Pudding? Frosting? Pie filling? Yes!

Our friends Megan (massage therapist extraordinaire) and James (one half of Red Apple Butchers) came up with a snack idea that I thought would make an awesome pie filling or frosting.  Or, yes, you can just mix it up and eat it with a spoon.  Let’s start with the star of the show, the cultured dairy pudding:

Ingredients:

This will make enough to fill a 9 in pie crust, frost a one layer 8 in cake or just mix it up and store it in the fridge for the next time you want a serving or two of pudding!

• 2 cups creme fraiche or whole milk, unsweetened Greek style yogurt or use a little of each.  The creme fraiche is easy to make yourself and adds a nice tangy flavor.  The cream also whips up nicely for added lightness to this rich food.
•  1 cup smooth nut butter, any one of these are delicious: almond, hazelnut or peanut butter
• 3-4 dropperfuls of Whole Foods brand vanilla stevia
• 2-3 Tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

Creme fraiche and cocoa powder are so good together!

Method:

Add all the ingredients to a big bowl and use a mixer to whip them together into a smooth, fluffy bowl of deliciousness.   Taste and add more stevia or cocoa powder to your liking.  The mixture will be like pudding, you can make it thicker by adding more nut butter or thinner by adding plain heavy cream or more creme fraiche.

Now you have a cultured dairy pudding snack.  Which you can eat right now or use to frost a cake or cookies!

But, wait, what about making a cream pie?  Chill your pudding in the fridge while you get to baking.

Set your oven to 350

Chocolate Hazelnut Pudding Pie

 Pie Crust Ingredients:

• 2 Cups Blanched Almond Flour- I always use Bob’s Red Mill Brand
• 2 Tablespoons unsalted pasture butter
• 1 large organic farm egg
• a pinch of salt

Method:

Blend all of the ingredients together in a food processor.

Press the dough evenly into a 9 in pie plate and bake at 350 for 10-14 min, until firm and starting to brown.

Cool the crust completely and then add  the above pie filling.

Refrigerate the pie for at least an hour before serving.

When it’s time for pie, whip up 6-8 ounces of fresh cream.

Cover the top of the pie completely with the whipped cream and top with chopped roasted nuts and maybe even some chopped dark chocolate.  Sugar free has never tasted this good!

Yes please!

It’s Chocolate, For Breakfast

This is something that I recommend to a lot of my clients who are on the Candida diet and want something other than eggs or leftover veggies for breakfast.  There are plenty of variations but this basic breakfast shake recipe packs in a lot of protein, fiber and antioxidants.  It’s easy to digest and, duh, it’s chocolate, for breakfast!

Healthy chocolate breakfast, or snack or dessert...

Basic Breakfast Shake: Ingredients

1 Cup or more Unsweetened Almond Milk or soy/dairy milk

2-3 Tablespoons Hemp Protein/Fiber Powder (basically just ground hemp seeds, they sell ‘Living Harvest’ Hemp Protein at Whole Foods and I get Nutiva brand through my co-op)

Nutiva brand ground hemp seeds, lots of fiber and protein and it's vegan too.

2 Tablespoons unsweetened Dutch cocoa or raw cocoa powder

2 Tablespoons ground raw flax seeds (the omega 3 fatty acids help with inflammation and overall health)

1-2 Tablespoons almond butter and/or coconut milk.  Don’t bother with ‘light’ coconut milk it’s just regular coconut milk with a lot of water added.  A little of the full strength variety goes a long way for flavor and satiety.

Stevia to taste for sweetness

Dash of Cinnamon and/or ground ginger (both of these combat Candida and add unexpected flavor)

Optional: ¼ Cup organic whole milk yogurt. Hawthorne Valley Farms makes great yogurt or you can use soy yogurt by Wildwood, the plain flavor tastes like plain, tart yogurt!

Add some ice if you like and blend it up! You can use stand blender or immersion blender, my favorite kitchen tool. Drink right away.

Close up of ground hemp