I‘ve been thinking a lot about cooking lately…someone asked me recently how I come up with recipes and why is cooking so easy for me. This person said that it is hard for her to come up with ideas for dinner every night for her family. Well, when my 3 boys were younger, it was difficult for me to figure out what to feed the family every night when there was also a sports practice, school event or drama thing going on. And, I had a full time job once the all the kids were in school. Everything can be hard in those circumstances…Now that I have more time, I still work full time, but for the most part there are only 2 of us at home, for the moment.
Coming up with recipes is a lot of fun for me. I enjoy thinking about how flavors go together, like a quilter thinks about how colors and patterns work along side of each other. I am not a particularly inventive cook, but I enjoy finding fresh ingredients and figuring out how to prepare them in a way that’s tasty and fits my personal eating choices (dairy and gluten free with minimal added sugar). It has been a process to cook without certain items and make that second nature. I rarely think of my choices as substitutions, but instead consider them main ingredients. Things like nut milks instead of cream or milk, veggie noodles instead of pasta, bananas and eggs instead of grains or gluten free flours in sweet treats, and other root veggies or cauliflower instead of potatoes or rice, etc.
I grew up in a Cambell’s soup and TV dinner kind of household. So having the opportunity to travel aboard and go to cooking school really opened my eyes up to all sorts of ingredients and combinations of foods. I tasted and experienced food in a way I had never before. In cooking school, I not only learned from the instructors, but from the other students. We’d discuss food, new items that we tried or recipes that we created. It was a whole new world. I’ve kept that curiosity about food, even though I no longer cook professionally.
The recipe below is one that may be similar to one you’ve seen before and haven’t wanted to try. Why? It sounds kind of strange. Avocados as the base of a sweet, you say? Why, yes! When avocados are perfectly ripe they are wonderfully creamy. They have a mouth feel like cream. So I encourage you to try this and see what you think. If you can get your mind past the concept, your taste buds will thank you.
Silky Smooth Chocolate Pudding
Makes 3 servings
1 ½ ripe avocados, flesh scooped out
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 tsp vanilla extract
¼ cup maple syrup
1/3 cup coconut milk
¼-½ tsp ground cinnamon
Pinch of salt
Put everything in a food processor and blend until smooth. Spoon into serving glasses and chill. Enjoy!
