Healthy, Yummy Pudding

It has been since March 11 that I've not been eating sugar. Most of the time this comes fairly easy for me now, but today was a struggle. My 13 year old daughter wanted me to help her make cheesecake brownie bars for the family, which are most definitely not healthy or sugar-free. :) I did help her and that didn't bother me a bit, but the smell.....! Ooooh my goodness the glorious s-m-e-l-l of chocolate has lingered in the house all day, and that has made me really struggle with wanting to have a piece or twenty. :)

Although in theory I'm all for moderation and would tell you that it is ok to indulge every once in awhile, for me in the past I have found that once I am off of sugar, eating sugar again causes me headaches, mouth sores, or other unpleasant ailments that I'd rather avoid. I took a few nice big sniffs of the cheesecake bars, but weighed the indulgence in my mind for hours and ultimately decided to make a treat for myself that could help me not feel deprived. :)

Normally I would make some healthy ice cream, but I didn't have any frozen bananas. So I made a pudding instead. This is how it went:

3 ripe bananas, sliced
6-8 frozen strawberries
about 3/4 cup of soaked almonds (they hadn't been soaking long since I thought it up shortly before creating this)
about a half cup or so of natural peanut butter
about a tablespoon of cocoa powder (I'm out of carob)
about 2 tablespoons of organic agave nectar

It all got whizzed up in the food processor and served. It was chocolately, crunchy, and nutty, which hit the spot really well.

I am reading impressive things about raw cacao powder and plan to buy some soon. I had to adjust to the relatively high price of it before I could bring myself to the point where I could accept it. Cacao is very high in antioxidants and sounds like a great healthier way to get chocolatey goodness into the diet. I'll let you know when I finally buy some and try it out!