I've got a chocolate recipe that your heart will fall in love with...

So today is Recipe Redux day and you know what that means.  I'm blogging with a theme:
Favorite Chocolate Matches
Does your chocolate need a friend? This month’s posting will be after Valentine’s Day, so you may have a bit of extra chocolate around. What’s your favorite chocolate match? Be it traditional peanut butter or something more exotic like cayenne + chocolate. Show us your favorite healthy chocolate combo recipe.

I was going to share this recipe with you this month anyway, because after demoing it at a wellness center earlier this month, I fell in love.  My heart fell in love; literally and figuratively.  For those of you who didn't know, February is heart health month.    This recipe is very heart healthy, and I like it when my heart is healthy.  Don't you?  

I'll tell you the truth when I first saw people of the internet making puddings with avocados, I was quite skeptical.  Like how could chocolate and avocado actually pair together?  How could you get a pudding our mousse from something that grows from the ground?  Well, it works.  Avocados are rich, creamy and blend up in the food processor to creamy perfection.  Full of heart healthy fats, you can feel good about eating this pudding and there is NO DAIRY IN IT.  That's right!  So I guess you could say for those of you who follow special diets, that it's pretty much appropriate for everyone:  paleo, vegan, vegetarian, dairy free.  I think people who don't like fun are the only ones who'll be opting out of this recipe.  

While I think the avocado and chocolate make pretty great friends, you can absolutely jazz this up with even more exciting flavor pairings.  I like adding cinnamon, which you'll see in the recipe below.  A little sweet and a little spicy...it's perfect.  But you could change the flavor however you want!  Use coconut milk to get a coconut and chocolate pairing.  Add ginger.  The options are endless.  If you want to be super sneaky, serve this one to kids and don't tell them what the secret ingredient is until after they tell you it's awesome.  After you thank me for getting your kids to eat something green, tell me what your favorite chocolate pairing is!

So I thought I'd write a post that wasn't necessarily a standard recipe, but instead a recipe of sorts for conquering a busy week.  Like my week.  It felt like the week would never end, going from meeting to meeting, a million projects to accomplish and very little sleep.  This is the week of weeks where you'd probably eat a lot of McDonalds.  Or fast food.  Whatever you fancy.  Trust me I get it.  But with a few simple tricks and a little preparation ahead of time you can have some key weekly staples ready and prepared for your week.

Become a master veggie roaster.  I'm telling you.  I've never been the biggest fan of raw veggies but you roast them off in the oven and I'll eat the whole entire cookie sheet.  No joke.  Roast a pan or two of your favorites (I like squash, brussels sprouts, sweet potatoes, and carrots) and keep in the fridge ready to go for the week.  Eat on a salad, scramble with eggs, or serve as a side dish with a grilled meat.  You'll have the hardest part about making dinner already prepared, which will hopefully motivate you to use the veggies in healthy meals all week long!  To roast the veggies, preheat your oven to 425 F and roast veggies of choice for 20-40 minutes, depending on the vegetable.  Vegetables should be fork tender.  Season veggies with olive oil, salt and pepper.  For an added kick of flavor, I like chili powder!

Make your own snack mix.  This sounds like a no brainer, right?  I get bored of the standard healthy snacks.  I don't know about you, but just eating a handful of walnuts or almonds is far from satisfying for me.  It doesn't give the flavor or bite I'm looking for in an afternoon snack.  Instead of paying buckets of money for store bought trail mixes create your own!  Chocolatey, salty, sweet and savory, it's all up to you.  This week I went chocolatey making one with chocolate fiber one cereal, dark chocolate chips, cinnamon spiced pepitas, walnuts, cashews, and golden raisins.  The options are limitless.  Store in an airtight container and measure out by 1/3 cup servings and you'll be good to go for the week.

...and the best part of the busy week; meeting Alton Brown!  So I saw Alton's tour when he performed in Cincinnati, OH.  I may have mentioned it here.  Anyhow, he posted some coordinates saying come here for a flash signing, so I did.  I was able to go on my lunch break (thank goodness).  A brief conversation, a few photographs, and one autograph later, I had met one of my favorite TV food personalities.  So cool.  And he was exactly as you'd expect him to be.  A little goofy, super friendly, and very chatty.  It pretty much goes down in history as the best lunch break ever.  I even reminded him of the two empty seats in the front row when I saw him in Cincinnati and he got a good laugh out of that.  Who doesn't show up to a show when you've purchased front row seats?  How rude.  

Good luck conquering your weeks.  I know you can do it.

OH HEY GUYS.  Life has been crazy.  Ranch makes it better.

I'm getting back into that whole, being sent all over Central IL to spend 40 hours each week working dietitians only to come home to grad school homework.  Let's put it this way.  I'm not in the mood to think creatively.  Food consists of lots of eggs.  Lots of eggs.  Because who doesn't love eggs?  And the fact they've been on sale recently may be a part of it too...

Anyway... this past Sunday was the Super Bowl.  While football happened, I think we can all agree the real winner Sunday was left shark.  So there was a gathering of sorts for the game.  I'm sorry I meant for the "Katy Perry concert featuring football."  Sorry I'm not very funny.  This gathering was a bunch of the dietetic interns so clearly it was more or less a healthy Super Bowl party.  And this amazing ranch dip was made.  Shout out to Katie (or should I be blaming her...) for making me dream of ranch this week.  

I'm all for making things from scratch, don't get me wrong but I've been craving ranch like no other and wasn't about to go to the store to buy extra spices when I had 2 packets of ranch seasoning right at home.  Do you ever just have those moments where you want something right away and don't want to wait?  That's the story of my life.  I love instant gratification.  Like if I have an insane cookie craving, I have no patience to wait and defrost one from my freezer, or bake a batch from scratch...NO I have to run to the store and buy cookies.  My impatience can almost be an inconvenience sometimes.  But not with these burgers.  Ranch seasoning makes instant gratification exactly that:  instant.  Hence the inspiration for my ranch burgers.  Ranch tastes good on a burger so why not mix it in?  You could totally make the ranch seasoning blend from scratch but when you're busy, who wants to spend more than 20 minutes cooking and cleaning?  I'd like to argue that this meal took 15 minutes to make.  That's right; I dare you to come time me.  

While the burgers cook, you prepare the ranch dip.  Who doesn't love ranch dip?  This is creamy and tart and has all the ranch flavor you love.  And I made it with Greek yogurt!  So it's got protein and it's low in fat.  It's the best because it's healthy ranch.  If you aren't a Greek yogurt fan, you could always do light sour cream and half yogurt.  It's a good way to ease yourself into becoming a yogurt dip lover.

I suggest you eat your ranch sliders with your ranch dip.  Maybe even on a delicious bun with avocado, sriracha and some sharp cheddar.  Excuse me while I go make that sandwich now.  And if you're feeling extra crazy, some baked green bean fries to dip in that ranch?  My mouth is watering.