Rich, creamy, chocolate pudding that’s dairy free, gluten free, and refined sugar free thanks to the healthy fat in avocado and natural sweetener!

On Wednesday, I’ll be flying to Salt Lake City for the Everything Food Conference. It’s a big freakin’ deal, with a ton of freakin’ people, and I’m already exhausted just looking at the schedule. “Being on” and networking take a lot out of me because I’m one of those extroverted introverts (or is it introverted extrovert?), so doing something like this is a big commitment. I’m going to be rooming with the fabulous Whitney Bond and have plans to meet up with a whole bunch of other lovely ladies that I’ve become internet-close with over the last couple years.

I’m even going to step out on Saturday evening to have dinner with a former business associate at his son’s restaurant.

AND I ordered new business cards so that people can look at them when they go home and say to themselves, “Yeah I don’t remember this chick at all“, “Oh, god, HER”, or “…her?” I always assume that no one is going to remember me, that I’m just not that memorable. When someone on the street says, “Hey, Leslie, how are you?!” I have this moment of sheer panic where I’m frantically trying to figure out what I did that would cause this person to know who I am. 

I’ve never been to a food conference before, so I figured “go big or go home”. In this case, I’m going to go big and then go home. My flight is an overnight that gets in at something like 5:45AM on Sunday, so that’s obviously going to be a super productive Sunday for me – you know, with all the zombie-ing and sleeping and whatnot.

I’m really excited for this event, and I’ve been told I should pack an extra bag just for swag to bring home. Mind you, I’m not going to pay the checked bag fee just to bring home free stuff (because hello, defeating the purpose of free stuff), but I do hope there’s chocolate in there something. Because sweetbabyjesus do I love chocolate.

It’s extremely rare that I don’t crave chocolate. Honestly. At any given moment in time, you could ask me what I’m craving and I’m 99.99% sure it’s going to be something chocolatey. Take for instance an hour ago when I came to the realization on this sunny 75° day that I wanted hot chocolate. Dark, rich hot chocolate. With whipped cream, of course.

It doesn’t matter the time of day, the temperature, or where I am. Chocolate runs through my blood, I swear to you. I’ve never actually asked a doctor to test that… maybe I should.

I’ve made this chocolate avocado pudding so many times I’ve lost count, and I can’t believe I never had the recipe on here. I’ve got my mango chia pudding and chocolate cherry pomegranate chia pudding, but nothing beats a good chocolate pudding IMHO. I’m not saying there’s not a place and time for those sorts of things, because there totally is.

Nor am I saying that a good dark chocolate bread pudding doesn’t deserve a place in the spotlight sometimes. It does, but not when I’m looking for a deep, dark, creamy pudding that requires nothing more than an easy dip of a spoon to make my food dreams come true.

Here’s the thing about this pudding – you can control the level of sweetness without it drastically changing the final result. As in, if you don’t want it as sweet, you’re welcome to use less maple syrup or honey and it will be just as thick, creamy and delicious. I like to add chia seeds for a little nutritional boost, but you can leave those out if you so choose.

I’m a huge fan of topping this with fresh berries, but you can add whatever you’d like – or leave it plain! It can stand on its own, no problem. I’ve also topped it with salted date caramel, crushed Oreos, pretzel pieces, mini chocolate chips, and whipped cream. And I obviously mean that I’ve eaten it with each of those separately and not all at the same time because I wanted to feel like I was at Pinkberry. Obviously.

Not a fan of chocolate, but still need some pudding in your life?

• This butterscotch pudding from Bowl of Delicious is heavenly. I’m telling you from experience.
• If you’re into key lime pie, then you’ll love this creamy key lime pudding from Baker by Nature!
• I’m all about lemons right now, so this easy lemon pudding is screaming my name.
• Put your fancy pants on for this Cabernet strawberry rhubarb pudding from Vintage Kitty.

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