Chocolate Pudding - The Wrong Way - A Lesson Learned

Where do I begin? Probably with a little background. I received a Paleo cookbook from my folks for Christmas a while back when I was going through a "super healthy" phase. No they don't think I'm fat, I asked for one as a gift. I've heard good things about the Paleo way of eating and wanted to check it out. You may be asking, "What does Paleo mean?" or "How do you eat this way?" Simply put, Paleo is eating like our ancestors or eating whole foods, avoiding processed, refined, nutrient-poor, factory made foods. In a bit more detail, it means avoiding grains, most beans, refined sugar (which is in almost everything, you'll be surprised when you read your labels) and pasteurized dairy products. Don't let this scare you off, it's just a different way of thinking about what you put in your body and how you plan your meals.

But as the title implies, this is not a lesson on how to eat Paleo or an evangelist blog on healthy eating, it's about a not-so-tasty chocolate pudding recipe I made the horrible mistake of making. Like I said, I was going through a "super healthy" phase in my life so I mixed the recipe up. Not gonna lie, It looked yummy. Oh how looks can be deceiving. This is a classic example of why NOT to judge a book by its covers. I was so excited to taste it. I dug my spoon in, got a big heaping tablespoon and into my mouth it went. It hit my taste buds and it was NOT good! Not just like eh-that-didn't-taste-so-good bad, but I-think-I-should-spit-this-out bad. Me being optimistic, I thought, I'll let it chill, it will get better. A couple hours later, gave it another try. Not only did is still taste like crap, now it tasted like cold crap. Still wishing I could make this work, I let it chill overnight, maybe the flavors have to mellow and blend together (yes, you can call me an idiot at this point). Next day pulled out the spoons (yup, spoons plural. I had my son try it too) and we dug in. My sons eyes grew wide and he starts to gag, runs to the garbage can and spits it out. Admittedly he's a bit of a drama king at times, but then the flavor hits me. I also came unbearably close to spitting it out myself. I must have had a weird look on my face because my son bursts out laughing. I just shake my head and empty the remaining batch into the garbage. This pudding and recipe lies you to you. It looks yummy, but then plays a horrible practical joke on your taste buds.

I'm going to spare posting the recipe. Email me if you want to torture a hated neighbor or a disliked co-worked, I'll send it to you. Just don't tell anyone where you got it from.

I'm pretty good at judging the taste of recipe by reading it, but this fooled me. In the immortal words of The Who - "Won't Get Fooled Again" Enjoy!