Guilt-free “Worms in the Dirt” Pudding

This spooky “Worms in the Dirt” Pudding is not scary in its number of calories!

My hiatus from blogging has finally ended after a month of work-related stress, and I finally carved out some time to do some good cooking. With Halloween approaching, I’m posting a festive and healthy twist on a childhood classic dessert, “Worms in the Dirt” pudding. This usually consists of chocolate pudding layered with oreos or other crushed chocolate cookies and sometimes whipped cream. Its topped off with more crushed cookies and candy worms. Thus, worms are the oreo cookie “dirt” and I guess the pudding is “mud”. The assumption I guess is that worms are in dirty-mud…I don’t know but, all I know is that its actually really simple and delicious to make.

As an avid fan of both pudding and candy, to me this is the ultimate dessert. Earlier this year, I took a trip to Florida and visited Walt Disney World. My husband and I stayed in the Disney’s Caribbean Beach resort, which was designed with six mini villages, each named after an island in the Caribbean. We were stayed in Aruba. All of the “islands” are arranged in a semi-circular shape, with “bays” and swimming pools at each resort. In the center was Old Port Royale, which had the largest swimming pool and a food court. Before hitting the parks each day, we ate our breakfast at Old Port Royale. As I was perusing the food options, from muffins to yogurt to pastries, nothing struck my eye (not to mention everything was twice as much money as it would be in a grocery store back home). The choices were limited, but suddenly I spotted an old childhood favorite, “Worms in the Dirt” pudding. This yummy treat consisted on chocolate pudding topped with crusted up Oreos, and three gummy worms on top. I decided that since I was on vacation and was getting a lot of exercise, I could eat this pudding for breakfast everyday. 😉 It was so fun to have a childhood favorite for breakfast. Not too long ago, I got the craving again to make this pudding. Unable to hop on a plane to Orlando and not wanting to essentially eat candy and pudding for breakfast, I decided to recreate this Disney treat at home, in a healthy way.

I thought about my favorite breakfast foods; cereal and yogurt. That was a start, but to make it more of a pudding, I decided to make overnight oats as the pudding base. I added cocoa powder, oats, and vanilla yogurt as my chocolate pudding base. Next, I thought about the “dirt”. Well, cereal can be crushed up to resemble dirt. I had some Cocoa Puffs lying around so I crushed them up in the food processor to form the “dirt”. Next, I layered the “dirt” on top of my chocolate overnight oats and topped it with a couple of candy worms (I know its sort of a cheat but it is “worms in the dirt”!). It was the perfect treat for breakfast without the added full guilt of having “dessert for breakfast”. That being said, this would also make a great healthy dessert or snack for kids (and adults)!

Healthy Guilt-free “Worms in the Dirt” Pudding

• ¼ cup milk of choice
• 1.5 tbsp. cocoa powder
• 4-6 oz. 0% Greek yogurt (vanilla, coconut, honey flavored, etc.)

  

  The perfect bite of “dirt”!

• ¼ cup quick cook or rolled oats
• 1/3 cup Cocoa Puffs cereal (or similar chocolate flavored puffed cereal)
• Optional but necessary: Garnish with candy worms

Directions:

1. Pour milk in a container or cup and add in oats, followed by cocoa powder. Mix thoroughly.
2. Add in yogurt and mix until uniform and cocoa is fully incorporated.
3. Crush cereal in a plastic bag with a rolling pin or by pulsing in a food processor until fine crumbs form. Add crushed cereal on top of the yogurt in an even layer. Garnish with candy worms.
4. Refrigerate overnight and wake up to a healthy dessert for breakfast!