Home Made Dark Chocolate Low Fat Pudding

If you're like me, anything "chocolate" is a favorite.  Except maybe the hot pepper chocolate bars, those are kind of, well, scary.  They don't taste very good either.  I love pudding, but I don't like instant pudding.  The pudding that you have to cook on the stove is very delicious, but a little time consuming.  It's also not the healthiest alternative to deserts.
I was watching a medical show and the topic was how to get rid of belly fat.  A hot topic these days.  One thing that was stated as a belly fat fighter, was dark chocolate.  The darker the better.  Sounds too good to be true, so I thought I better act quick before that tip is recanted.

My Grandmothers Homemade Jello Salad recipe is a favorite one on this blog.  Every week, people from all over the world, visit the "Grandma's Jello Salad" blog page.  In the recipe Grandma shares how to make a homemade fruit pudding.  It's delicious.  I was talking to her the other day and told her I was going to try to modify it to make chocolate pudding.  She said to go ahead and let her know how it turned out.  Well, it turned out amazingly well!  It's a versatile recipe, by adding butterscotch chips, vanilla flavoring or use fruit juice instead of milk, this pudding can be made to suit any tastes!

Home Made Dark Chocolate Low Fat Pudding:

1 egg, beaten

1 cup 2% milk

3 tablespoons flour

2 teaspoons sugar

1 pinch kosher salt

1/2 cup dark chocolate chips (I used dark chocolate Hershey kisses)

In a small bowl add the flour and 1 tablespoon of the milk, mix into a paste, add a little more milk from the 1 cup if needed.  This will keep the flour from clumping.

Add the milk and egg to a small saucepan over medium heat, and heat through

Add the flour paste and continue to whisk

Add the pinch salt

The pudding will thicken quickly, so don't take your eyes from it

Once the pudding starts to thicken lower the heat and add the chocolate chips

Mix well until the chocolate has melted

Taste to see if you need the sugar, add more or less to your tastes

I only added the sugar because dark chocolate can be a bit bitter for young tastes and I wanted my son to enjoy the pudding too, so I added 2 teaspoons raw sugar to it.  

No need to chill until set, it will already be thick, and warm pudding is always tastier than cold.  Cold chocolate pudding is delicious too, but I prefer warm.  

This would be a wonderful pie filling as well.  Add some fruit and you've got a fantastic, easy, fancy desert.  

Easy Pancakes from Scratch with Molasses and Blueberries

Easy Pancakes from Scratch with Molasses and Blueberries

I love pancakes, but I don't like using a mix.  The boxed pancake mixes are so full of sodium, preservatives, calories and lots of other additives.  I've been using a recipe I found several years ago, to make homemade pancakes.  The recipe is so easy, and delicious.  I've modified it a bit to suit our tastes.  My son loves these pancakes, he wants peanut butter on his instead of syrup.  Peanut butter is good for him since it's full of protein, so I don't mind putting it on his pancakes in place of syrup.  Where we have trouble, are the days, he wants to add syrup to his peanut butter pancake.  Um, no.  That's too close to a candy bar for me to allow as a breakfast meal.  It's either, syrup or peanut butter, not both.  We use pure maple syrup, or molasses instead of those processed syrups full of artificial colors and flavors.

Our favorite pancakes are blueberry pancakes.  Fresh blueberries are so expensive and not always available during the winter.  I have found an easy, as well as, less expensive alternative.  Frozen blueberries.  The only ingredient in the frozen blueberries are.....blueberries.  I buy a big bag of frozen blueberries, which lasts me for months.  After I mix the batter, I add the frozen blueberries to it and then put on the griddle.  They thaw and heat through while the pancake cooks.  I've had too many experiences with super hot, or "molten" blueberries, when fresh ones were used.  Too hot, not nice in a morning breakfast meal.  Frozen ones work very well, try it, you'll see! 

Easy Pancakes from Scratch:

1 Egg, beaten

2 tablespoons Canola Oil

1 tablespoon molasses

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup self rising flour

3/4 cup 2% milk 

1/2 cup frozen blueberries

In a large mixing bowl, whisk the egg

Then add the 2 tablespoons oil

(To keep the molasses from sticking to the measuring spoon, put the oil in first, then measure the molasses in the same spoon.  The oil keeps the molasses from sticking to the spoon.)  

Add the molasses, (I usually add a little bit more than 1 tablespoon because I like the flavor so much.)

Whisk together, then add the flour

Add the milk (feel free to add more or less depending on how thick you like your pancake batter)

Mix well, then add the frozen blueberries

Pour onto a griddle heated to 350 degrees

When bubbles start to form on top an the edges have drawn up a little, flip the pancakes.  

As a treat, add some dark chocolate chips to the batter with the blueberries, it's really good!

Any kind of frozen berries works, I've used mixed berries, raspberries, and strawberries.