Recipe: Chocolate pudding without the guilt

I’m a strong believer that you have to work with your cravings, not against them, in order to meet healthy-eating goals. So if, like me, your sweet tooth comes calling every afternoon, better to plan for it than to try to resist the siren call of the cookies downstairs.

One of my favourite healthy-but-decadent recipes is a raw and vegan one: chocomole, from the blog Choosing Raw. Instead of dairy, it uses avocados (!) as the creamy base, sweetened with dates and flavoured with cocoa (or, to be truly raw, ground cacao) and a bit of vanilla. It’s not low-fat (although it’s packed with good fat), nor is it low-sugar (dates, though natural and unprocessed, are extremely sweet). But it’s a million times healthier than most sweet snacks and it definitely satisfies my sweet tooth.

It’s also easy to make’I whipped up a double batch last night and it made enough for dessert for two, plus snack-size servings for the rest of the work week. Make sure to run the food processor for a long time to make it extra creamy.

What healthy snacks do you depend on to beat your cravings?