…Chocolate?

I’ve been eating chocolate all day!

This morning I decided to spice up my regular coffee routine by adding some chocolate into my freshly brewed coffee. Yum!

Breakfast consisted of a decadent bowl of chocolatey-coconutty oatmeal (porridge, actually).

Even my after-lunch dessert involved chocolate!

That’s right…some chocolate-banana soft-serve.

Oh yes.

…

…..

………

………….April Fool’s!

Confused?

Let me explain.

2 words: Carob.Powder.

(Sorry for the extremely lame April Fool’s prank :))

I’ve been dying to try this little bad boy for a while, and finally over spring break I purchased a bag of Bob’s Red Mill Toasted Carob Powder from Whole Foods.

The minute I returned to school, I tore open the bag, dipped my finger into the powder, made my mom do the same, and we both tried it. I loved it. My mom didn’t (shocker).

Taste test: noticeable toasted flavor, subtly sweet with notes of a “butterscotchy” flavor.

I was immediately drawn to the richly toasted flavor. Carob is typically used as a substitute for cocoa powder. It is incredibly healthy, low calorie, fat free, and even looks like cocoa powder! True chocoholics like myself could easily tell the difference, but I’m thinking that the flavor will quickly grow on me and my taste buds will adjust when needed.

Since today is April Fool’s Day, I decided to try and “fool” myself (my taste buds actually) with carob powder as a cocoa powder substitute.

First, I brewed carob-enhanced coffee by stirring in 1 tsp. of carob powder with my freshly brewed black coffee.

The result?

Not bad…not bad at all…

Breakfast also involved carob powder and not chocolate!. I made porridge again but altered the recipe (the basic porridge recipe is still the same though) with some interesting add-ins. I also created the best topping ever- carob chips!

CAROB CHIPS

Ingredients:

-1.5 Tbs. carob powder

-1.5 tsp. coconut oil

Directions:

1.) Melt the coconut oil in the microwave.

2.) Add in the carob powder and stir until the mixture is well blended.

3.) Transfer the contents onto wax paper and smooth out into your desired thickness (I made mine pretty thin- about 1/4″)

4.) Refrigerate or freeze (I froze mine) until the mixture firms up.

5.) Cut into chips or just break apart with your hands. Store in an airtight container in the fridge or freezer.

Makes about 2 Tbs. of carob chips

These have an intense flavor that will definitely take some time to adjust to. I may mess around with the recipe and try to figure out how to make these carob chips a bit less intense and more mild.

Before freezing:

After removing from the freezer:

I used my hands to quickly break apart the large chunk into smaller bite-size pieces. Try to minimize the amount of time you spend touching the carob pieces as they may melt quickly.

Seriously…am I sure that this isn’t chocolate? Sure does look convincing enough!

CAROB-COCONUT PORRIDGE

Ingredients:

-1/2 cup ground-up rolled oats

-1 cup non-daiy milk

-1/2 cup water (can add more if a more liquidy consistency is desired)

-2 tsp. maple syrup

-1 tsp. carob powder

-1/8 tsp. salt (optional in this recipe)

-1 Tbs. shredded coconut

-1 Tbs. carob chips (see recipe above)

Directions:

1.) Combine ground-up oats, non-dairy milk, water, carob powder, and maple syrup in a small pot and cook until oats are soft, about 5-10 minutes.

2.) Transfer to a bowl, top with carob chips and shredded coconut and enjoy!

This definitely looks like a chocolatey oatmeal breakfast! Could’ve fooled anyone…

I dislike eating very sweet things for breakfast, and the richness and sweetness of this oatmeal personally was overwhelming for an early morning meal. You could give me the greatest slice of cake and I still wouldn’t be able to eat it for breakfast without feeling nauseous!

No no, don’t think that the porridge wasn’t delicious! It was perfectly balanced and scrumptious. It was just more of a dessert than a breakfast for me. The carb chips are very sweet and have a very rich flavor, and I would have preferred to leave them out and eat them later with a dessert (read on…) instead.

For an after-lunch dessert I made carob-banana “soft serve” topped with the remaining carob chips.

It was very sweet and actually did taste chocolatey! I bet this could’ve fooled anyone as well…

A brief story about my banana “soft-serve.” My sophomore year of college opened up the world of cooking for me. I finally had my own kitchen (unlike the freshman dorm), but I had to start from scratch and learn how to actually use it. I caught on quickly (my mom probably passed down her gift to me :)) and the experiments began.

The best discovery was perhaps the simplest one- a blended frozen banana. In fact, I became obsessed with frozen bananas in general. My top two methods of enjoyment were (and still are!) blending them into soft-serve or slicing them up and drizzling them with melted chocolate. Absolutely to die for.

I wasn’t clever enough to call the blended version a “soft-serve” but now it’s the only appropriate way to describe this guilt-free decadent dessert!

Seriously, frozen bananas rock.my.world.

You can literally mix anything into the soft-serve and create hundreds of flavors.

Go wild!

I think my after dinner dessert will have to be the real thing- a beautiful 85% or 90% dark chocolate square with some raspberry jam 🙂 Best.Combo.Ever.

Or I maybe probably don’t need anymore sweetness today…

My final verdict? I really enjoyed the flavor of carob powder and will definitely continue to use it! At times I think I did fool my taste buds into believing that I was eating chocolate. Ultimately, everything carob-enhanced that I ingested today was awesome! I might have overwhelmed myself with it today, and maybe even over-did it a bit in the sugar department. I’m all carobed out!

Seriously…I don’t think I can eat anything carob for at least a week. Too much of anything is a bad thing

It would have been really fun to play a “chocolatey” prank on someone all day by making them believe that they’re eating chocolate and then at the end of the day scream, “April Fool’s!” and proudly say that it was carob powder all along.

I’m not sure if my parents would have fallen for it, but I am pretty sure my chocoholic sister would be able to tell the difference.

And I bet Max would’ve inhaled all of the decadent meals without even the slightest suspicion 🙂

Nonetheless, chocolate still rules the world ♥

“Uplift everybody and uplift yourself”

~From Russia With Love~