Avocados

I distinctly remember the one time mom tried to get us to eat avocados when we were kids. I tried a tiny piece, decided it was disgusting, and hid the rest so I wouldn't have to eat it.

I served my mission in California, and I had multiple occasions to try avocados again- plain and in guacamole. I still didn't like them.

I married a guy who served a Spanish-speaking mission in California and who loves Mexican food, including avocados and guacamole. I still didn't like them.

I just haven't been able to get past the texture and the taste.

However, this past week I made some seven layer dip, and included a layer of guacamole. The dip turned out really good, and I actually thought the homemade guacamole (Mr M is quite talented in the kitchen) was good too. So, I decided to give avacodos another try.

We bought a couple more avacoados, and used one in smoothies. I used half the avocado the first time, but while the smoothie really stuck with us, the flavor was a bit too strong, even with lots of strawberries to compensate. And the color was rather off-putting (nasty yellowish tan). I used a quarter of the avacodo the next two times, and the flavor and color improved.

I used the other avocado to make chocolate pudding. I've seen this around on several blogs, but wasn't quite brave enough to try it till now. I mashed an avocado, added 2 or 3 tablespoons of cocoa powder, a splash of vanilla, and squirt or two of agave nectar.

The end result tasted like really dark chocolate pudding. Mr M didn't like it at all, but I think if it had been a little sweeter and better mashed he would have liked it better. I just used a fork to mash it up, and that left little globs of avocado and some strings. The second time I made it I used my immersion blender, and the texture was a lot smoother. I also noticed that more cocoa powder is better than less- the avocado flavor gets covered up better.

Despite all that, I liked it. The avocado wasn't super noticable, and the pudding was much more satisfying than regular pudding, and had way less sugar. I can go through a whole box of pudding in one sitting, but only managed to eat about half an avocado's worth of pudding before being too full- not just full, but satisfied. My sweet tooth wasn't nagging me, and I didn't feel like I needed to eat anything else.

I'll be making chocolate avocado pudding a lot more- I think a few spoonfuls will go a long way toward beating the mid-afternoon and after-dinner sweet tooth munchies. Hmmm, that sounds like a new diet plan- move over South Beach, here comes the Chocolate Avocado Pudding Diet!