Chia Puddings

Chia seeds are something I don't know much about, but having bought some at Costco I have a lot of them to experiment with. Previously I have made some Banana, Blueberry, Chia and Oat muffins which were really nice and great to freeze  Today I made a batch of puddings in different flavours. Before now I made a chocolate chia pudding with a recipe from Food Wishes, and then I made a vanilla one with almond milk and vanilla bean paste with a small amount of sugar added.

Looking at many online recipes I think the basic mix for a pudding is 1/4 cup Chia: 1 cup liquid. 

Today I used almond milk for all my puddings and made Chai, Banana, Chocolate, Mango, Cherry+Raspberry and vanilla. I made them in little yoghurt pots that came with my Aldi yoghurt maker, so they will be great to take to school. Chia is very healthy with lots of protein, omgea 3+6 and fiber. Almond milk a little watery to drink for my taste, but not bad at all and with only 40 calories per cup its s great option instead of regular cows milk if you would rather use your calories on other things. 

1. Pour one scoop full of Chia seeds (1/8 cup) into each jar or container.

2. Add other flavorings:

Chai: 1/2 a Chai Latte pod (or some Chai powder)

Banana: 1.5-2 Tbsp banana milkshake syrup

Chocolate: 1 heaped teaspoon cocoa powder, 1-1.5 tsp sugar

Mango: a few cubes of chopped up mango, 1 level tsp sugar

Cherry+Raspberry: 3 tsp Cherryberry Jam (recipe here)

Vanilla: 1/4 tsp vanilla paste, 1 tsp sugar

3. Pour in 1/2 cup almond milk or as much as you can fit. If you can't fit enough liquid in your pudding will be crunchier, so you might need to play around with how much of different fillings can go in.

4. Put the lids on and shake up the jars. Open and stir if any seeds have stuck in bunches to the sides. Leave the jars for a few minutes and shake again. Then leave in the fridge for 3 hours or overnight.

 I haven't tasted them all yet, but I know that chocolate and vanilla are both yummy. Out of the others the only two I think some people might not like would be the chai and banana, but given they are both normally milky drinks I like, I think they will be good. Anything fruity and sweet I always like, so I know the mango and cherry+raspberry with be good. 

Banana,Blueberry, Oats + Chia Muffins

So earlier today I went to Costco. Two of the things I bought were a giant tub of cake mix and chia seeds. So this afternoon I made muffins using the cake mix and the chia seeds with banana, frozen blueberries (which I also get from Costco) and rolled oats.  They're very yummy and not too sweet (by my standards anyway) for a packet mix cake base.

Ingredients (makes 12):
spray oil
340g  all purpose cake mix
3 tbsp oil
1 cup blueberries
1/3-2/3 cup of milk (start mixing with less and add more if you think it needs it)
2 small-medium bananas mashed
2 scoops chia seeds (around 1/4 I think)
2 eggs

1. Pre-heat oven to 180, spray and line a muffin tray.
2.Measure out the cake mix or your dry ingredients into a mixing bowl, mix through blueberries and create a well in the center.
3. Mix the oil, milk, banana and eggs in a separate bowl- this is to reduce mixing with the dry ingredients as over mixing is bad for muffins).
4. Add the wet ingredients to the well and mix until just combined.
5. Spoon into tin and bake for 20-25 mins (mine were in for around 25, but I think they would have been fine with a little less)
6. When cooked through and a skewer or knife comes out clean, remove from oven and when cool enough, place on a wire rack to cool.

These muffins are so yummy fresh. The banana and blueberries mean it is moist, the cake mix kept things nice and fluffy and the chia seeds add some extra crunch. I will freeze these individually for work, hopefully they defrost well wrapped up over the morning, if not, they will be tasty defrosted in the microwave and eaten hot!