This just may be responsible for a puddle of drool on keyboards across the Globe.
Including my own.
Meet Trader Joe’s Sunflower Seed Butter and a Gala Apple!
In unison, they make something I’d like to call Crunchy Buttaaaah.
I will not rest until the smooth, buttery, sweetness meets my lips once again.
Until then, I present to you another Afternoon Powersnack recipe!
This recipe is a wake-up call for when your forehead feels like it is going to meet the keyboard at the strike of 3pm. DONG!
Start with pumpkin.
Most importantly, add chocolate lava.
Not just any chocolate lava though…high-protein chocolate lava!
And carob lava.
And a hint of sweetness because that is a lot of pumpkin!
Boom.
Meet Chocolate Carob Pumpkin Pudding! It is high-fibre, high-protein, and packed with nutrients!
High Protein Chocolate Carob Pumpkin Pudding
Ingredients:
- 1.5 cups canned pumpkin
- 1/2 cup Vega Chocolate Protein Powder (or other sweet chocolate protein powder)
- 2-3 tbsp carob powder, to taste
- 3/4 cup Almond Milk
- 2 tbsp pure maple syrup
- Drizzle of maple syrup, to garnish
- Unsweetened coconut, to garnish
Directions: Scoop the canned pumpkin into a medium sized bowl. In another medium sized bowl, scoop the Vega protein powder and carob powder and mix. Add 3/4 cup Almond Milk and whisk well until all clumps are gone. Add this mixture to the pumpkin and mix well. Now add the maple syrup, 1 tbsp at a time. Adjust to taste. Add more syrup if necessary. Garnish with coconut.
Makes four, 1/2 cup servings at 140 kcals, 2 grams fat, 8 grams fibre, 7 grams protein.
This healthy pudding is nice because it isn’t super sweet and overwhelming, but I will warn you it is nothing like the pudding I used to eat as a child (you remember those Jell-O packs?). This is healthy pudding made with pumpkin so keep that in mind! You can modify it any way you wish. If it isn’t sweet enough, add more sweetener. If you want less sweetener in it, you can have it without. I added a couple tablespoons of maple syrup and was quite happy with the result. I really like that there are 8 grams of fibre and 7 grams of protein per half cup. It is very filling!
VegNews: The Vegetarian and Vegan Movement in Canada
Several months ago I told you that I was interviewed for a VegNews magazine article. Well, it is finally in print in their Sept + Oct 2010 issue!
The article is on the vegetarian and vegan movement in Canada and I couldn’t be more proud to be a part of it!
I highly recommend checking out this Food issue if you can get your hands on a copy. It features over 115 veg recipes too.
VegNews also has a wonderful Tree-Free subscription option. Instead of getting a magazine you will be delivered an on-screen digital edition. Cool stuff, right?
I really love this quote from the article, written by Moira Nordholt,
“Canadian vegetarians are in the business of making a compassionate lifestyle hip, accessible, and mainstream…As evidenced everywhere from way up north in Whitehorse, where the city’s second vegan restaurant is set to open this year, to Vancouver, where innovation in vegan foods is taking all of North America by storm, to Montreal, where the raw vegan movement is growing like Wheatgrass, there’s an evolution happening in the Great White North. Suddenly, vegan is en vogue. There’s long been a veg movement in Canada, but it is now driven by a seemingly unstoppable momentum.”
I am on the right below. :)
It will be fun to see how the movement continues to spread across Canada in the future. :)
Is there a vegetarian or vegan movement where you live? Are vegetarian and vegan foods readily accessible?
The pudding = top o’ my list of things to try. TOP. yummm
I second Gabriela above: NYC is thankfully very vegan-loving. Also very meat-loving, but we all get along just fine :) I wish it was as VEGETABLE-friendly as my hometown, Portland OR is (produce overflows there)… but hey, I still feel pretty lucky.
I’m really not into cooking, but I just had to comment that I’m most likely going to make this because it looks easy and doesn’t have a lot of ingredients. Weeeeeeee!
I live in the middle of what I like to call meat and potato land and it is incredibly hard to find vegetarian options and I think most people would look at me confused if I asked about Vegan options
Congratulations on your feature in VegNews!!
When I moved from Russia to New Zealand, it shocked me just how easy it is to be vegan/vegetarian here. In Russia though it is close to impossible to be vegan as we don’t even get more than 2 kinds of beans there (I’ve never heard of chickpeas before NZ).
I love your blog! It inspires me so much to achieve my goals. Thank you.
I saw you in vegnews. Sadly the day I read it you had posted about making meat for your husband. I was concerned that lots of vegnews readers (who tend to be ethical vegans) would be turned off from your site. Do you ever worry about that when posting meat dishes that your dining companions eat?
There is a pretty big vegan movement in Seattle, of course. Plenty of restaurants to choose from. I’m lucky. I loved the article about Canada and need to head over the border more often.
Congrats on making it into the magazine! I’ve never bought it before, but I’m definitely going to pick up that copy.
I wish our area had more vegetarian/vegan restaurants! I think we’re slowly hopping on the bandwagon though, with the opening of Kind Food and Wild Seed in the past year. Have you ever been to Wild Seed (in the Kula yoga studio in Burlington)?
I just got some of the Tj’s sunflower nut butter and it is amazing. I have been having it everyday.
What a colorful magazine. Congrats on the article.
Being in Southern California…there are a lot of people who are fit and are health conscious. I am lucky to lived where there are a lot of vegan options, either gourmet or fast food type of restaurants.
I prefer cooking my own food though. You make vegan food look so delicious.
I got my issue a few days ago and it was awesome to see you in print. Congrats!!
oh shoot, that apple looks utterly amazing.
Wow… that pudding looks amazing. I LOVE Pumpkin anything so I will definitely try this. I am new to reading your blog and I just love so many of your recipes. I am by no means a vegan or vegetarian (though I used to be both at one point in my life), but I still love to cook vegan/veggie dishes. I’m glad I found your blog!
I am happy to report that my campus has vegan desserts!!! It counts, right?
Wow, I’ll have to try that pudding. It looks so delicious, and like a great way to “sneak in” more veggies.
Unfortunately there is no vegan/vegetarian movement to speak of where I live. In fact it is quite the opposite. I am constantly hearing how being vegan is bad for me and that I should at least eat fish and dairy and eggs. Sometimes I get discouraged by this, as I am a relatively new vegan (three months), and end up eating fish. I always feel bad afterwards, both mentally and physically. I feel so much better being vegan, and it makes me a bit sad that I’m pressured to eat what I don’t want.
Congrats on the article! you certainly deserve all kinds of credit.
woo hoo! thanks for posting, angela! hope to see you at the toronto veggie food fair!
I live in Ottawa and am not overly impressed with the vegetarian/vegan options here. There are some vegetarian restaurants here, but not as many as you might expect for Canada’s capital city! Also, the restaurants that do exist seem to be very similar (often buffet-style, pay by weight). There is nothing comparable to Fresh or Live in Toronto. Health food stores are also few and far between and often ridiculously overpriced.
I live in San Diego, CA, and this place has been ahead of the game in regards to Vegan & Vegetarian but what’s really catching on now is locally grown foods & grass fed meat products. The whole thing is far enough along that there’s plenty of hugely popular restaurants that serve up only local fare, and they may not be all-veg but there’s plenty of veg options on the menus and things tend to be clearly labeled. It’s a nice change from Chicago, where there’s enough people to have vegan places like you all tried, but the majority of the food is greasy & fattening because that’s what is original to that city.
I’ve been a vegetarian for 21 years and I live in northern Alberta, often referred to as “cattle country”. It was extremely difficult when I first became a vegetarian to find anything veg nevermind vegan! Some people actually took offense of me being vegetarian. Thankfully these days it’s acceptable and even admired! There are many options at regular grocery stores now, and most restaurants have at least one vegetarian option (more would be nice). Sooooo much easier now, and nice not to be the only vegetarian in town!!
Yes, we have vegan restaurants & we’re able to get vegan foods fairly easily in Philadelphia, PA
What brand of pumpkin do you use? It looks so much drier than mine, but maybe that’s just the magic of the camera. I use Trader Joe’s organic or Libby….whatever I can get my hands on since the pumpkin shortage. :(