With a mere 4 ingredients (dark chocolate, coconut milk, xylitol and coconut oil) this low glycemic chocolate pudding is the perfect gluten free treat for Valentine’s Day. I’m trying to keep my recipes as delicious and simple as possible and this dessert fits that bill. I hope you all enjoy it as much as my family did.

If you find yourself averse to using xylitol (and please don’t feed it to your dogs!) then feel free to experiment with this recipe and try using alternative sweeteners. Just be sure to leave a comment letting us know what you used and how it worked out.

I cannot take credit for the method in this recipe. Recently, I was going through a stack of gluten free magazines. I found a nice recipe for a Gluten-Free, Dairy-Free Chocolate Raspberry Pie in Living Without and decided to experiment with it. The result? This Easy Chocolate Pudding recipe. Sometimes my tinkering takes me in unexpected directions. I set out to make pie and end up with pudding –that is the fun of the process.

When I was a little girl, my mom and dad used to pack canned Del Monte chocolate pudding in my lunch. I loved it. This brings back those school lunch memories without all of the sugar and processed chemicals.

Finally, I want to thank Chocolate Covered Katie for inspiring the photo in this post. Very little of what we do is original.

Happy gluten free, dairy free Valentine’s Day.

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You can whip up this primal-friendly chocolate Mocha Mousse in just a few minutes. All you need is a food processor and the gluten free, dairy free ingredients below.

I plan on serving this Mocha Mousse in little ramekins to our New Year’s Day guests. As always we will have an assortment of people with a variety of food allergies and food restrictions. For those that cannot have eggs I will be serving my Vegan Nut Free Gluten Free Brownies. For those that cannot have chocolate, I will make Gingersnaps. I will be sure to have something for everyone at our little New Year’s Day dessert gathering.

Here’s to a wonderful 2012 for everyone, filled with fun, food and good health!

A call to all the Paleo experts out there. Would you eat this mousse?

Do you think it’s a Paleo dessert, or is that term an oxymoron? How do you define Paleo and what are your Paleo health goals for 2012? Leave a comment and let us know!

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This high protein, dairy free Chocolate Mousse is made with anti-oxidant rich dark chocolate and contains no dairy products –a double win. I’ve also used coconut palm sugar rather than agave to sweeten it.  Many people do not like agave nectar, believing it is an overly processed sweetener (the agave nectar I use is pure and organic).  I don’t mind agave, though I thought the palm sugar would be a nice alternative sweetener for those that do.

Summer is moving along for us over here.  The boys made over $300 at their lemonade stand last weekend during the Mapleton Hill rummage sale.  They ran the stand with 2 other friends and baked tons of cookies from scratch for their little business.  I was so proud of them.  Maybe at their next stand they’ll sell this high protein, dairy free chocolate mousse!  I would love that.

If you can’t eat eggs, check out my vegan Mocha Mousse recipe.  And if you would like more information on agave nectar, see my post called The Great Agave debate.  It contains a lot of useful information and the comments section of that post is chock full of good stuff!

The winner of last weeks giveaway for More Than Alive products is Kristi W!

For other chocolate mousse/pudding ideas check out recipes from these groovy bloggers:
-Coconut & Raw Cacao Pudding dairy-free, vegan from Kelly of The Spunky Coconut
-Gluten-free No-Soy Dairy-free Chocolate Mousse Recipe from SeaMaiden of Book of Yum
-Easy Chocolate Mousse from Kelly of Celiac Chicks

Update: (i) Dagoba dark chocolate is no longer formulated dairy-free (as a reader below kindly pointed out to me), to make this dairy free I recommend trying Ghirardelli Semi Sweet Chocolate Chips or 365 Dark Chocolate Mini Chunks; (ii) coconut fat is the semi-solid found on the top of a can of coconut milk; (iii) finally, feel free to try making this mousse with agave, if you do, please stop by and leave a comment to let us know your results.

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I recently fell in love with Georgia Pellegrini’s book Food Heroes and will be giving it to various friends for the holidays.  I am also giving away a copy to one lucky winner on my Food Heroes post from Monday. It’s a great read and has wonderful recipes.  The recipe below is my adaptation of Georgia’s grandmother’s fruit pudding, which I think you’ll enjoy.

This light and easy to eat dessert is a perfect Christmas pudding.  It’s basically made with dried fruit and eggs and won’t leave you and your Christmas guests with the typical high carb hangover that often results from holiday treats. Enjoy and thanks Georgia!

Fruit PuddingNote: There is a print link embedded within this post, please visit this post to print it.
8 dried apricots
4 prunes
1 teaspoon cinnamon
pinch celtic sea salt
1 cup water
3 eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
¼ cup chopped pecans

1. Place dried fruit, cinnamon, salt and water in a saucepan and bring to a simmer
2. Cook at a simmer for 30 minutes until fruit is reconstituted
3. Place fruit mixture, eggs and vanilla in a vitamix and puree until smooth
4. Dish mixture into ramekins, then top with pecans
5. Bake ramekins at 350° for 30 minutes
6. Remove from oven then cool and serve

Here are some more gluten-free pudding recipes that you may enjoy:
-Crockpot Bread Pudding Recipe from Stephanie of A Year of Slow Cooking
-Avocado Pudding from Karen of Cook4Seasons
-Tapioca Pudding from Kate of Gluten Free Gobsmacked

I recently wrote an article for Natural Solutions Magazine which was featured on the cover, if you can believe that (I can’t!).  The subject is my gluten free journey, and also provides information on the various high protein flours that I use.  You can find a copy of Natural Solutions at any Barnes & Noble in the country.  My article is in the November issue of Natural Solutions (which hit newsstands a couple of weeks late), in case you’d like to take a look at it.

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Chia seeds are my new favorite food!

Rich in fatty acids, these seeds contain more omega-3′s than any other vegetarian source. They are also quite high in anti-oxidants, minerals and fiber.  Further, I find that they are quite soothing for my digestive system (and I’m always looking for a boost in that realm).

I got the idea for this smooth and tasty recipe from yoga teacher extraordinaire and raw foodie, Jess Price.  I give her full credit for turning me on to both chia seeds and chia pudding.

(Chia Seed) Raw Tapioca PuddingNote: There is a print link embedded within this post, please visit this post to print it.
1 cup (raw) cashews
3 cups water
2 tablespoons agave nectar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
¼ teaspoon almond extract
pinch celtic sea salt
¼ cup chia seeds

1. Place the cashews and water in a vitamix and blend on high speed until smooth
2. Blend in the agave, vanilla, almond extract and salt
3. Place the chia seeds in a large mason jar (½ gallon size), pour the cashew mixture into the jar and shake well (very well!)
4. Place in the refrigerator overnight
5. Serve

Serves 2-4 people

When I have extra time I soak my cashews for several hours (be sure to discard the soaking water) which makes for an even richer, creamier treat.

You can also experiment by adding cinnamon, vanilla beans and other tasty enhancements to this recipe (in your desired quantity).

Another tip? I eat this for breakfast, snack or dessert.

Don’t let the fancy presentation above fool you.  This delicious, nutritious pudding is ridiculously easy to prepare.  Throw a bit of chia pudding into a smaller mason jar and it makes the perfect driving snack -slurp it up on your road trips.

If you venture into the land of chia seeds please let us know how you like ‘em!

Update: Per questions below, I have made this with a mixture of cashew and coconut milk and it is delicious.  I have also used chia seeds to make my morning protein shakes more rich, creamy and nutritious.   This chia pudding keeps in the fridge for 2-3 days.  Enjoy!

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We had a super quiet Thanksgiving, which was fine with me.  It was just the 4 of us and we ended up making even less food than I had planned.  Around 4 pm we sat down to dinner, which was a delicious turkey (roasted by my darling husband, he really is a man of many talents), brussel sprouts with chestnuts and apples, cranberry sauce and gravy.

We ate for about 1/2 an hour, then my husband and I did the dishes, while the children squabbled.  After that we all played cards and I thought about how thankful I am to be with them.  Not sure what I did to end up with 3 such incredible people, though I am truly happy about it.  Each of them is so fun, interesting and genuinely kind and I have learned more from them than from any of the people in my life.  I am truly blessed.  On a daily basis.

After teaching me how to play hearts, my husband retired to his office to watch some football and the boys and I played rotating scrabble.  I took turns being on each of their teams.  It was the perfect holiday.

Even though I hadn’t planned to downsize our Thanksgiving consciously, I think somewhere in the back of my mind, with all of the depressing news about the economy and the super depressing articles in our daily paper (about all of the bad things that could possibly go wrong on this holiday), I made a decision to really simplify this year.

Between scrabble turns my older son and I worked on making truffles (we are inherent multi-taskers), which accidentally turned into an unforeseen mousse.

When I mentioned this to my husband all he could say was –Sarah Palin.  Those two words, “unforeseen” and “mousse” added up to only one thing in his politically overactive mind.  He claimed that “Sarah Palin Mousse” would be a great name for this dish, though as you can see, I begged to differ and stuck with my own name for this super rich, easy to make mousse.

As we all know, sometimes the best dishes aren’t the ones we intend to make.

Accidental Mocha MousseNote: There is a print link embedded within this post, please visit this post to print it.
½ cup chocolate drops
½ cup coconut milk
1 tablespoon organic decaf coffee beans, ground
¼ cup hot water
1 tablespoon agave nectar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
¼ teaspoon almond extract

1. In a medium saucepan, melt chocolate into coconut milk over very low heat
2. Place ground coffee beans in a melita filter and pour ¼ cup hot water over them
3. Stir coffee into chocolate mixture, discarding grounds
4. Stir in agave, then vanilla and almond extracts
5. Spoon mousse into small individual ramekins
6. Refrigerate 2-3 hours, until firm
7. Serve

Makes 4 servings

Three of us shared one of these little dishes of vegan chocolate mousse after a very long game of scrabble; my little guy was not in a dessert mood.  This mousse is very rich so be careful, don’t eat too much.

In terms of substitutions, I imagine there are many different ways that you could make this.  Feel free to let loose and experiment with your own flavors and alternative ingredients.

Hope you all had a fantastic Thanksgiving!  Now that it’s over, what dishes would you like to see during the upcoming month?  Desserts? Salads? Entrees?  Something else?  Leave a comment with your request!

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Getting into the spirit of the season, I whipped up this no bake gluten free and vegan pumpkin custard. Quick and easy to make, it is also dairy free and the perfect way to end an autumn meal.

I am on a major pumpkin kick right now as is the rest of the family.  Last weekend, my husband took the boys and their friend Josh to purchase pumpkins for Halloween; upon return the three little ones spent hours in the back yard carving their jack-o-lanterns.

Gluten Free Pumpkin CustardNote: There is a print link embedded within this post, please visit this post to print it.
½ cup (raw) cashews
1 tablespoon agar flakes
1 pinch celtic sea salt
1 ¼ cups water, boiling
1 ½ cups roasted pumpkin (learn how to roast pumpkin in 10 easy steps!)
¼ cup agave nectar or honey (plus a little more if you want it sweeter)
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1-2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 pinch ground cloves
¼ teaspoon lemon zest

1. Place cashews, agar and salt in a vitamix and process to a fine powder
2. Pour boiling water into Vitamix and process on high speed
3. Add pumpkin, agave and vanilla and process again until smooth
4. Blend in cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and lemon zest
5. Pour custard into ramekins or half cup mason jars
6. Refrigerate until set, about 30 minutes
7. Serve

Makes 6 servings

I was determined to make a vegan custard, not the easiest thing since custard is basically made of eggs; After a bit of research I came upon this quick and easy no cook recipe which provided the inspiration for my custard base.  I am quite intrigued with this no fuss method of making custard and look forward to using it for many other flavor variations.

For this recipe and my others, I would not recommend using canned pumpkin.  First, I do my best to avoid canned foods whenever possible as most cans contain BPA, an endocrine disrupting agent linked to cancer.

Second, canned pumpkin is very wet, so I would not recommend substituting it for roasted pumpkin.  My pumpkin recipes aren’t written for such a watery ingredient and probably won’t turn out well, unless several adjustments are made.  If anyone does experiment with canned pumpkin, please stop by and leave a comment letting us know if it worked; there have been a couple of inquiries lately about this specific substitution.

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This past fall, the food editor of The Denver Post wrote an article on “addictive” food blogs called Join me as I jump into the blog. Not only was I surprised to find my blog in it, I was dumbfounded that Elana’s Pantry was mentioned in the same piece as Heidi Swanson’s 101 Cookbooks.

Swanson is everyone’s favorite food blogger. Her recipes are revolutionary; she always thinks out of the box when she whips up a dish. While I sometimes find her concoctions a bit too time consuming for someone with two boys underfoot, I am nevertheless, a big fan!

A couple months back, she posted a coconut chocolate pudding with curry. Given that I went dairy-free last year, I was intrigued by this recipe for chocolate pudding and used it as a basis for my own gluten free, dairy free, naturally sweetened chocolate pudding vegan recipe.

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After making too many gluten free angel food cakes and being left with more egg yolks than I knew what to do with, I decided to make this lemon gluten free pudding. It’s quick, sweet and refreshing.

Lemon Pudding ParfaitNote: There is a print link embedded within this post, please visit this post to print it.
12 egg yolks
¼ cup agave nectar
pinch celtic sea salt
¼ cup lemon juice
½ cup heavy cream

1. Place egg yolks, agave, and salt in a medium sauce pan
2. While heating over very low flame, whip with a hand blender for 6-8 minutes, then whip in lemon juice
3. Chill for a half an hour
4. If pudding separates, whip with hand mixer for 1-2 minutes, until fluffy again
5. Whip cream in a separate bowl
6. Serve in small glasses, alternating layers of pudding and whipped cream
7. Garnish with berries

Serves 8

Enjoy this cool gluten-free lemon pudding on a warm summer’s day.

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