Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Super-Healthy Raw Vegan Chocolate Orange Pudding

(I wonder if I could get any more adjectives into the title of this post.)

If you've been a long-time reader of my blog, you will remember that in January of '09, I became a vegan. I was especially interested in the raw vegan lifestyle and had lost a good deal of weight and had become generally more healthy because of my new diet.

Then I got pregnant.

I found out we were expecting our 10th baby in July of '09, and I was doing well maintaining the my vegan diet until I hit about 8 weeks pregnant, when I started craving cow's milk and meat. I gave into my temptations, as those types of foods were the only things I felt I could eat without throwing up, and thus ended veganism for me.

Now that the newborn is 4 weeks old, though, I have had a renewed desire to get back on the wagon. My new efforts are a bit different than when I started 16 months ago, as my diet includes milk products and eggs, and even meat if I am at a get-together or someone brings some over, but I want to refocus on getting lots of raw vegan foods into my diet as well.

Today as I sat outside with the 4 four and under, I thumbed through one of my raw vegan cook books, "The Idiot's Guide to Eating Raw", in fact, and found this delicious recipe. I hope your fam loves it as much as mine did...

Raw Chocolate Orange Pudding

chocolate orange pudding

Ingredients:

2 cups mashed avocados (about 3 whole avocadoes)
1/2 cup cocoa powder
2 teaspoons orange zest
4 dates, pitted and soaked at least 45 minutes
1/4 cup date soak water
1/4 cup honey or agave nectar
3 tablespoons freshly squeezed orange juice
1/2 teaspoon soy sauce or nama shoya

Directions:

Step 1: Place avocados, cocoa powder, orange zest, dates, date soak water, sweetener, orange juice and soy sauce in a food processor fitted with an S blade. Process on high for about 45 seconds or until smooth.

Step 2: Serve immediately or refrigerate for a firmer texture. This pudding will keep up to 5 days in the fridge.

Personally, I loved this pudding, but only 50% of the kids did, including the 15-year-old girl.

Just look at Twin B's happy face...

chocolate orange pudding

...and his hands...

chocolate orange pudding

Twin A felt the same...

chocolate orange pudding

And although the 3-year-old boy enjoyed the pudding as well, he wanted me to show you how he accomplished the task of keeping his hands clean...

chocolate orange pudding

I, for one, was impressed.

Now, you may be wondering if they actually got any in their mouths, and honestly, I'm not sure, but here is an empty bowl...

chocolate orange pudding

At least it made them happy. Enjoy!

chocolate orange pudding



On 365 Days of TV-Free Toddler Time today:
It's Football Time! Click the pic to see.



On life in mexico {and other places} a picture a day today:
{drum lessons}

12 comments:

  1. Jen, The pudding looks so good!

    Your food plan now sounds a lot like my own. I'm not really vegan, but I like vegan and I try to incorporate it into our weekly meal plan. Vegetarian is easier for my husband to deal with--in fact he would prefer nothing but meat and pasta every night. I just bought a brand new vegan cookbook that I love.

    I also follow my long time friend Beth's blog and she does a lot of vegan meals and is a fabulous cook--you can find her on my blog followers, of which there are only 11 so it's not hard to find Beth.

    Do you do any kind of exercising, or does your weighloss come from diet alone (and running after your beautiful children:)?

    Lastly, did I just notice that you have a blond child in there? Is he the solo blond in the bunch?

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  2. That's an interesting collection of ingredients! Were you hesitant about trying that? I'm going to try to remember it for next week's menu/shopping list. What the heck, why not...it couldn't be that bad, right? If my kids don't like it, I'll just ship what's left to your kids, so they can lick it off their hands ;)

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  3. MMMmmm I have a similar easy recipe! ABC Pudding! 4 ripe bananas, 1 avocado, and 3 tbsp cocoa powder… That’s it! On those days you need something quick! I am going to look up your dummy book! This is where I want to go too! Small steps for me though!

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  4. Hi Thorney!

    I am definitely going to check out Beth's blog. I always love to find good new vegan recipes.

    To answer your questions, my weight loss came from diet alone, but in two weeks time, I am going to start exercising as I am getting ready for a surfing trip!

    And yes, you saw right! We have one blond little boy but that is it! We shall see what happens to his new brother's hair!

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  5. Jb, yes, the kids would love to lick your pudding off their hands!

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  6. My mouth is actually watering looking at this...I've put avocados into chocolate pudding before and am surprised at how you can't even taste it (once it cools down;).

    I haven't heard of some of the ingredients- are they typically in your pantry as a vegan?

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  7. Christine, you are right. Once the pudding chills, you can't taste the avocado at all! And yes, the agave nectar, dates, and nama shoyu are typical ingredients in a raw vegan kitchen. Agave and dates are used as sweeteners and nama shoyu is a type of soy sauce that is made using lower than usual temperatures.

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  8. Mmmmmmm...our kids and I LOVE chocolate pudding made with avocadoes. I only wish we avocadoes were local like they are for you!! :)

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  9. Jrn, Where is your surfing trip taking place to? I love to surf! I grew upn the beach in SoCal and surfing was part of the lifestyle in the 60's and 70's. I even taught my children how to surf. My boys are planning a surfing trip to Costa Rica for us. I haven't surfed in a while and I'm still relearning a few large motor skills--balancing being a big problem for me still, but I so want to go and try. I can boogie board if nothing else, but I so want to stand on my board.

    I can't wait to hear where you are going.

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  10. Thorney,

    If our trip pans out like we hope, we will be going to visit my sister in Santa Cruz, California. I've never surfed before, but I LOVE to swim in the ocean and I love to go fast, so I've always thought that surfing would be a great sport for me to try!

    It's awesome that you surf!

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  11. Jen, Here is the link to Beth's blog, and she just posted some wonderful vegan recipes that she and her daughter made yesterday.
    http://kettlebelllove.wordpress.com/author/kettlebelllove/

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  12. I love Santa Cruz! I went to college at UC Berkeley and my first husband did his undergrad work at UC Santa Cruz, and then his graduate work at UC Berkeley--where we met and then lived for 30 years. We loved to take our kids over to Santa Cruz and go to the beach and the board walk. Love. It.

    You will have such a wonderful time.

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