chocolate chia pudding, and a surprising success

This pudding is awesome. So healthy, so delicious, so cool and hydrating and satisfying after, say, a Bikram yoga class. Or any time, really, when you live in a place where the daytime temperature is comparable to the Bikram studio. I’ve made it twice now, which is doubly impressive because when there are sweet potatoes in the house, only a seriously spectacular recipe can persuade me to do something with them that isn’t this.

Chocolate chia pudding
_{(adapted from Food Doodles)}

1 small sweet potato, baked, cooled, peeled
3/4 c almond milk
2 tbsp chia seeds
2 tbsp cocoa powder
1 tsp vanilla
pinch salt
sweetener to taste*

In a blender, puree the sweet potato and 1/2 cup almond milk until smooth and creamy. Add the rest of the ingredients and blend until smooth, adding additional almond milk as necessary to reach desired consistency. I like to let it chill in the fridge (or even the freezer!) for a few hours, but it can be eaten right away.

Makes two normal-sized servings or one post-Bikram-meltdown serving.

* The first time I made this, I used 10 drops of liquid stevia and a dash of agave. The second time, I used one pitted medjool date and 5 drops of stevia. It was delicious both times! If you like things sweeter, more agave or maple syrup (a la Heidi’s original recipe) would probably be perfect.

hellooo, beautiful vitamix

In unrelated news, remember my epically pathetic cookie dough debacle? Last night I needed something to bring to a concert + picnic in the park, so I dug a cup of the still-gooey mess from the freezer and added — obviously — oats: 1/2 cup rolled oats + 1/2 cup quick oats. Turns out my “oats make everything better” motto has yet to be falsified: cut the sweetness and added a bit of texture. The resulting cookies were crispy on the outside and chewy-oatmeal on the inside, with the most interesting flavor that I’ll never be able to recreate. They were a hit!