My Latest Craving {chia seeds}

Chia seeds where have you been my whole life?!



I've only know about these little bad boys for a couple months now and it's not an exaggeration to say that I eat them in some form almost every single day.

First, let's start with why you should care about this poppy seed-sized superfood. Chia seeds are like an ant, tiny, but able to carry their weight. The seeds have a boat load of vitamins, minerals, and amino acids. They contain six times more calcium than milk and have more omega-3's than salmon or even flax seeds. Because they expand into a small gel form, they also help your body clean itself since the toxins in your body literally stick to them as they go through your body.

Here are some ways I've used chia seeds:

• I add them while baking, since they help make baked goods moist
• on yogurt
• in salad for a crunch
• in a smoothie
• to make pudding
• as a hot cereal

Those last two are the most popular ways in my house. Steven's favorite is as a sweet pudding while mine is as a salt and peppered hot cereal. So I'll list both of these recipes below:

Chia Pudding with Peach Sherbet (all sugar-free!)
the chia pudding recipe came from my friend Jill

pudding:
1 can coconut milk
1/2-3/4 cup of chia seeds
1 tsp. vanilla
honey to taste

Heat the coconut milk, and when warm add the chia seeds (more or less until desired consistency is reached), and note that they will thicken as the pudding sits. Add vanilla and honey to taste. Cool in fridge.

sherbert:
Fully freeze 2 cups of ripe peaches. Berries could be used as well. (I picked mine last summer and froze them.) Blend in food processor with 1 Tbsp of honey until a sherbet consistency is achieve. Serve over chia pudding.



My personal favorite is to simply mix 1/4 cup of water and 1/4 cup of milk and heat. Then I stir in about 2-3 Tbsp of chia seeds and top with a little bit of butter, salt, and pepper. It sort of reminds me of grits, only far healthier. You'll find this on my personal breakfast menu about three days a week. Beside the fact that I genuinely think they're delish, I also love the energy they give me. But be warned, they fill you up fast.

I've found these at Costco but Vitacost also sells them for a very reasonable price.