I was compensated for this post by REAL® Seal, but all thoughts and opinions are exclusively mine.
My best friend, Kaitlyn, and I met when we were in 7th grade. We weren’t friends right away though. I actually couldn’t stand her! I thought she was loud and obnoxious and was too much of an attention hog. Jokes were on me though, because we got our class schedules and happened to have the exact. same. schedule. Yay.
Not two weeks into school, I broke my leg playing softball. The thing about 7th grade it that everyone is obsessed with how the look and what people think of them. Which, in turn, means that nobody really cares to wait around for the gimp on crutches. Except for Kaitlyn. Here I was with a broken leg and the one girl I couldn’t stand, happened to be the only person that offered to carry my backpack, or get the door after class, or wait for me as I hobbled down the hall. This was the start of a beautiful friendship. {Especially since my now husband happens to be her cousin. ;)}
Fast forward a few years when we started our senior year in high school. Neither of us had the luxury of getting lunches packed from home for us. I don’t know why her family didn’t do it, but as for mine? With six kids, we couldn’t make it very long without all of the lunch box items being eaten at home. So, we were doomed to school lunches for most of our childhood. Kaitlyn and I took matters into our own hands for our last year of grade school though and decided that we were going to team up to bring our own lunches from home. Each week, one of us would pack a lunch {in a cute Princess lunch box, mind you} for the both of us for that entire week and then we would switch. I think that Kaitlyn would agree with me that our favorite part about doing this, were the pudding packs! If it weren’t for the fact that we were using our hard earned money to buy our lunches, we probably would have eaten at least three pudding packs a day. Those were some good times and we laugh every time we think about it!
Now that I have a child of my own, I’ve obsessed over making sure she’s getting the right nutrients from the foods that she eats. Let me tell you – pudding packs definitely won’t be on the menu for her. Ever. Most of the ingredients in them are legit, but when you look at the amount of preservatives in them as well? No, thank you. Which is why I’m sharing this Homemade Chocolate Pudding with you. It is such an easy recipe and would be great to make a big batch, put it in individual Tupperware, and throw it in your child’s lunch box. I also love the idea of knowing exactly what’s going into the things my baby is eating. Even if it is a dessert. 😉
Using the REAL® Seal system has made knowing what is in my foods even easier. The main base of this pudding is milk and the best milk you can buy is one with the REAL® Seal on it. Accoring to their website:
“The REAL® Seal makes it easy tell the difference between real dairy products and an ever-increasing list of imitators.
Homemade Chocolate Pudding
Makes about 6 servings
Ingredients:
- 1 cup white sugar
- 1/2 cup baking cocoa
- 1/4 cup cornstarch
- 4 cups milk {I use 1%}
- 1 Tbsp. salted butter, melted
- {Optional} Mini candy coated chocolate pieces
Directions:
- In a large pot, combine the sugar, cocoa and corn starch.
- Add the milk and bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring constantly to keep the milk from burning. Let boil for two full minutes and then remove from heat.
- Add the butter and mix well.
- Place in a medium-sized bowl and place in the refrigerator for about an hour until the pudding has firmed up and cooled.
- Top with chocolate pieces if you desire.
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