Chocolate Pudding, With a Twist

Last year Amy was telling me about a cookbook she had been given where you sneak healthy food into food your kids would normally eat.  My kids tend to be picky eaters, but they will still eat things like broccoli, carrots, lima beans, etc.  Even though they will still eat vegetables, I still wanted more meals to be packed full of good nutrition.  So, I went to the bookstore and bought the book ‘Deceptively Delicious‘ by Jessica Seinfeld.

I also went to the grocery store and spent far too much money on vegetables and pureed food for a good two days.

I may have gone a little overboard.

The food now resides in my freezer.  That was a year ago.

So far I have tried 4 recipes in the cookbook: Chocolate Pudding, Aloha Chicken Kabobs, Grilled Cheese, and Beef Stew.  My kids and I have not been too impressed with 3 of the recipes I’ve tried.  I blame myself for the beef stew not being as good as it could have been.  I made grilled cheese sandwiches that had added pureed butternut squash.  My pickiest eater did not care for this at all!  I will eat anything and the sandwiches were even hard for me to eat.  The squash really just overpowered the cheese and there was no way I was “sneaking”  around hiding it.

Of course one of our favorite recipes is the chocolate pudding.

The pudding is so rich and really fills you up.  You don’t have to eat very much to be satisfied.

This pudding contains no milk or dairy, so it may also be good for people who are lactose intolerant, but I will let you decided that.

The recipe can be found on page 159 in the book ‘Deceptively Delicious‘

(The photos I am showing you are from when I tripled the recipe.  Directions will be according to the recipe.)

First you start by pureeing around 3-4 avocados to get 1 cup of avocado puree.

Melt 1/4 a cup of butter on low heat.

Add your avocado puree to the butter.

Measure out 1 cup of confectioners’ sugar.

Add the sugar to your avocado and stir well.

Measure out 1/2 cup of unsweetened cocoa powder.

Add the cocoa powder to your avocados.

Stir well.

Add 1 teaspoon of pure vanilla extract.

(I was out of regular vanilla so I had to use clear.)

Remove the pudding from the stove.  Stir in 1/4 cup of cornstarch.  This is to thicken it a bit more.

I think this step could possibly be skipped since the pudding is already very thick.

Now grab a spoon and enjoy!

I seriously could not even eat this whole dish of pudding because it is so rich, so a little goes a really long way.

I tripled this recipe and it made way too much for us to eat.

All the desserts in this cookbook look delicious and I’m going to have to give them all a try.  There is even a recipe for chocolate cake, which has beet puree!

~ Jennifer

Deceptively Delicious Chocolate Pudding

Prep: 5 minutes ~ Total: 9 minutes ~ Serves: 8 to 10

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup trans-fat-free soft tub margarine spread.  OR butter.  Sorry, but I just don’t buy into eating margarine. 🙂
• 1 cup avocado puree
• 1 cup confectioners’ sugar
• 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup cornstarch

Directions

• In a medium saucepan, melt the margarine over low heat.  Stir in the avocado puree, sugar, cocoa powder, and vanilla.  Cook, mashing well with a silicone spatula to smooth out any lumps of avocado, until the mixture thickens, 3 to 4 minutes.  Off the heat, gradually stir in the cornstarch.  Serve warm.