I Might Never Eat Ice Cream Again

 Is there anything that a big ol' bucket of chia seeds can't do? 

I started using chia seeds a while back in place of pill-form laxatives and to bake with. (Did that even sound right???)

Anyway.

Chia seeds are awesome baked into bread, sprinkled onto sandwiches and salads, and in smoothies. Because they are also priced very reasonably, I don' think I have been without one of the big 2-lb, 9-dollar buckets for a while now.

The ones I get are
just under $9.00
for 2 pounds

But now... Oh, boy, now I've found a recipe that takes chia seeds to the next level.

I present to you something that tastes 6 million times better than my photo of it looks.

 

I'm a bad photographer!

That is chia seed pudding - or, as I call it, chia seed ice cream. Some people call it "Nice Pudding". Cute.

Listen. I got the first basic recipe from this Clean and Delicious video. I didn't have some of the stuff she had and I didn't want to make multiple flavors. This is her base recipe here and you can find variations under her video.

Original Chia Pudding Base Recipe (from Clean & Delicious):

• 1/2 cup unsweetened almond milk (or your favorite milk)
• 2 tbsp. chia seeds
• 1 tbsp. maple syrup (or your favorite sweetener)

Combine all ingredients in a wide mouth mason jar and stir well.  Refrigerate for a minimum of 4 hours and up to 5 days.  Enjoy with your favorite toppings.

Nutrients per recipe: Calories: 202; Total Fat: 9.5g; Saturated Fat: 1g; Cholesterol: 0mg; Carbohydrate: 24.4g; Fiber: 9.5g; Sugars: 11.9g; Protein: 6.5g 

I gave you hers so that you can see the nutrition label she put up. As I said, I did not have all the things she did so I went with this:

My version of the recipe:

• 1 cup liquid (which was coconut cream thinned with coconut water since that's what I had)
•  3 tbsp. chia seeds
•  1 tbsp. Specially Selected Raw Honey (from Aldi's because I was out of Nature Nate's Unfiltered)

• 1.5 tbsp. Hershey's unsweetened 100% cocao powder (don't ask me the difference right now)
• 1 tsp. Ceylon cinnamon
• A drop or 2 of vanilla extract 

Combine all ingredients in a wide mouth mason jar and shake well.  Refrigerate for a minimum overnight and eat really cold. I will even put it in the freezer for 20 minutes or so beforehand.

My photo came out horrible and I keep forgetting to get photos before I eat it up! I am going to post other people's nicer shots on this post...

I was having a weird kitchen pantry kind of day. I was going to use coconut milk for my liquid but... You're supposed to be able to get coconut milk by mixing a certain amount of water into the cream but I was too impatient to look that up. My concoction came out so yummy that I love it. It's like very cold, slightly melted chocolate ice cream.

Oatmilk or vanilla soy might be great in this but I am kind of loving the coconut cream and think I will keep that part.

The best thing about this is that I end up getting my daily serving of chia seeds even when I am tired of blending up my blueberry-chia smoothies. I love me some blueberries but, boy, I get tired of them after about a week or 2. Also, coconut cream is cheaper than blueberries and, without looking up the details, I know I read somewhere about how good cacao is for the body. 

This is so much like chocolate ice cream that I keep telling myself that I can indulge more often. I really like ice cream but rarely bother getting any because it's too many useless calories. This stuff, on the other hand...

So yeah. I just wanted to pass along that recipe. I had never heard of using chia seeds this way. In the future, I might doll things up with chocolate shavings or by adding some blueberries or strawberries as a topping. Lord knows I have a bunch of frozen blueberries. A few weeks ago, Hyvee mistakenly put 2 of those 1-pound containers of fresh strawberries in my delivery. When I called to let them know, they told me it was their mistake so not to worry. I rinsed and froze those bad boys. Now I have a way to use up some of them.

Some Tips & Recipe Variations

• My pudding ice cream does not get thick enough to scoop like some others.  This all depends on what liquid you use and how many seeds you use. I am fine with my thinner version. 
• Here are some variations and some troubleshooting tips (too thick thin, or lumpy).
• More tips on lumping issues.
• This Black Forest version might tempt some of you.
• How about meal-prepping or freezing your pudding?
• And if you want to make it a protein pudding.
• Chia pudding does not have to be sweet. Here is one recipe and here is another.

I'm going to shut this post down now. I have some chocolate pudding that's just about ready for my evening snack!

Peace

--Free

**RECIPES** Drinking Chia Seeds (without gagging)

**UPDATE**

I have CKD stage 3b and have learned that I have to watch my intake of chia seeds. 

Before you ever try something new in your diet, make sure to talk to your medical care team.

 Chia seeds are a great source of fiber, highly nutritious, high in antioxidants, a good source of protein, and omega 3. 

You can get a nice fix of seeds by mixing them into food, cereals, and baked goods.

Or - and this is the quickest way to ingest them - you can drink them. People make chia water or add chia to their juices. 

Personally, I have a slight aversion to the texture of soaked chia seeds. I can deal better with them in a juice because it reminds me of drinking aloe juice with the pulp. Otherwise, I just feel like I'm drinking globulets of something. Ick.

So here is what I came up with and want to share with anyone interested. I dump the chia (about 2 tablespoons twice a day) into about 8 ounces of water and drink it down before the seeds plump. 

Of course, I do have to swish some follow-up water to rinse away any residual seeds from my mouth and teeth but I don't mind. 

Because I'm not crazy about wet seeds, I bake them into this cookie recipe. (My alterations below the recipe.)

Apologies to Allrecipes but showing an image was easier than typing out the recipe because my brain is on off-mode today.

Source Link 
Allrecipes.com

My alterations & notes:

• I omit the raisins so my cookies are flatter. Adding an extra tablespoon or so bulks them up or you can add more oats.
• I omit the coconut flakes and double up on the seeds. I go overboard with chia, flax and sunflower. I also add about 2 tablespoons of ground flax.
• I once cut back slightly on the dry sugars. Instead of 1 cup each, I did about 3/4 cup each. And...
• I once substituted half the brown sugar with a golden monk fruit sweetener. This is the one time that I couldn't tell a huge difference in substituted sweetener.
• I once used 1 2/4 cup brown sugar (half light/half dark) and 2/4 cup white sugar for a total of 2 cups of sugar in the recipe. This was good but I really had to watch the bake time!
• As with any recipe, don't let the butter get too soft for creaming. I did this once and my cookies literally melted and stuck to the parchment. I couldn't even scrape them off and ended up wasting all those precious ingredients...
• I tried adding a tablespoon of blackstrap molasses once and this gave the cookies a darker bake and a slightly sweeter texture. Watch your bake though, the extra sweetness can shorten the time in the oven.
• This recipe can take a LOT of chia seeds. They are small enough that they don't over-bulk the dough.

This recipe is pretty forgiving and I've found you can play with a lot of the ingredients as long as your basic dry ingredients remain about the same.

The chia seeds kind of pop when you bite them

That's just one way to get a lot of chia seeds (and make your sweet tooth happy) but if you want to keep it healthier, stick to the waters. 

I do my first hit of chia water in the morning before I eat or drink anything else. I take another hit at night before bed (or earlier if I want to curb snack cravings). 

Knocking back the seeds this way is so much easier for me than dealing with wet clumps of them.

NOTE: I didn't find this out until I was prepping for this post. Apparently, if you have renal issues... 

oh, me, me!

:-(

...you should read up about ingesting lots of chia. Sucks for me. I will be checking with my docs since I am just borderline because of the sarcoidosis...

Peace

--Free

Food Ahh's and Ick's

This food detox I'm enduring (yeah, it's been a whole 15 hours) has me thinking a lot about, well, food.

How much of what we hear about "the latest" berry, oil or seed is hype the greedy? There has to be something good about any natural food, I'm sure. What I wonder about is whether I need a pantry/fridge full of every kind of seed, berry, nut, tree, leaf or twig.

My shopping plan for eating better is real simple: whatever is grown, pure, colorful and on sale.
Problem is, I can be a sometimes picky eater. I have a thing about textures (hate grit, love creamy) and I'm hypersensitive to flavors.

I'm considering adding a couple of new things to my pantry though:

• Chia seeds - I like the idea (if true) that they hydrate the body. One claim I need to check on is that they promote weight loss by "preventing food absorption". That sounded great when I first read it, but I have to wonder if, by the same process, the seeds will prevent the absorption of nutrients. I get all yin yang in my feelings about stuff like this. I really hate this type of trendy hype. Since chia seeds taste nice (and might actually help the heart),  I don't care if they do anything for weight loss and will probably give them a try.
• Flax-seed - Even if I don't try chia, I will most definetly be adding some flaxseed to my blended concoctions. Reading about it on WebMD, I was pleased to see the Omega-3 and fiber mentioned, but my beady little peepers lit right up at the note about estrogen. The woman out there will know where I'm coming from with that one. (By the way, I just love that WebMD. Not as much as I love my docs, but they're probably glad I'm not calling them up with my random questions at... 6:15 AM   Pretty sure about that!

I hope flax-seed doesn't tasted disgusting. Already I'm thinking "gritty-grimy" as far as the texture. Maybe all the pulp in my "Veg-oothies"** (I made that up, so don't go stealing it) will protect my taste buds.

Now, getting to the ahh's and ick's I headlined with, here are some of my faves/not-faves as far as food:

• Liver - I used to hate this so much that I would gag when Mom forced it on me. I'd spit that nastiness right out the second she wasn't looking and actually scrape at my tongue with my dinner napkin. UGH! As I've matured (in all kinds of ways), I find I don't mind eating liver. If I don't have to handle it raw. Is it not the most disgusting common food known to exist? My sister cooks it with onions, with or without gravy, and that is some good eating. Sometimes. I have to be in the mood for it.And I only like beef liver, which is the chewier kind.
• Gizzards - Love, love, LUV chicken gizzards. I cook them with a little olive oil and some garlic salt. Of course, I look like some kind of crazed freak of nature while I'm gnawing around those tough little ligaments (or whatever) to get at all the meat. Thing is, you have to eat like a pan full of them to satisfy hunger. I have never eaten a gizzard in the company of all but my nearest and dearest. One time I lost my grip while tugging the meat from one and it shot across the table and hit my uncle in the face. So, yeah. My life and times...
• Cabbage - Never been a fan of cabbage. When I was about fifteen, I brought my mother a head of lettuce from the store because I thought it was a cabbage. (You ever tell anyone about that, I'll hunt you down to laugh with you about it.) My family likes to cook it in water with oil and salt pork. And this is why so many black people have "high blood" and "the sugar diabetes". Help us, Jesus.
• Beets - Just started eating them without pickling juices. Not crazy about these solo, but like tossing them into blends or drinking the raw juice. Not a bad juice, just don't wear clothes or get near furniture while you guzzle. That vegetable stains air.

My basic plan is simple: getting lots of fresh air and exercise and putting better stuff in my body. I used to think that "eating better" meant choosing making better fast-food choices. I'd get the green tea latte at Starbucks or the McDonald's ranch salad. I thought I was being smart, but I was just spending more money than I needed for stuff that only sounded healthy. Let's take a look at some those choices.

• Best and worst salad choices
• It looked good on the menu
• Even it that "chicken" is really chicken
• If it's not the fat, it's the sodium

The biggest thing about eating (or drinking) something that sounds healthy is that almost anything can be made to sound healthy.

I'm not saying that I will never go to Starbucks again, but I'm going to go less and go smarter. As this article suggests, I'll use a this-not-that way of choosing my treats.

Like a lot of people, I tend to point out that I only eat fast food occasionally. The thing is, I don't like mystery about what I'm ingesting - ever. While, again, not everything you read is true, this article pretty much put me off McNuggets for life. I used to love McNuggets more than I loved the last man I was with, and now I realize neither of them was any good for me. Ick.

This list of the 18 Most Sickening Food Ingredients gave me dry heaves. I'm going to need a Valium the next time I enter a grocery store. This article was way funnier and had "sex" in the title (even though I'd rather eat beetle ass than condom lubricant). I was only alarmed by a few claims.

All giggling aside, I think that we need to be more aware of what we're putting into our bodies. We've heard so much about what's bad for us, we've gotten tired of listening.

Peace
--Free

***REVIEW* Mama Chia Vitality Beverage

Was up way too late last night (2am) and made a store run for something to drink. Water just wasn't going to do it for me and coffee is the whole reason I was probably so wired in the first place.

Picked up two things: some chai  and coconut milk (that I will review later) and this right here -

Mama Chia "Vitality Beverage"

I found the "Seed Your Soul" a little cheesy-sounding ~shrug~

The name is cool. Mama Chia.

I was thinking about picking up some Naked Juice or Pom, but the seeds in this drink are what caught my attention. And I love the flavors of coconut and mango - blended or separate.

Of course, the older I get, the more interested I become in diet and nutrition. If I can only tolerate but so many calories a day, they better either do my body good or make my mouth happy. So, I checked out the label:

Didn't taste like 14 grams of sugar, but what do I know?

And then I checked the hype on the label - just like I checked the hype on Naked before they got busted for exaggerating. (I hope you got your claim filed before the deadline. I did.)

They keep their claims pretty verifiable

Not bad - if true. (Damn you, Naked. You ruined my innocent belief in liquid miracles. Wine: you're still safe.)

When I paid $3.00 for the 10 zo bottle (I saved $0.99 with my store savings card), I was thinking "there goes a whole case of water." Since I just refill water bottles with tap for a couple weeks, I wasn't too mad.

The very first taste of this is... odd. Hard to describe. It has a very faint taste of sweetness. The texture is what threw my mouth for a loop. Sort of slippery-feeling - not slimey, just slick-ish. The seeds are gel-covered. With the second mouthful, I chewed to see how the seeds would be. They just cracked under the  bite, but still had no real taste. Maybe their natural taste is covered by the flavoring in the drink.

By the third or fourth mouthful, I found myself neither in love or repelled (repulsed?). Halfway through the bottle, I was okay with the taste. It's not bad, but I wish the flavors were more pronounced. (Listen to me, sounding like a expert!)

+Ben Johnson on G+ told me that he's tried the cherry flavor. I might go for that the next time. For now, I'm not feeling the urge to run out and get more but, if I'm ever wandering the store with an extra three bucks - well, maybe.

As for the claims made on the label, I have to give them points for keeping it simple. Of course, I've heard other things about chia seeds, such as how they provide appetite control and support weight loss. I headed over to WebMD to see what they had to say.

First, I'm no professional. Do your own research so that you don't have a health or other problem.

Now, since there are warning's I've seen, it's good to know that "chia seeds" are known by other names:

• Chia as a Fresca, grain, oil, seed, sprout
• Germe de Chia
• Graine de Salba
• Huile de Chia
• S. Hispanica
• Salba Grain
• Salvia hispanica
• Salvia Hispanica L

Some of the chia seed hype that's trending is that it According to WebMD, there's "insufficient evidence" for any positive effect of chia seeds on diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, stroke and "other conditions."

LiveStrong details the nutritional benefits of ingesting chia seeds.

By the way, I started this post day before yesterday. I didn't finish the entire Vitality drink. When I pulled it out this morning to finish it for breakfast... I'm not sure if it's because it's so much colder than when I first tasted it, but I definitely don't like the texture. It seems a little bit more gummy. Ugh. I'm going to let that sit out for a little while before I finish it off.

Of course, everything comes down to personal taste. As to how the drink made me feel, I didn't notice a huge difference in energy, but that may be because I didn't finish the bottle. One thing I can say is that, unlike after drinking coffee, soda or, on rare occasions, an Rockstar/Monster- type drink, I didn't feel like I needed to gulp down a gallon of water. ~shrug~

If you do get this beverage, try finding it on sale. $3 bucks or more is sort of pricey - especially if you fall in love with it and want more.

Now, I'm going to grab a good old cup of java and go smack the day around.

Peace
--Free