In our home we have a meal schedule and most days the kids each have a day they are responsible for planning the meal and cooking it. This gets filled out for a month so I can grocery shop weekly…well that’s what happens most times but life can get crazy so we roll with it. Anywho it’s been a great learning tool for the children to learn more about how to cook low carb and that they don’t have to give up all their favorite foods. Tuesday is leftover night every week and this is one thing that rarely changes, unless we have no leftovers that week, and last night was no exception. The only difference is I had to go into the tax office and get some work done so I was taking my dinner to eat there. It was a pretty sparse dinner of salmon and spinach and I knew I needed more but wasn’t really in the mood for anything else. I think everyone has been there at one point and time, you’re hungry but not hungry for anything. So digging through my fridge to see what else we have that I can take on the run I spy:
Ok, maybe it really wasn’t waving at me. It was just sitting there looking ugly as always. The truth is I really don’t care for avocados. I try to because I know they are good for me and I am trying to change my taste buds. I buy them and use them and find ways to get them into my diet. They are good on a burger though! So I grabbed the lazy avocado and remembered reading somewhere they lend a great texture to low carb puddings. So I said, “let’s give that a whirl!” I had everything on hand to whip up a pudding concoction.
The amounts I used, which can be adjusted to taste:
- 2/3 Cup Coconut Milk
- 2 tbsp Cocoa Powder
- 1 large avocado
- 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/8 tsp pink himalayan salt
- Natural sweetener of choice, I used about 5 or 6 drops of liquid monk fruit.
Add the coconut milk, cocoa powder, and sweetener in the blender and mix it up. *Note: If don’t this for one serving the blender doesn’t work well as it’s too big. Next time I will put the ingredients in a bowl to mix well first.* Next add in the rest of the ingredients and blend well. Using a single serve blender here would work well or an immersion blender. The big blender was more of a pain, but I made it work.
You can see a personal size blender like a nutribullet or an immersion stick blender would have been better. Blend till smooth. Taste for sweetness and adjust by a little if needed. Please please please, pretty please do not use Aspartame or sucralose as they are super bad for you. *A word of caution if you chose to use Xylitol and haven’t consumed it before or are making this for something else…it can cause great intestinal discomfort and diarrhea. If not using something like Monk Fruit or Stevia then use a tad of Erythritol which is a sugar alcohol that the body doesn’t metabolize such as what Swerve brand uses, we have had no trouble with this at all though we use it pretty infrequently. * Only add sweetener a little at a time because you can’t undo it.
Once fully blended and tasting how you like chill for a bit because who likes warm pudding? You could freeze in a shallow bowl for more of an ice cream effect. Whichever way you choose you will end up with a smooth creamy decadent treat that tastes so yummy you think it should be so bad for you! We don’t eat desserts often, usually only at family gatherings so this was a nice treat!
