There's always a reason to celebrate!! Life is truly spectacular, especially when viewed through a child's eyes. Why limit a party to events like birthdays? My children have made so many remarkable achievements recently that we decided to celebrate. Just like there is always a reason to celebrate, there is always a reason to celebrate with chocolate!
My BuckarooBabies first and favourite foods are things like superfood smoothies, Barley Green, sauerkraut, lemon (yes, you read correctly - lemon!). For the early years I keep them totally away from sugar or grains. Did you know that while the world advocates rice cereals, gluten and sucrose loaded formula, teething biscuits and other horrors for small babies these are probably the worst introductory foods? The immature virgin gut is unable to handle grains and sugars. In the refined food obsessed era it is no easy task avoiding gluten. Wherever we look we are faced with pasta, cereals, breads and so on. Our digestive system is ill equipped to handle the onslaught. It is no wonder so many of us in adult years have gut issues or food allergies. We think that healthy must taste horrible but this is not at all the case! My chocolate mousse wins fans with every bite.
How true is Hippocrates statement; "Let food be your medicine and medicine be your food". Our modern lifestyles have taken us so far from this ideal way of living. It is time to return to our nourishing traditions of wholesome and exciting foods. It is therefor thrilling to me to give my children the best possible foundation. They are so excited about the diverse and colourful options of food that they can help make.
This recipe can be served crustless as dessert or as a cake on a nutty crust base. The crust can also be lightly baked or served raw.
CHOCOLATE MOUSSE CRUST
1 cup almonds soaked overnight
1 cup of depitted dates with enough water to cover
dash of salt
dash of vanilla seeds
Rinse and thoroughly dry almonds. Blend the dates, almonds, salt and vanilla together in a power blender. Do so to your desired consistency.
For those of you who haven't seen my recipe in bygone years, you may be surprised to know that the chief, and secret ingredient is the very rich avocado. This wonderfully nutritious fruit is full of potassium and a natural antioxidant. It is also a good cholestrol. The fat of the avo is essential to general well being, as well as brain health. The rest of the ingredients are equally nutritious as well as delicious!
CHOCOLATE MOUSSE
5 large ripe avos
1 cup raw organic cacao
1/3 cup honey or maple syrup
1/3 cup coconut oil (melted)
1 orange
Dash of vanilla pod
You can tweak the filling by adding more cacao or honey for a darker or sweeter consistency. For something different I squeezed the juice of one orange into the filling but I usually don't.
In the food processor mix avos, cacao, maple syrup and melted coconut oil until smooth. Because it is still winter in SA we had to make sure the coconut oil was melted and relatively warm. Cacao - specifically the organic and raw cacao - is a wonderful source of magnesium and iron. Cacao rich foods will help combat depression, stress, blood pressure and boost heart health. So feel guilt free getting your regular chocolate fix!
Spread the delicious soft chocolate ganache on top of your almond crust. Refrigerate. Preferably overnight to set but we only gave it a couple hours. It lasts well for a week. People are usually shocked to discover there's a "veggie" in this yummy cake! Combined with all the other wonderful ingredients this Chocolate Ganache is really a superfood which can be eaten - guilt free - for breakfast!
Chocolate combined with most everything makes it that much more extravagant. I loved the zesty blend with the rich chocolate. We dried and ground naartjie (clementine) skins off our tree this year. The children helped sprinkled the naartjie powder lightly over the mousse.
The results were spectacular! To help us celebrate we spontaneously invited another homesteading homeschooling family over for a play date. Needless to say there was no chocolate mousse for breakfast the next day. But there is still a fridge full of avo and plenty reasons to celebrate.......
