I apologize for not posting this sooner! I thought I had, and when the avocados started coming in, I did what I always do when I need to remind myself how to make a favorite recipe: I head to my website and check my blog for old recipe posts. But it wasn’t there. I found the half-written post on my laptop, So, hopefully you can still get your hands on some good fresh avocados, because this recipe is delicious and free of the top nine food allergens.
Recipe for Avocado Chocolate Pudding
But first, a story—or just scroll down:
When we were house shopping on the Big Island, we found the PERFECT house. The one-acre plot was perfectly landscaped, with a huge statue of Tara (the divine feminine face of Buddha) guarding the beautiful wrought-iron gate to the lush, well-manicured property. There were no visible neighbors, with jungle on all sides but one, where the neighbor’s equally lush garden created a dense visual border between the houses.
We told our realtor that day to make an offer. The house had been on the market for 148 days, so I guess they figured they could drag their feet. Despite our multiple requests to move things along, it took three days for our realtor to type up and submit our offer. By then, the owners had accepted another offer. The house of our dreams sat in escrow for several months, and finally, the sellers started taking backup offers. We asked our realtor again to make an offer. Again, they dragged their feet, and again, we didn’t get the house. (The people who bought the house renovated and flipped it within the year.)
We had no choice but to let that house go, wait for our contract with that realtor to expire, then go house shopping again with a new realtor who promised that when we found a suitable house, she’d be able to submit an offer within 24 hours. The house we found was almost as good as the house we wanted but was missing one of my top ten must-haves: a soaker tub in the main suite. The yard had some great trees surrounded by giant weeds, many of them full of nasty sticker vines with roots to China. It’s not perfect but it’ll do, and I figure that maybe in five years we’ll have made it work for us.
I know from being an earthling for sixty-plus years that often, the thing we desperately want isn’t the thing we need. We don’t always know what’s best for us, because we can’t see the full picture from where we are at any given moment in our lives. We can never know all the possible outcomes that could result from having our dreams fulfilled or denied. So, whenever I’m wishing/praying/manifesting a dearly held desire, I visualize my desire in detail and ask the Universe to deliver, but I always add the caveat: I gratefully accept this or something better.
There’s no telling the heaps of trouble we avoided when we lost the house of our dreams and snagged this one instead. This or something better didn’t get us the house or yard we wanted, but it did land us exactly where we needed to be.
We are grateful every day to be living in a not-quite-right house on 10th Avenue, surrounded by a needs-some-love yard and a street-full of fantastic neighbors who’ve become treasured friends.
Christi and David have given us so many plant cuttings and seedlings that my garden now has some lush and colorful areas to enjoy. So have Jonathan and Tony, who also give us eggs from their chickens. Dennis brings us an unlimited supply of butter-avocados, and he’s teaching our daughter Tessa to use a potter’s wheel. Sarah showed us the best swimming spots, Annie’s bees give us honey, and our neighbor Tess has joined Annie and me in taking a weekly aerial yoga class at Annie’s daughter’s studio in Hilo town. Carol and Christi share their recipes for the exotic foods that grow in our area.
Last year, Carol gave me a decadent two-minute recipe for dairy-free chocolate pudding made with avocados. Here it is:
Dairy-free Avocado Chocolate Pudding
For two servings you will need:
- One ripe avocado, pitted and peeled
- ½ Cup Greek yogurt (I use dairy-free yogurt made from coconuts) or full-fat coconut milk.
- 2 tablespoons cocoa powder
- 2 tablespoons maple syrup or honey
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Put it all in a blender and zoop it up until it’s smooth and creamy. Dip in a finger and taste, then add more yogurt/milk, cocoa, or sweetener as needed to achieve perfection. Refrigerate in an airtight container and use within 3 days.
