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!

Peppermint Tea

Anyone who has read very much of my writings about healthy food knows that I love my healthy lemonade recipe. While it is my very favorite drink, another popular one is peppermint tea.

Peppermint tea is one of the few things you can drink aside from water that qualifies as a whole food!

It’s really simple to make, too. You can use your coffee maker and it’s super easy. Use a regular coffee liner. Use a half cup of dry peppermint (you can purchase by the pound from Frontiers, or grow your own) in the filter basket, and fill up your 10-cup coffee maker with water. Brew it. Pour it into a jar or pitcher and stick it in the refrigerator. Voila! Tea is ready.

And if you would prefer your tea to be sweetened, you can use regular stevia or the peppermint flavor liquid stevia! Either way, it’s good for you, good for your digestion, and very refreshing. (Cheap, too.)

You can use this same basic idea with any kind of tea. I have used 3-4 tea bags in the coffee filter basket (per 10 cup carafe) of many types of herbal teas. They all turn out very yummy!