Fitness with Friends: Spirit Healthy Cooking

VOICE: Thank you for watching, and for a full transcript visit www.fun4thedisabled.com. We hope you enjoy. When joining us for this video, you need to take some precautions as your health and safety are the most important. To avoid any injury or harm, you need to check your health with your doctor before exercising. By performing any fitness exercises without supervision like with this video, you are performing them at your own risk. See a fitness professional to give you advice on your exercise form. Strategy for Access Foundation NFP and SPIRIT Club will not be responsible or liable for any injury or harm you sustain as a result of this video. 

GABY: Hi everyone. Thanks for joining me for healthy cooking. I’m Gaby. I’m excited to be here with you. I like to make the healthiest versions of recipes possible for us. And today I’ll be making a favorite treat of mine, which is chocolate pudding. I’m turning it into a chocolate pudding pie, and I absolutely love chocolate pudding, but there’s a lot of things in chocolate pudding that are not so healthy. Like we have heavy creams, and lots of sugar, and things that just aren’t needed in it. So we’re gonna make a healthier version. This is still not a healthy food, but this is a healthier version of something if you wanna indulge in it. For the pudding, it’s actually a really easy recipe. We’re gonna have sugar, cocoa powder, cornstarch, which is gonna make it thick, salt, and, I’m using almond milk, you can use cashew milk, coconut milk, and if you have dairy, then you can have milk. So we also are gonna have some sugar, but we’re gonna use a very small amount of sugar. So I’ve made my recipe with a third of a cup of sugar, and I think even that, it could probably be even less sweet and still be delicious. So today I think I might even try a quarter cup of sugar, so I’ll let you guys know so you can decide what you wanna do. 

So I thought we would also make an Oreo crust. So let me show you the pie that I had already made for you. So it did get eaten (laughs). So I have my pudding pie here, see how nice and pudding-y it is, and I also made an Oreo crust around it. So I don’t know if anybody’s ever had like at a birthday party, worms and dirt. So it tastes a lot like that, kinda like a mud pie. So it’s delicious. I also have just a regular pie crust to show you. So if you wanted to just use a regular pie crust, that’s fine. The first time I tried it, I used the regular pie crust and it was still delicious. I’ve also seen people use Graham cracker crusts. You could use chocolate chip cookies instead of Oreos, if you wanted. And I even have tried peanut butter pretzels as the crust, and that was just really amazing. So you can do pretzels, you could do cookies, you could do store bought crust, and you also don’t need a crust. If you just want the pudding, just put it into the the pie tin without a crust. All right. So I also have some strawberries which we’re going to use to garnish our pie when it’s done. 

So the first thing we’re gonna do is for anyone who does want to do and see how the crust is made, we’re gonna have 20 Oreos and I’m gonna stick the 20 Oreos into the blender. This is really, really easy. Just stick ’em into the blender, 20 Oreos or 20 little chocolate chip cookies, or the same amount of pretzels or Graham crackers. So I’m going to turn this on, so you won’t be able to hear me. 

(blender whirring) 

All right. They’re crushed up. What I’m gonna do is I’m just gonna make it a little higher, so really grind them up. 

(blender whirring) 

All right. Now, I’m a pretty healthy person. I really try to stay away from sugar. The last time I’ve eaten an Oreo, I don’t even go near them because I know I love them so much but I try to just stay clear, but this is for a treat. This isn’t something that I would make every night, ’cause there’s gonna be a lot of Oreo in the crust. But if you’re trying to have like a healthier version of a dessert, then this is a nice way to really hit a craving, but also know that it wasn’t so terrible for you. So we are going to put the Oreos into a bowl, or your cookies or your pretzels or your Graham crackers. And if you’re using store bought crust, that was hard to say, then you’re just watching and seeing what you could do maybe next time. 

All right. And now I’m going to put in four tablespoons of oil, you could also do four tablespoons of butter. I try not to cook with butter if I don’t have to, I love olive oil. You’re not gonna taste the olive oil, but it’s just a healthier product to be using. So I’m trying to keep this as healthy as possible while also getting to indulge. So one, two, three and four. And then everybody, it’s important to make sure that you have washed your hands. I wash my hands before we start all the time, because I don’t think you guys wanna watch me just washing my hands at the sink. But so if you have not yet washed your hands and you’re doing store bought crust, then now is a really good time to go do that because you don’t have to do this. And for anyone who is making your Oreo crust now it is still a good time to go wash your hands and you’ll catch up. Remember, you wanna be able to make it through the ABCs while you’re washing your hands. 

Okay. So you see it’s just the crumbly Oreo and it’s got the oil sticking it together. Now this crust is not meant for you to be able to pick it up and eat it. It’s a crumbly crust, but it’s gonna be really, really delicious. So just know that this pie is gonna be crumbly when you eat it. So I used to hate when my tacos fell apart and eventually I just accepted the fact that taco night meant that my tacos were gonna crumble and fall apart. Eating this pie, you’re gonna have to just accept that it’s a little bit messy, it’s a little crumbly. Okay. So we’re gonna pour the pie crust into the pan. Oh, and we’re also gonna set the oven to 350. I forgot to do that. So everyone go to your oven and set it to 350. All right. 

And now we’re back here. So what we’re gonna do now is we are going to hop back to the closeup camera and we’re gonna push our Oreo crust down and smooth it all out. So make sure you’re moving it and smoothing it. Now, I only have one pie tin. So I did the model one in the pie tin. So for this one, I’m just using a cake pan. So if you don’t have a pie tin, that’s okay. Just use a cake pan. If you don’t have that either, then just use a baking dish. It’s just a pudding, it doesn’t matter. And as long as all the elements are there, it’s gonna taste delicious. So I’m moving to a spatula, it doesn’t stick as much. Okay. Pushing it to the edges, pushing it to the edge, just kinda spreading it out. Spreading it out. All right. Spread, spread. Now, if you have a lot left over, something that you can do, or if you have too much for your pan, something you can do is you could take some out and sprinkle it on top once the pudding’s in there to make it look really pretty. Okay. So I’m gonna put this in here because if I don’t, then I’ll just end up eating it right now. I don’t wanna do that. Okay. Push, push, push, push, push. So, look, mine’s not completely even, some edges have more cookie crust, some don’t, it’s okay. It’s just meant to be a fun, yummy dessert. It doesn’t need to look beautiful. Now, for those of you who have the store bought crust, yours is gonna come out looking pristine because it’s just gonna pour in there and it’s already evenly made for you. Okay. So now that we’re done with that, once the oven goes off, we’re gonna stick it in for eight minutes and now we’re gonna move our attention to our pudding pie. 

Okay. So what we’re gonna do first, we are going to measure out a third of a cup. So you can use a third of a cup or a quarter cup. Like I said, I’m gonna switch to a quarter cup this time. The last one I made was made with a third of a cup, and because I’m using that Oreo crust, it needs even less sugar. So I’m gonna switch to a quarter cup. For anyone using the Oreo crust, I think that that’s probably a good decision for you to do also, it’ll keep it healthier. You’ve got a lot of sugar in that Oreo, you’re not gonna need as much. For anyone using the store bought crust, you might wanna do the third of a cup of sugar. So I’m gonna do the quarter cup of sugar. So that means it’s one over four. For anyone doing the third of a cup of sugar, it’s one over three. The third cup is bigger than the quarter cup. So for those of us who have the sweetness in the Oreo crust, we wanna do a quarter cup ’cause it’s less sugar and we don’t need all of that sugar. We rarely need all of the sugar that we eat. 

Okay. Now we’re gonna go do a quarter and a half of a cup of cocoa powder. Now, this is unsweetened cocoa powder. Oh, let me grab my half cup. Okay. So half a cup is one over two. Let’s go ahead and get that. Now this is a little messy. It’s gonna splatter out some like brown dust. Did you see how I smooth that over to make sure I don’t have too much? This is bitter, so you don’t wanna have too much of it. You want just the right amount. This is gonna give us our chocolatey flavor. I’m gonna dump that into the pan. All right. And there’s like a brown cloud that came up. 

And our next ingredient is going to be a third of a cup of cornstarch. Okay. So here I have my cornstarch, I’ve got Oreo crumbs in my cup. All right. I’m dipping it in. And the same thing with this, I wanna make sure that’s not too much coming out. Oh, I didn’t get enough though. All right. I’m gonna smooth out against the box. Cornstarch is another messy ingredient where it just like makes clouds and just very fluffy material. So it’s hard to control. So I have it smoothed out on top. So it’s a third of a cup of cornstarch. I’m gonna dump that into here. So I have all my dry ingredients just in here. I’m gonna whisk them up soon. All right. Put that off to the side. 

Now we are onto our salt. We’re gonna have a quarter of a teaspoon of salt. And I know it sounds weird to put salt into a sugary dessert, but salt really brings out sweetness if you use the right amount. So see how I smooth my finger over the top. And now I’m dumping it into the pot, right in there. So salt really brings out flavor. So if you ever are eating a watermelon on a summer day, if you wanna test this out, take a bite of the watermelon by itself, then just sprinkle a tiny, little bit of salt on top, it makes it even sweeter. If you put too much salt, then it becomes salty. But if you put in the right amount of salt, it really makes everything taste really good. All right. So we’re gonna whisk up the dry ingredients like this with a whisk, if you don’t have a whisk, feel free to use a fork. All right. Kinda getting dusty over here, ’cause of these ingredients, the cocoa powder and the cornstarch are just kind of like making a fog up here. I don’t know if that’s happening to you guys too. 

Okay. What we’re going to do now is we’re gonna start pouring in our almond milk. Let me get all this outta the way. For our almond milk, we don’t wanna put it all in at once because cornstarch gets very thick and clumpy. So you wanna slowly put that in no more than a half of a cup at a time. If you wanna go by a quarter cup, even slower, that’s fine. At first I’m gonna do the half a cup. And then the last, three quarter cups, we’ll just put it in at once. So half a cup, gotta keep track of what you’re doing though. We put in a half of a cup. Now let’s whisk. Whisk, whisk, whisk. I’m gonna need to move this camera back so you guys can actually see the stove once we’re cooking. Okay. There we go. That better? Okay. We’re gonna whisk it in. I don’t know if you see all the smoke coming up. 

(Gaby laughing) 

Whoa. Okay. Now, I’m gonna put another half a cup in. All right. Thank you. People in the chat saying they like the class. I mean, what’s not to like about a pudding class, I mean? Just delicious. Okay. So I put another half a cup in. That means we are one cup in, we still have one and three quarters left. All right. Mix, mix, mix, mix, mix, mix. All right. And the reason we’re doing one at a time is because we want that cornstarch not to split off and get too chunky. All right. Yeah, we’ll keep doing the half a cup, just in case. So we have another half of a cup. Now we’re one and a half cups in. Mix, mix, mix, mix, mix. Yeah, I think we’re ready to just put the rest of the milk in. Here’s the other half a cup. So now we have our two cups in, I don’t know who is paying attention out there. That means we have three quarter cups left. I know I have a three quarter measuring cup. Where is it though? There it is, three quarter cups. 

So we have a three quarter cup, it’s three over four. If you have one quarter cup, you’re just gonna do this three times. You use the quarter cup and just pour the milk in three times. And I’ll just do that with you just to demonstrate. If you have a three quarter cup, just fill out three quarter cup in and you’re good. Let’s do one, two, and three, three quarter cups. I think about the ingredients that are in here right now. We have a quarter to a third of a cup of sugar. Oh, ready to put our crust into the oven. And these are gonna go in for eight minutes. So set the timer… eight. 

Okay. So back to thinking about what’s in our recipe. We have a third to a quarter cup of sugar in a whole pie though, not just in one bite. So that’s the whole pie. Now, we also have a half of a cup of cocoa powder. Cocoa powder, there’s nothing wrong with having some cocoa powder. It’s not like a sugary food or anything like that. This is unsweetened. We have a third of a cup of cornstarch. We have a quarter teaspoon of salt. We have two and three quarter cups of almond milk or cashew milk. So especially if you’re using a plant based milk, it’s just like having a healthy milk. So we just have lots of milk in here. A little bit of sugar, a little bit of cocoa powder, a little bit of cornstarch. This is not an unhealthy treat. Anything with sugar is something you shouldn’t really be eating, but a treat, this is a pretty good treat. Now the Oreo crust kind of sends it over the edge, but we’re indulging. It’s okay to have once in a while. If you wanna keep this a healthy treat, skip the crust all together, make your pudding, have some fruit on it, and then that’s just delicious. 

Okay. Now we’re gonna put this heat onto medium. There’s a low option– so I have an electric stove, which is even harder to see. But so if you have a gas stove, if you want that flame not to be too high, you don’t want it low, you want kind of in the middle, same as me. So I’ve got high, I’ve got low simmer, and I’m putting it somewhere in the middle. Now, it’s a good idea to use a spatula. I’m just keeping the Oreo crust on here because it’s fine for it to be in the pudding. So I suggest you use a spatula. The reason is because the spatula makes it really easy to get things off the edges and make sure you’re getting all the nooks and crannies. So I still need to kinda fix this camera. There we go. That’s better. Okay. So we’re gonna wait for this and the really important thing is while we’re doing this, take your spatula around the edges, ’cause look what I just found. The whisk is round, so it doesn’t get into the corners. So make sure you take your spatula and you get all those corners. Make sure you free up anything that’s been hiding there in clumps, okay? It’s not the end of the world if you get a clump in your pudding pie. It’s happened to me and it’s fine. But if you’re serving this to people, you want it to come out as good as possible. So make sure you take that spatula, you go around the edges and you find anything that’s hiding there. 

The other important thing now is to be continuously stirring. The reason is cornstarch gets very clumpy, you need to make sure it’s moving. The other reason is you don’t want this burning at the bottom of your pan. So you wanna keep it stirring. It’s gonna get thick pretty quick. And so if it’s just getting thick and not being stirred, the bottom and the sides are all gonna get really thick and the middle’s not, and then when you do mix it, it’s just gonna have chunks of hard pudding, in the middle, not hard pudding. So the key here is really to mix. And everybody’s using a different stove, everyone’s using a different pan. Some of you might be using different milks with different thicknesses. So ours might cook at a different speed, but just make sure you’re still stirring and it’s all gonna come out delicious. 

Okay. While this does heat up, we wanna keep stirring continuously. But in the meantime, let’s switch over to our strawberries. Now, I had raspberries too, but my sons ate them all. Fruit is never safe in this house. So I did manage to save some strawberries. This was big and full of strawberries this morning and the kiddos got to it. So cut off the stems of the strawberries. If you have raspberries, just keep them whole. They look so pretty. Just decorate them on top and cut off the stems. Now, all we’ve done is cut off some stems, but it is time to just go back, make sure you stir. Stir, stir, stir. Okay. So we’re doing a bunch of back and forth. We’re gonna stir, chop, stir, chop, but we won’t have that much chopping to do, so pretty soon it’s just gonna be stirring. 

All right. Back to the strawberries. We’re gonna cut these strawberries up. Now, I like to sit my strawberries up like this because when they’re round, they can slide around and then they make it really dangerous for me to cut. Right here, nice and flat. They’re not going anywhere. What I do is first I cut them in half, so I was demonstrating with this when I cut it in half. Oh, my bracelets stuck to my microphone. Okay. And then I cut little slices like this. See that, and I have like little strawberry wedges. You don’t have to do that, you also could just cut into quarters if you want. And now you have little quarters of strawberries that can go around. See that? Or you could just cut them in half or you can decorate them around the edge like that. This is a giant strawberry. So I’m definitely going to cut this guy into slices. The small ones are good ones to just cut into quarters. The big ones are good ones to slice because, otherwise, they’re just gonna be big chunks of strawberries. 

All right. Our strawberries are chopped. This is gonna look so pretty on top. And now we can go back to stirring. Stir, stir, stir. Is it smelling chocolatey? 

(Gaby sniffing) 

Oh, it smells like hot chocolate. Ah, yum. Yum, yum, yum. I also love hot chocolate. Anything with chocolate, really, I love. I’m lucky that I don’t love candy, but if there’s chocolate in it, then I want it. Oh, I see some chunks of cocoa powder on top. So I gotta make sure that I get those mixed in. All right They are mixing. Oh, I can feel the bottom of my pan starting to get little thicker. It’s happening. It’s turning into pudding. Okay. Now, sometimes this works really fast and sometimes it takes a long time. Like last night when I was making my pudding, maybe it was colder, the air was colder. It took a longer time to heat the whole thing, but it was taking a really long time to get it to turn into pudding last night. But it happened. It’ll definitely happen. Some of you might have pudding in like two minutes, depending on the size of your pan, what ingredients you used. If you cut this recipe in half, and you only use like a few cups of milk and only a little bit of sugar, ’cause you just wanted a small little serving of pudding, yours is gonna cook a lot faster. But if yours is taking a long time, just know that as long as that cornstarch is in there, it will thicken. 

It’s really important that you don’t put your cornstarch in once it’s hot because then it gets clumpy. Cornstarch needs to be dissolved first when it’s cold, otherwise, it turns into just thick clumps. And the good thing about it is, it doesn’t taste like anything. So if it does turn into a clump, and you take a bite, it’s just gonna just feel kinda like if anyone’s had bubble tea, it’ll just feel like you’re biting into like a bubble tea ball or just a chewy little chunk of something, but it won’t have a taste. So it’s better than if it tasted bad. So it’s not the end of the world if you get it, it happens. All right. It’s getting thicker. Oh no, our crust will definitely be done before our pudding. All right. Oh, it’s starting to smell so good. All right. 

Now cocoa powder in small amounts is actually pretty good for you. There’s antioxidants and stuff. And if you use plant-based milks, plant-based milks are much lower in like unhealthy fats than dairy milk. So if you wanna make that switch, then it’s a nice way to just make it a little bit healthier. Especially, since it’s being cooked and uses cornstarch to make it thick, you’re not gonna really taste the difference. You’re not drinking a glass of milk versus almond milk. You’re not gonna taste any of the differences. Oh, yeah. It’s getting nice and thick. Let me go get my crust. Use an oven mitt all the time, please. All right. By the way, you don’t have to cook this cookie crust if you don’t want to. You can leave it raw. 

Okay. I’m gonna lower my heat a little bit ’cause it seems like mine’s getting a little too hot too fast at the bottom. If yours is getting like it’s catching, you’re finding clumps that are coming off only from the bottom, then you can go ahead and lower your heat a little bit, like I just did. But I don’t know if you guys can see that it’s getting like gloopy. That means it’s turning into pudding. Mix, mix, mix. Yummy. And again, if you’re skipping the crust all together and you’re just making this pudding, then you have nothing to feel guilty about when you’re eating this. For those of you indulging in an Oreo crust like me, a little bit to feel guilty about, but not too much. Mmmh. And I have pudding. Check it out. Yummy, yummy pudding. Okay. I’m gonna take it off the heat ’cause it is starting to bubble. And now I’m going to pour it into my cake pan. 

So I’m gonna switch over to the close up, so you guys could see this delicious gloopy pudding pouring into the cake pan. Oh, not too hot. Good. I touched that and then realized that it’s hot, but thankfully not too hot. All right. Pouring it in. See that. Yum. Yum, yum, yum, yum. Some of you may hear a little kid in the background, just ignore that. Pouring, pouring. And everybody by this time knows that I hate to waste. Although either I don’t mind having to lick this bowl clean if I have to. All right. Now, I’m gonna use my spatula, just kinda spread it out. Yum. Yummy. And now we are going to decorate with some strawberries. You don’t need to have a plan, I don’t really have a plan for these. Just kinda putting them on top that way. I can make myself feel better, we’re also eating some fruit. Yummy, yummy. 

I don’t think there’s anything better than the combination of strawberries and chocolate. In fact, Jared knows that for any occasion, there’s no need to ask me what I want for my birthday, there’s no need to ask me what I want for Valentine’s Day, no need to ask me what I want for my anniversary. Everyone knows all I want is chocolate covered strawberries. I don’t care if they’re made, if they’re bought, as long as I have them (chuckles). I think they’re the perfect two flavors together. Maybe followed by raspberry and chocolate, is delicious too. All right. I’m sure you guys can come up with some really amazing designs. You guys made some amazing, those burrito bowls that you made, oh, you made yours so much prettier than mine. So I’m sure I’m gonna see some really amazing strawberry or raspberry art on these pudding pies when I get these pictures. 

All right. Look, it hasn’t even cooled off and it’s starting to already be really pudding-y. Okay. So what we’re gonna to do now is this is going to go into the fridge. And first I’m also gonna make sure that this isn’t too hot, but I’ve been waiting to do this. So, so good. Yeah. I only used that quarter cup of sugar, so glad I made that decision because I was really curious. Did I need the third cup of sugar? Could I put in even less and still have a delicious pudding pie? The answer is, yes, this is so good. Delicious. And again, I haven’t even had that yummy Oreo crust at the bottom and it’s still perfect. So if it’s your first time making this pudding pie, a third of a cup of sugar is fine. That way you get to trust me and see that this is a delicious recipe. The second time you make it, if you wanna cut it down to a quarter cup, do it. It’s even healthier and you don’t need it. 

So what we’re gonna do is we’re gonna stick this in the fridge, keep it in the fridge for like an hour. It’s actually really delicious if you eat it kind of warm, but it is not gonna hold together as much. It’s gonna be much more of a mess, which is fine. I think it’s still delicious. There’s nothing wrong with that. If you wanna serve it in like a bowl or a cup, perfect. So you can have it warm. I think it’s so delicious warm. You don’t have to have it warm, traditionally, it’s chilled off first. So I don’t know if anyone’s had churros con chocolate, it kinda reminds me of that when it’s hot. So go ahead and put this in the fridge for at least one hour, if you want it cold and thick. So I’m gonna go do that, make some room in the fridge. All right. 

And we’re gonna avert our attention to the pudding pie that I made last night, which clearly the family got into. So let me take another taste and remind myself how good it is and that way you guys can see the textures. And so I can also show you that. It’s a little bit messy. Okay. So if you have a pie cutter, it’s gonna make the process a little bit easier. But so…yum! All right. So do you see that? Actually didn’t fall apart as much as it was last night. So here is the nice, perfect pudding and the Oreo crust. Let me get a fork so I can take a bite of this. 

And, all right. Let me take the bite. Mmh, so good. I mean, that was so delicious and so indulgent. It tastes like a really horrible for you dessert from a restaurant, but it is not horrible for you. You can’t feel too good about the crust, but what’s inside is just milk, a little bit of sugar, some cornstarch and some cocoa powder. There’s nothing to feel bad about what you’re eating on the inside. So if you guys ever wanna have like a healthy indulgent dessert and you want it to be really, really healthy, skip the crust, just put it right inside a dish, freeze it and just have some regular pudding with some fruit. That is a great little dessert to treat yourself maybe once a week, even. This, treat yourself to it for your birthday, for events, when you wanna have something really, really delicious, you wanna impress people how tasty your food is, but you wanna feel good about what you’re serving them to put in their bodies, and you wanna feel good about what you’re putting in your body. So as an indulgent little treat, once every few months, you can feel really good about this. And if you have your chocolate pudding craving and you have that once a week, just skip the crusts. You don’t have to feel bad about this pudding recipe at all. 

So thank you so much for joining me for healthy cooking. I hope you really like this recipe. I think it’s a really fun one. It’s a really easy one, really small amount of ingredients, 30 minutes, really quick. And so if you guys have any ideas for recipes, please make sure you send them to us. We have a lot of recipes in our library for healthy cooking. So feel free to check out anything that we have. We are also coming up with chocolate zucchini bread, which was inspired by our very own, Ramon. So we have some chocolate zucchini bread coming up. We have some dairy-free pizza coming up that can also be made gluten-free, and we have some veggie wraps also. So please make sure you send us any recommendations that you have. If there’s anything that you wanna see be made into a healthier version, I will try my best. Some things just can’t be made healthy, but we’ll certainly try. So make sure you send us any recommendations you have, please, please, please, please, please send us any pictures you have of your recipes. I know you guys are gonna come up with much more artistic pies than me, so I’m really excited to see what kind of designs you come up with. And let me know if you liked it or not. I mean, this is just the perfect dessert to me, but let me know what you think. So I’ll see you guys next time. Bye.