Guess What Made It All Better

TheGreenerSeed — Sat, 06 Jun 2020 06:13:44 +0000

After a scary 10 days trying to figure out the extent of grandpa’s dental issue, it turned out that he needed emergency surgery to extract four of his teeth. We were simultaneously doing our best to avoid COVID risk since he is an extremely high risk case, having recently had a quadruple bypass open-heart surgery. Of course he had already lost weight because of his heart surgery, and then more recently because he had decided the solution to his teeth pain was to stop eating altogether. On top of it all, he was calcium deficient since he also decided months beforehand to stop taking calcium supplements without any accompanying change in diet. His friends had warned him about kidney stones.

The oral surgery went well. Now he had to be on a liquid diet for 3 days and faced even more weight loss. He is already thin and frail, and very selective about food. He didn’t care much for clear chicken broth, smoothies, juices, or soups. He reluctantly consumed very little of it. He needed something to look forward to.

Chocolate pudding seemed like a good choice for him. He could easily swallow it without chewing. It would meet his calcium needs. And chocolate was his favorite!

The problem with buying pre-packaged chocolate pudding is in the ingredients. For example, Jell-O-Sugar-Free instant pudding contains unhealthy chemicals and chemical food coloring, approved by the FDA in the US ( but not approved in other countries).

Ensure Chocolate Pudding didn’t contain the food coloring but did contain many artificial ingredients. Hunts Snack Pack Chocolate Pudding also contained artificial flavors and chemical ingredients, and palm oil, a non sustainable ingredient that contributes to deforestation. (We try our best to spend our money to support a world we want to see. ) We read enough labels over the years to know that the healthiest way is to make it at home.

My daughter Madi and I came up with a quick recipe that made 6 servings. It took us 15 minutes! It uses real cocoa butter and cocao powder, which is known to improve mood and depression, lower risk of heart attack and stroke, improve blood flow to the brain, aid with diabetes, and have anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties (all of which would benefit Grandpa). And best of all, the recipe doesn’t include any artificial flavors, colors, or chemicals.

You may be wondering what is the difference between cacao powder and cocoa powder? Cacao powder comes from non-roasted fermented beans, processed at low temperatures and then milled into a powder. Cocoa powder on the other hand is made from fermented and roasted and then processed at a much higher temperature. Cacao is a superfood for the brain and heart, as it is one of the highest sources of antioxidants in foods, with a high amount of flavonoids. Compared to cocoa, cacao is higher in protein, fibre, magnesium and iron.

Guess what? Grandpa loved the pudding so much he asked to take all 6 servings home, to Madi’s dismay.

She had hoped she could keep a cup for herself after all that hard work. Plus, licking the spoon and getting a taste of the dessert is enticing for any 9-year-old. She understood, however, that the special dessert was meant for grandpa. It was worth it; he visibly had more energy and cheer after his delicious snack.

I promised her we would try the recipe again the next day, but using non-dairy ingredients so that both Madi and her brother (allergic to dairy) could share. We adjusted the recipe to use coconut oil butter. We could barely tell the difference between the two recipes. They added a big organic marshmallow on top, in lieu of whipped cream. If you want to try it for yourself, here is the Decadent Vegan Chocolate Pudding recipe

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Guess What Made It All Better