Chocolate Pudding with Cashew Creme

I created a go-to chocolate pudding recipe that I love out of one that was recommended to me.  I had to tweak it a little bit to suit me.  I made it very simple with only 3 ingredients.  I've used it in frozen desserts as well.  Just recently I started following Paul Jarvis at Eat Awesome.  His eBook is fantastic and well worth the 5 bucks.  He has a recipe for cashew cream that I tweaked a little bit for this recipe.

Chocolate Pudding
2 avocados
honey (if you are vegan, then you can use agave but realize that it is not raw)
cocoa powder or cacao powder (not both)

Place the avocados in a food processor.  Add 4 tablespoons of cocoa powder and 2 tablespoons of sweetener to the avocado.  Blend well in the food processor.  Taste and add cocoa and/or sweetener until flavor suits you.  This will be different for everyone.  I like mine less sweet and more chocolatey. 

Keep refrigerated.

Cashew Creme
1 cup of raw cashews soaked in water for about 3 hours
Coconut water

Drain cashews and put them in the food processor.  Mix well and slowly add coconut water to thin.  Be careful to add the coconut water very slowly otherwise it will be too thin.

Keep refrigerated.

Raw Almond Milk

I made this today in the blender.  It's super easy!  And it tastes better than the store bought stuff.  You have the ability to make it thicker or thinner by altering the amount of water.

Soak 1 cup of whole, raw almonds in about 6 cups of water for a couple of hours.  Strain and rinse well.  Put almonds in the blender with 4 cups of water and blend for about 5 minutes.  Taste to see if you need it sweeter.  If you do, add a little raw honey or agave or a couple of medjool dates (be sure to take the pits out!)  Reblend.  Strain using a fine mesh sieve or you can use nut milk bags if you have them.  If you want to make more, you can but for the best results, make it in batches of the above recipe so you don't over-fill the blender.  You can also add cinnamon or nutmeg for flavor if you like.

You'll have some left over pulp when you finish. You can do a few things with it.  You can dehydrate it either in the oven or in qa dyhydrator if you have one.  Youc an use it in place of flour in baked goods.  You can also do what I did and put it back in the blender, add about 3-4 cups of cold water, 1/4 cup of cacao nibs, and some agave nectar and make chocolate milk!  I dehydrated the rest of the pulp in the oven after that.

Store in the refrigerator in a glass container.  Canning jars work well.

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APPLE BROWN BETTY Smoothie**Green Monster**

1 cup of almond or hemp milk
2 cored apples with the skin on
1/2 an avacado
1 banana
1/4 cup walnuts
2 tablespoons of chia seeds
1 big handful of fresh baby spinach
2-4 tablespoons of raw honey or agave nectar
ice
Blend all ingredients well. Add ice cubes one at a time.


**The term Green Monster was created by Oh She Glows

BERRY BLAST PUCKER Smoothie

1 cup of hemp milk or almond milk
1 cup of blueberries
1 cup of gooseberries
1/2 cup of raspberries
1/2 cup blackberries

This smoothie is very tart so you can add some honey or agave nectar if you want it sweeter