitter: @fairfieldfruit
Skinny Mac & Cheese
| March 6, 2014 |
Mac & cheese is definitely one of my favorite guilty comfort foods. It’s a funny story though, because generally a lot of comfort foods come from when you grew up with, but when I was little I LOVED the blue box mac & cheese and wasn’t the biggest fan of the home-made stuff.
When I was a kid, my Grandma would pick my sister and I up from school every Friday and we’d all have dinner together. When it first became a weekly thing, she asked my mom what my sister and I liked to eat. My mom said macaroni. My Grandma, being the AMAZING cook she is, made it from scratch. And of course, me being the child I was, I said it wasn’t the same as having the blue box mac and I liked “my mom’s” better. Although we all know “my mom’s” was really my way of saying I liked the boxed kind. To this day, I still feel a little ashamed because the next time my grandma made mac & cheese for us, she made it out of the box. Sure I loved it at the time, but looking back on it … I was young and ignorant … what can you do?
I can confidently say that my palate has gotten a lot better (and I no longer prefer boxed foods, haha). But either mac & cheese recipe, blue box or from scratch, can put a damper on the diet.
Mac & cheese is full of fat and carbs. But I wanted to make a skinny version that didn’t just replace everything with fat-free labels. Can anyone honestly say that fat-free cheese is better than the real thing? No.
I wanted to keep the essence of mac & cheese intact by not touching those two ingredients. I used full fat cheeses and normal pasta (because I’m also not a fan of wheat pasta) but just replaced the heavy cream and butter with cauliflower. With the added fiber, it’s definitely more filling than the heavy buttered up mac. Not to say this is an every day “healthy” meal, but it’s certainly better than the traditional recipe, twice-baked with bread crumbs on top.
The serving size is for a full bowl of mac, so if you want to indulge without using this as a cheat meal, eat it as a side dish with some chicken and spinach. Who says macaroni has to be a main dish?
Side note: This recipe passed the boyfriend test. I gave it to him and didn’t tell him it was cauliflower. About half way through, I asked him what his opinion was and told him it was cauliflower. He didn’t taste it until I told him. #winning 🙂
Skinny Mac & Cheese
Makes 4 Servings ~ Macros per serving: 28g Fat, 68g Carbs, 34g Protein
- 3 cups uncooked pasta of choice
- 1 small/medium head of cauliflower
- 2 whole garlic cloves
- 1 cup chicken stock
- 2 cups grated extra sharp cheddar cheese
- ½ cup grated parmesan cheese
- salt and pepper to tast
Directions
Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Pour in your favorite pasta and cook until al dente according to package directions. Personally, I like to go for the fun kind like fusille (spiral) or farfalle (bow-tie, although it technically means butterfly in Italian). Radiatore pasta is what can be seen in the photos.
While the pasta is cooking, cut cauliflower into florets. Place cauliflower, garlic cloves, and chicken stock into a covered pot and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium and let steam build in the pot. Cook until cauliflower is tender (about 5 minutes depending on the size of florets).
Drain pasta and set aside.
Pour cauliflower, garlic cloves, and chicken stock into a high-speed blender or food processor. Puree until smooth. Pour back into the pot used to cook the cauliflower. At medium heat, slowly stir in the cheese until melted smooth to create a sauce. Add salt and pepper to taste.
Gently stir sauce and pasta together. Depending on your pasta and how well it absorbs the sauce, you might have extra cheese sauce. Add it in slowly and put any extra sauce in a tupperware. (You can use it as a sauce for veggies, chicken, etc.) Serve immediately.
I topped mine with a little cayenne (optional!) for an extra kick, but feel free to add your favorite topping. Some tasty ideas: bacon, green onions, jalapeño, diced ham (probably not all these ingredients at the same time)
Play around with different cheese options. They all have different nutritional value to them so have fun experimenting. For instance, the parmesan was lower in fat and higher in protein than the cheddar. I added it to balance out the fat content so there would be more protein than fat per serving.
Last Minute Valentine’s Day Gift Ideas for the Fitness Lover
| February 13, 2014 |
Happy Valentine’s Day!!! Have you gotten your loved one a gift yet?
It’s pretty standard to buy a girl flowers and chocolates. For me, of course I like the flowers, but when I get chocolates I say, “thanks, yum” but I’m really thinking, “I won’t be able to eat these.”
For all those guys out there, do a girl a favor. Don’t give them something they can’t eat. I complied a list of great ideas for those last-minuters. So instead of turning to the nearest 7-11 to pick the shelves clean of the left over reject chocolate boxes (because by now the good ones are gone), head to the sporting goods store. I promise they won’t be sold out.
- I’m nuts about you – While a box of chocolates is traditional, a package of nuts is far more enjoyable for a health nut. Even chocolate covered almonds is more likely to get eaten than traditional chocolates. I’d eat nuts. If they were covered in chocolate, I’d just pace myself. Just don’t confuse a chocolate truffle with a whole almond with a chocolate covered almond. Still two completely different things.
- You got me all shook up – Can you really have too many Blender Bottles? I only have one, so maybe someone that has 5+ might tell you something different. But I keep loosing mine or forgetting it at the office. To me, I could definitely use a few extra bottles. Might as well get some in a few colors and sizes too 🙂
- I like how you roll – Having a good foam roller is good for any fitness junkie. Foam rolling is a sweet treat for your muscles. There are a TON of foam rollers and other similar products, everything ranging from $5 to $50. It does make a difference to have a good foam roller. Sure my black PVC pipe does the job, but having the actual thing would be a nice gift. I’ve borrowed the RumbleRoller from my trainer and I can tell you for a matter of fact – it works better than my PVC pipe.
- Your pace or mine? – What girl doesn’t love a new pair of shoes? And when they’re a dedicated gym goer or regular runner, getting new fitness shoes is a treat. If your Valentine is a runner, steal one of his/her running shoes and take it to the store with you. Tell the staff that you are looking for a shoe that has a similar amount of cushion, stability and motion control. If they are not as experienced in shoe fitting for runners, you can pick a shoe out and just keep the receipt. Pictured are the new Reebok ZQuick. Aren’t they cute?
- You get my blood flowing – Compression socks help improve blood flow, resulting in better, more consistent performance with less fatigue and faster, more efficient recovery. Not to mention you can get some really cute colors and designs. I picked up a pair of Pro Compression Marathon Socks from an Active.com deal and have been in love since. I’m looking forward to adding more colors and designs to my sock drawer. Compression socks are the way to go … especially for long distance runners.
- You’re whey out of my league – Whey … It’s pretty much a standard. Just like anything in the cupboard, it eventually runs out. I’m nearly out of my vanilla whey. But it could be cute to get chocolate and do a play-on-words with that … “whey better than a box of chocolates.” I had trouble with my last whey powder clumping when I used my blender bottle so I’m on the prowl for a new brand. My trainer Emily recommended I get Gnarly, so that’s why this one is on my list. Hoping to try this one next.
***All opinions are my own. I was not compensated by any mentioned brands.
Strawberry Cake Batter Protein Shake
| February 11, 2014 |
Lately I have been craving cake batter. Maybe it’s my lack of baking cupcakes … I usually bake cupcakes at least once a month so I guess I’m used to spoon-licking and have been missing it. I actually impulsively bought a cake batter protein powder.
But I’m impatient. So this morning I made my own cake batter shake.
I actually got my package in the mail later today and tried the protein powder I purchased for dessert and I like my Strawberry Cake Batter Protein Shake recipe better.
Strawberry Cupcake Batter Protein Shake
Macros: 4g Fat, 6g Carbs, 26g Protein
- 1 cup ice (or about 8 ice cubes)
- 1 1/2 cup unsweetened almond milk
- 6 medium-sized strawberries
- 1/4 tsp butter extract
- 2 tsp stevia
- 1 scoop vanilla protein powder
- Optional: whipped cream & sprinkles
Directions
Blend all the ingredients together. Pour into your favorite jar, mug, cup, or tumbler. This recipe should fill a venti size cup. If you don’t want to add the protein powder, add 1 tsp vanilla extract.
Optional: Top it off with whipped cream and sprinkles.
Note: Macros were calculated with a 25g protein scoop and without whipped cream and sprinkles.
New Year, New Goals (and why have I been MIA?)
| January 2, 2014 |
I know I have been a little MIA the past few months… let me explain. The past few months I have been on a roller coaster. One minute I am super motivated and eating right and the next I am picking up old habits and saying things like “tomorrow I will go to the gym” and “tomorrow I will be more strict on my diet” … but waiting until tomorrow is the oldest cliche in the book.
Yes, every day is a new day and new opportunity to start fresh and make good decisions, but every time you take another bite is a decision. You don’t have to wait until the next day to make a change. Why not start (or re-start) with the next fork full of noms?
I know very very well how temping the gooey artichoke dip can be or happy hour at the local sushi place. Trust me, I will admit that in the past 3 months I have gained 10 pounds. I felt like I couldn’t preach to the blogging world about my weight loss journey when all I was doing was gaining – sitting on my couch while eating Thai take-out. That’s not a positive journey at all – a journey to the dark side. I was feeling so guilty about my new habits but didn’t have the motivation to do anything about it. Even my trainer started to get more on my back about what I ate and my lack of exercise because it was noticeable.
So what happened? I had the right mindset and I was on top of my game…. life happens. No one said it was easy. If it were easy, there wouldn’t be so many people out there struggling with the same things I am. You have to make time for your goals because no one is there to micromanage your every decision.
I was talking to a friend of mine on new years eve who recently lost 50 pounds. There are no miracle diets or workouts any one person can do that works for everyone across the board, but the true secret to her success was and is her mindset. I know it sounds cliche but even I have said that in the past (when I was on my weight loss streak). She told me that every day she took some “me” time to keep her on track, just thinking about the future.
This leads me to my new year’s resolution:
I will wake up every morning and stretch. Side Tangent: I am not a fan of yoga. I’m going old school with traditional stretching because if your muscles are tight, you have a far higher risk of injury when working out. While stretching, I wont think about my scary long to-do list. This time is for reminding myself who I want to be. Where do I see myself next year and how do I get there? I am the only one holding me back from my goals. This year will be a year of change.
Also, from now on I am counting macros (macronutrients). So all my new recipes will have the fat, protein, carbs and fiber listed (throwing in fiber for good measure). My trainer Emily Mraule thought it might be easier for me and my creative cooking to calculate my macros rather than just tell me what to eat. So I am keeping a food journal to keep me on track. Too bad I didn’t get that food scale I wanted from Santa this year, haha.
Did you make a plan-for-sucess to keep you on track for your new year’s resolution?
Healthy Halloween Treats: Pumpkin Spice Latte Frapp
| October 7, 2013 |
When Starbucks re-releases their seasonal Pumpkin Spice Latte, who isn’t excited? At least for a foodie, it’s one of those things you look forward to every year. When you walk into the coffee shop and you see the writing on the chalkboard welcoming the Pumpkin Spice Latte back onto the menu, feeling excited, you know it’s going to be a good day.
… ok, you can see why I might struggle with my weight. Haha. Starbucks is a very bad habit of mine.
I made a skinny, healthier Pumpkin Spice Latte Frapp (because it was pushing 90 degrees in SoCal this weekend) that you can actually enjoy year-round if you wanted. Struggling with the temptation to take full advantage of Starbucks’ seasonal menu, life is a lot easier when you know you can make one at home that’s healthier and cheaper. Not to mention mine has real pumpkin – no fake syrups here!
Pumpkin Spice Latte Frappuccino
- 1 cup ice (or about 8 ice cubes)
- 1 1/2 cup unsweetened almond milk
- 1/2 cup puréed pumpkin (canned or fresh)
- 1 tsp pumpkin spice
- 1 tsp instant coffee (or one Starbucks VIA packet)
- 3 tsp stevia
- 1 scoop vanilla protein powder
Directions
Blend all the ingredients together. Pour into your favorite jar, mug, cup, or tumbler. This recipe should fill a venti size cup.
If you don’t want to add the protein powder, add 1 tsp vanilla extract and an additional 2 tsp of stevia.
Optional: Top it off with your whipped cream of choice. Try my Vegan Whipped Cream recipe for a 100% vegan frap (assuming you are using a vegan protein powder).
Healthy Halloween Treats: Candy Corn Fruit Cup
| October 3, 2013 |
I love Halloween. Luckily, I have actually never really been a candy fan, so binging on candy should be the least of my concerns. But I’m a social eater and I eat because it I want to feel like I am celebrating the holiday with everyone else. If everyone else is eating junk, I find it very hard not to join in. But in the privacy of my own home, I wouldn’t even touch most of that stuff.
Let’s take the iconic candy corn … did you know that with every bite, you are consuming over 1 gram of refined sugar? Sure, they market the candy as being fat free, but the spike in your insulin levels will not help your journey to weight loss. (See nutritional info here)
My best strategy: be festive the healthy way! So all month long I am posting Halloween recipes you can enjoy guilt-free. And all of them are party friendly to enjoy with your friends and family.
Candy Corn Fruit Cup
- diced pineapple
- mandarin oranges
- your whipped cream of choice
Note: depending on the size of your cups and how many you plan to make, the amount of fruit you need to buy varies. My cup (wine glass size) took 1 small can of pineapple and 2-3 fresh mandarin oranges in each. You can use canned or fresh, I used canned pineapple (make sure it’s in water or 100% juice with no added sugar) and fresh mandarin oranges. Personally I always like fresh better but sometimes you have to go with what your market has in stock.
Directions
Prepare the pineapple by either chopping into cubes (for fresh pineapple) or draining the liquid from the can (save the juice for smoothies!).
Prepare the oranges by peeling them and pulling apart each section, or by draining the liquid from the can (again, save your juice for smoothies, yum!).
With all your cups out and ready, fill each cup with pineapple until it fills 1/3 of the cup. Next, layer the mandarin oranges until the cups are 2/3 full. Top it off with your whipped cream of choice.
I used ReddiWip Fat Free whipped cream in the photo because I love the way it looks, but if you’re going to keep the cups out for a buffet style party, the cream starts to melt. You can also try my Vegan Coconut Whipped Cream recipe but it also needs to stay chilled, but it should last longer sitting out than ReddiWip does. Fat Free Cool Whip is also a great option and probably keeps its shape longest of the ones mentioned when left in room temperature.
Strike of genius! If you can afford the calories, top it off with some all natural ice cream!
Skinny Butternut Squash Soup
| September 20, 2013 |
While it may still be pushing the upper 80°s at my house, Fall has officially begun. Despite the heat, I LOVE soup and have every intention of enjoying it even if it means I am sweating in the process.
So mixing my love of easy blend-everything-together type recipes and fall, I thought what better than to try out Butternut Squash Soup?
Often times, restaurants will put a ton of butter or cream and a ton of salt in their recipes. But butternut squash already has so much flavor, and like most foods, if you cook it with the right spices you don’t need to add the fat.
Hope you enjoy my recipe. I can literally say I put my love, sweat, and heart into it. (Praying for the heat in CA to chill off.)
Skinny Butternut Squash Soup
- 1 yellow onion
- 1 tsp olive oil
- 1 butternut squash (about 3 lbs)
- 2 garlic cloves
- 5 cups of low sodium chicken broth (or vegetable broth for vegan)
- 1/2 tbsp nutmeg
- salt and pepper to taste
Directions
Slice or chop the onion into large pieces. Sauté them in the olive oil until they become slightly translucent. – I sautéed them in the same pot I planned to cook the soup in because I am a lazy dishwasher like that.
Peel, scrape out the seeds, and chop your butternut squash into 1 inch cubes. Peel the skin of the garlic cloves. Put the squash, onion and garlic into a pot with the chicken broth and simmer until the squash is soft (approx 20 min).
Using a slotted spoon, scoop out the squash, onion, and garlic cloves. Place in a high speed blender or food processor, adding a few cups of the broth so it will blend easier. Purée the ingredients until smooth. Depending on the size of your blender or food processor, you might need to do this in a few batches.
Pour the puréed ingredients back into the pot and stir, allowing the broth and puree to evenly mix together. Add the spices and seasonings. (I personally didn’t add any salt because the broth had enough for me. Depending on your broth and personal preference, you may want to add salt. The pepper, I added 1 tsp but again, your own personal preference.) Simmer for another 10 minutes uncovered.
For a creamier soup, top it off with a dollop of greek yogurt or sour cream.
Avocado Chocolate Banana Pudding
| September 16, 2013 |
So this recipe I actually created as one of the first recipes for my blog, but I came across the issue of not having a high speed blender OR a food processor. If you aren’t sure if you have a high speed blender versus a regular blender, generally the question to ask yourself is, “does my blender work as well or better than a food processor.” Ok, well that may not be the official question to ask yourself but I sure asked myself that one.
The first time I tried making this I put the avocado and banana in a blender with the almond milk, thinking that it might blend like I was making a smoothie and I would add all the other ingredients after. FAIL! There was not enough liquid so it barely blended and there were still chunks of avocado and banana. I ended up pouring it into a bowl and trying to mash it by hand and then I whisked the ingredients together. I ended up with chunky pudding, and no one wants chunks of avocado in their pudding. It was gross. So if you get chunky pudding, you might not have a high speed blender.
But after all said and done, I am finally sharing my recipe (and it tasted good this time) because I finally got my kitchen essentials. I got a food processor as a house warming present from a friend and this Summer I bought a Vitamix at the OC Fair. So giving it another whirl, my recipe really was good once the chunks were no longer in the equation. Enjoy 🙂
PS – I promise you that you can’t taste the avocado. It’s my secret ingredient … it adds the creaminess to the pudding without any dairy products.
Avocado Banana Chocolate Pudding
- 1 ripe avocado (pitted & peeled)
- 1 overripe banana
- 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1/4 cup raw honey
- 1/4 cup almond milk
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/4 tsp sea salt
Directions
Combine all ingredients in a high speed blender or food processor. Store in an airtight container in the fridge if you can’t eat it all in one sitting. It should serve two for a snack or one for a full meal. Feel free to garnish with an extra banana cut into slices (to get a similar look to my photos).
If you are like me and add protein powder to everything: Reduce the honey to 2 tbsp and hold the cocoa powder. Add a scoop of chocolate protein powder to the blender or food processor. Then add raw cocoa to taste. You probably wouldn’t be adding any more than a few tablespoons max. Most flavored protein powders will have enough chocolate to flavor your pudding. Also, they usually have added sweeteners which is where the decrease in honey comes in. Of course if it’s not sweet enough for you, you can add more honey.
As for using the raw honey – You don’t have to use raw, I just prefer raw because it’s less processed. Easy 1:1 conversion for raw versus regular honey if you don’t have raw. Although I suggest you try raw honey at some point. It tastes amazing!!!
Look how beautiful the pudding looks in my Vitamix … it’s a swirl!!!
