Chocolate Mousse for Nutrition? How to Effectively Hide Fruits and Veg into Your Children’s Food
I love avocados! They have got to be the most versatile foods and one of the most satisfying as well. To say they are healthy is understatement as they are a nutritional powerhouse jam packed with heart-healthy fats, folic acid and potassium. My whole family enjoys avocado in any form, whether it be plain in a sandwich, guacamole on nachos, strawberry and avocado salad or as a base for pesto. But when a friend of mine mentioned she had fed her non-avocado eating husband and son avocados in the form of chocolate mousse I became intrigued!
I couldn’t imagine the combination of chocolate and avocado working in a favourable manner, but apparently my friend’s husband and son happily ate it, being none-the-wiser.
How does one make a delicious chocolate mousse using avocados??
So I decided to experiment with my family, and created a basic recipe that uses just 2 avocados, 1 cup of agave syrup, half a cup of raw cacao powder and half a teaspoon of vanilla powder. All you do is pop it all in a mixing bowl and blend it together with a stick blender and wallah! Rich, creamy, chocolate mousse!
I couldn’t believe how indulgent this nutritious blend of ingredients was! The cacao is rich in iron and magnesium and extremely high in antioxidants, complimenting the goodness of the avocado. This is truly a dessert I felt good about serving to my daughter. I served it with segments of tangelo (choc-orange is amazing) and as if someone waved a magic wand and said abracadabra, the mousse was gone! And nobody knew there was avocado in it…Talk about hiding vegetables (well, technically fruit!)
I also found that this freezes well into icy pole moulds to make yummy creamy chocolate popsicles and keeps for a couple of months in the freezer.
Chocolate mousse in its traditional non-vegan form is a nutritional disaster being full of refined sugars, cholesterol and saturated fats, so I am ecstatic that it is possible to make one that tastes just as incredible without the cruelty or the health risks. It is always nice as a mum to know you are serving fresh, healthy foods that will benefit your children and there is something I love about my daughter thinking she is just eating chocolate mousse when I know that it is chocolate avocado!
Wondering how to effectively hide other fruits and veg into your children’s favourite foods?
Here are some other tricks I use to cram fresh fruits and vegetables into Leilani’s diet:
1. Fresh fruit icy poles: I blend the flesh of fresh bananas, mangos, peaches, apricots, cantaloupe, watermelon and strawberries into a smooth puree (no added water or juices – just pure fruit pulp) and spoon into icy pole moulds and freeze. This makes a sweet, satisfying treat in summer that is packed full of vitamins and always a winner!
2. Acai Bowls for breakfast: Leilani thinks she is eating ice cream for breakfast but in actual fact she is eating a bowl jam packed with antioxidants! I blend together acai pulp with banana and other frozen berries (strawberries, blueberries, raspberries – any will do!). I spoon this into a bowl and top it with granola and some chopped banana and it is devoured before I blink my eyes!
3. When I make mashed potatoes I always mash it together with cauliflower! Leilani has no idea she is eating a cruciferous vegetable and she is gaining the benefits of all the extra phytonutrients, vitamins and minerals!
4. I make wholegrain chocolate, apple and zucchini muffins sweetened with agave syrup! All Leilani seems to notice is the minimal chocolate chips in the otherwise highly nutritional muffin and the apple and zucchini goes completely unnoticed while being devoured…
Do you have any other tricks you use? Share with us in the comments section below!
Cover image: Shutterstock.
Thanks for the Mousse recipe. How many (child sized) serves would you say this recipe makes?
Hi Nina! The mousse is very rich, so I would say that it would make 6 childrens sizes – this is just a guesstimate really because my husband and I are usually responsible for devouring most of it! Hope this helps!