Chocolate Avocado Pie with Almond Butter Crust

It's late, I'm super tired but I've had no time to blog this week and now seems like the right time. Last night I made this pie at the last minute and it turned out wonderful. I usually need dates or another dried fruit to be successful at making raw crusts but I had no dried fruit whatsoever and this still turned out beautifully. This pie is not technically raw but it's no bake and takes mere minutes to make. Refrigerate overnight and there you have it. It's perfect for breakfast, actually. With some green tea and a little reflection on how beautiful life is.

My life is busy with training for my half marathon, planning my Runner's Visualization class and having fun. I am teaching this class with Marnie who is a running coach and has her own coaching business called Runstreet. This woman is amazing, she's positive and encouraging and is helping me work out and plan my running schedule. She designed a custom half marathon training plan for me and it's amazing. I'm also working hard on my yoga studio, planning events and trying to book new teachers. Plus, living in NYC, you want to savor life here. You want to go out and have fun and walk the city and take it all in so I need to leave room for that too.

My eating plan during training season is basically just eating real food. Veggies, fruits, whole grains, beans and keeping sugar to maybe 2 tbsp of maple syrup or a sprinkle or two of coconut sugar. I already feel different, I feel less hazy, I have more energy, probably because I'm not dumping gallons of maple syrup in my oatmeal or eating a bunch of super sweet desserts. Tonight I felt like oatmeal for dinner and I didn't put any sugar in it all; I mixed in three medjool dates, some cinnamon and a few raisins and it was a beautiful just-sweet-enough meal. I've also given up alcohol, which wasn't hard because I haven't drank in forever, and I've said no to coffee. Sometimes I want it but mainly I'm digging green tea. I make it at home, order it in coffeeshops, it's the bomb, I love it. No milk, no sugar, just green tea.

So, I had a piece of this pie with my tea this morning and I actually finished it off tonight-yes tons of fat at once but it's good fat and I don't make desserts like this that often. This is just pretty awesome.

Crust:
1/3 cup of natural almond butter
1 cup of rolled oats
1/4 cup of coconut oil, melted
2 tbsp of maple syrup

Blend everything until it's a sticky crust. Press into a pie dish. I doubled this recipe to make a thicker crust so do this if you want a decent size crust. The idea is to get a sticky pie crust so add more of an ingredient is you need to.

Chocolate topping:
2 avocados
5 tbsp of cocoa or cacao
1/4 cup of maple syrup
1 tsp of vanilla

Blend well and smooth on top of the pie crust. Refrigerate before serving. It tastes amazing and the crust stays pretty much intact without crumbling. Now I know I can make a raw crust without dates. Because at times, I don't feel like standing in the long ass Trader Joe's line just to buy them so it's nice not having to go get them when I'm in the mood for a dessert.

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