Banana Tofu Pudding: Day 22

When I was growing up, I knew two kinds of prepared pudding mixes: the cook ‘n’ serve that took a half an hour of stirring on the stove–or so it seemed to me, perched on a stool and charged with keeping the pot from burning on the bottom–and the instant stuff that was vastly inferior.

Now, I have a better choice, and it is just as quick to prepare as instant pudding, with all the creamy deliciousness of a cook ‘n’ serve.

The only drawback is that, for some reason, the color separates in this pudding creating a thin upper layer of beige over the cream-colored pudding below. The texture is no different, but the dark layer makes a strange visual that will not fool anyone into thinking they are eating “regular” pudding.

Yes, I know, you want me to add lemon. I do. I have even experimented with adding more lemon juice, but any additional lemon overpowers the banana flavor without stabilizing the color.

Caution: Taste Before Sweetening

Bananas get sweeter as they age. You may find that ripe bananas do not need any sweetener at all. The first day I made this, I used fresh bananas and four packets of sweetener. Two days later, I only needed two packets, and I was glad I had tasted before adding more.

Banana Tofu Pudding

serves 2

• 2 bananas
• 1/2 of 20 ounce pkg of silky tofu
• 2 teaspoons of lemon juice
• dash of salt
• sweetener to taste

Combine bananas, tofu, lemon juice, and salt in a blender and blend until smooth. No blender? Use an eggbeater. Note: If you try to do this by hand, the tofu may not blend with the bananas.

Taste and add sweetener as needed.

Pour into serving dishes and chill for two hours.

You can add any fruit you want to this. I was planning to add strawberries tonight. You could also stir in cooked quinoa to make it more like a tapioca pudding.

Alter Eco Chocolate Bar

Unfortunately, I will not be able to have banana tofu pudding tonight because I ate half a candy bar this afternoon.

Alter Eco is introducing new packaging for their Fair Trade products, and they sent me a promotional package of dark chocolate candy bars, quinoa, and rice. I could not resist the temptation to try the Dark Mint bar today. My son took half of the bar (five sections) so I would not overdo, but still 220 calories and 14 grams of fat swallowed up any pudding wiggle room I might have had at the end of the day.

For those who are interested, the dark mint candy bar is a crisp confection, kind of like the inside of a malted milk ball. Delicious. Despite my best intentions to ration the sections over the course of a day or two, they were gone in about fifteen minutes.

Today’s Meals

Day 22 of my quinoa diet and I seem to have hit my stride with a breakfast and lunch routine that is simple to maintain. I’m still looking for potassium sources, but at least I have made bananas and spinach a daily habit.

Breakfast – yogurt and quinoa, banana

Lunch – eggs, spinach, quinoa, and cheese

Snack – candy bar

Dinner – chili con carne with beans, cheese, quinoa, zucchini, corn

What about you? Do you think you would like banana tofu pudding? Is that too “far out” for your family?

Let me know in the comments.

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