I’m so excited!! I feel like a little kid on Christmas Eve….
I have a package in the mail that contains some extra-special ingredients I’ve been wanting to buy for a while. You see, both of the ingredients I purchased are a wee bit expensive, but they’re ingredients I’ll use often so I wanted to buy them in bulk in order to save some money in the long run. Unfortunately, that means I had to pay more now, which I wasn’t able to justify until recently.
So, what are these extra-special ingredients, you may ask?
That, my friends, is a secret 
I will give you a hint, though: they’re dessert ingredients. My favorite!! Expect to see some really delicious desserts in the near future…
The reason I finally caved and bought my pricey treats is because I’ve been seriously craving sweets lately. I’ve been feeling much better ever since I cut out refined starches and all forms of sugar (including foods containing natural sugars like fruit) from my diet (you can read more about why here). This change has actually gone more smoothly than I thought. I crave sweets, but then I’ve always craved sweets, so that’s nothing new. The couple of times that I have slipped up–once was at a restaurant and I had forgotten to check all the ingredients–I felt bloated and generally icky immediately afterward, signaling to me that I’m doing the right thing.
Since I’ve been craving sweets and tomorrow is the first official day of fall, a sugar-free dessert that boasts some quintessential fall flavors sounded like it would hit the spot. Enter my Caramel Apple Chia Pudding.
Cheers!
Full disclosure here: I first made this dessert more than a week ago when I was still eating fruit, which is why there are apples in the picture. This dessert is awesome with the chopped up apples, cinnamon, and caramel drizzled on top, but I’ve made it twice now in the past week excluding only the apples and it’s still absolutely delicious! I also decided to have this one morning when I was craving something really decadent for breakfast Whenever I’m able to eat fruit again, I’ll add the apples back on, but for right now, this was just what I needed!
- ¼ cup chia seeds
- 1 cup almond milk
- 1 Tbs. almond butter
- 1 Tbs. lucuma powder
- ½ tsp vanilla extract
- ¼ tsp. powdered stevia
- pinch of sea salt
- Optional Toppings: cinnamon, chopped apple, dairy-free caramel topping (2 tsp. almond butter, 1-2 tsp. lucuma powder, 1 Tbs. almond milk, ⅛ tsp. vanilla extract, pinch of salt, and 5 drops of liquid stevia mixed together in a small bowl until thick)
- Mix all of the ingredients (except for the chia seeds) in a blender or food processor.
- Place the chia seeds in a bowl and pour the almond milk mixture on top. Stir well and place into the fridge for at least 2 hours, making sure to stir occasionally.
- Top with chopped apples, drizzle with the dairy-free caramel sauce, and top with a sprinkle of cinnamon.
- Enjoy!
Once again, this caramel drizzle is based on Lou’s Quick “Nut Cream” Sauce–love this stuff!
*I’ve submitted this recipe to Healthy Vegan Friday
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YUM!! I know what I’m making for breakfast! I have lucuma in my pantry but haven’t used it in anything yet..this is perfect! Thx for the recipe
Oh, I love lucuma! I thought it was a little weird at first, but now I’m using it in everything! I hope you like it!
Amazing!! I just bought some honey crisp apples that are screaming to be drenched in that caramel!
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