Food: Avocado-Chocolate Pudding

Yesterday I was browsing the internet looking for more protein shakes/smoothie recipes, and I came across Peanut Butter Fingers, a great website that has all kinds of healthy recipes, including all types of yummy smoothies. So while my spin-off of her Sunrise Smoothie was blending away, I noticed a recipe for Dark Chocolate Avocado Mousse [I'm just linking up all kinds of nifty things from her website]. I rushed to my Piggly Wiggly [yes, I said "my Piggly Wiggly] to pick up some avocados so I could try this recipe out. I didn't have dark chocolate cocoa powder, but the regular stuff was just fine by me. I was just attempting this recipe first. Now let me tell you, her recipe said to throw in the avocado, the cocoa powder, and some honey and blend until smooth. It wasn't working for me. My blender was just spinning away and nothing was getting mixed, and that was because there wasn't enough liquid in my recipe. So I adapted her recipe again. The chick on Peanut Butter Fingers said she literally licked her blender clean. Ummm...YES, you will too. I'm sure hers was just lovely, but I'm telling you, this recipe was incredible. So I snapped a picture and posted it on Facebook.

What a conversation that one little picture started.

Someone questioned whether or not it was actually a healthy dessert because of avocados being high in fat, and the comments began flying. I quickly threw my ingredients in my calorie counter, came up with some digits, and felt like my recipe could stand against any store-bought pudding. So I'm going to share with you my recipe, some variations you can try, and then the nutrition value.

Sorry this isn't a GORGEOUS picture, but there is no denying the creaminess of that pudding right there. 

Avocado-Chocolate Pudding

Ingredients:

• 1 ripe avocado, peeled, pitted, and sliced
• 3 Tbsp cocoa powder
• 2 Tbsp local, raw honey 
• 1 cup milk 

Directions: [Are you ready for this? SO EASY]

1. Put all the ingredients into a blender in the order above. 
2. Blend until creamy and smooth. 
3. Divide into 4 containers [about 1/3 cup each, give or take] and either enjoy now, put in the fridge for later, or freeze for even a later, yummy snack [can you say pudding pop?]

This will seriously blow your mind. When I told the cashier at The Pig what I was doing, she turned her nose up and said she doesn't like avocados, but I'm pretty sure if I let her try it, she wouldn't even know there was an avocado in there. 

Also, in the picture, I divided it in half, not in fourths, and could only eat about half of one of those containers. It was so rich, and it hit the spot, right on my sweet tooth. I have tried the" mix a banana with cocoa powder" thing before, but there was a distinct banana taste to it. This didn't really have any avocado taste to it. It just tasted like chocolate pudding. and that is something I LOVE and am willing to send with my kids in their school lunch boxes. 

Variations: 

• My cousin asked about substituting agave and almond milk to make it vegan. YES. and if you do this, PLEASE let me know how it tastes. 
• Blend some spinach in there as well. Take about 1/2 cup of fresh spinach and toss it in there before blending.
• After blending, stir in some chopped walnuts about [1/4 cup]. I know this will increase the fats in the dessert, but all those fats are the GOOD KIND. And if you are splitting it up between 4 servings, it won't really affect the overall fat grams that much. 

Nutritional Value: 

• TOTAL: Calories: 649; Carbohydrates: 91; Fat: 34 g; Protein: 16 g. 
• If split into 4 servings of  ~1/3 cup: Calories: 162; Carbohydrates: 23 g; Fat 9 g; Protein: 4 g [this is based off the calorie counter in MyFitnessPal.com] 

Links to information on Avocados: 

• Dr. Oz's Chocolate Avocado Mousse recipe
• Livestrong's Healthy Food Duo page [one of my favorite healthy recipe websites]
• 10 Health Benefits of Avocados
• 15 Health Benefits of Avocados 
• and to risk putting up a link that may be biased: Avocado.org
• Here's an interesting link that's not necessarily about avocados. Someone mentioned on Facebook about having too much of anything can be a bad thing. I made [and divided] this dessert with this link in mind. Check it out from Hungry Girl

Please try this, and comment here what you think. Can YOU taste the avocado? Did you try the dark chocolate cocoa? How about substituting a different type of sugar? Does it work just as well? 

Happy Snacking, friends.