Organic Chia Seed Pudding
This recipe comes from my good friend. I tried this pudding at her house a long time ago and made my own version countless times since. It is very easy to make and most ingredients are always in my pantry and refrigerator, so I don’t have to make a special shopping trip for it. If something is missing, let’s say bananas, I immediately get on Instacart and can get my needed ingredients within an hour. I love Instacart for it, especially during COVID-19.
The pudding is super healthy and very filling. It usually serves as a perfect breakfast or lunch for me. My daughter is also a big fan of this, but not my husband and son. The porridge like consistency is turning the boys off, but not the taste. Men will be men, nothing to be done about that. We are not complaining though – it’s their loss and more pudding for us. As an ex-Nutrisystem dieter, I know a thing or two about healthy eating and this is it.
I asked my gym trainer about this pudding and got his approval, so I enjoy it almost guilt-free. His suggestion was to use almond milk instead of my regular whole milk and still watch my portions because all the fruit and berries in this pudding contain quite a bit of sugar. So like it always goes with diets – everything is fine in moderation.
Let’s get to this goodness right away:
Ingredients:
- Organic chia seeds
- Organic unsweetened almond milk
- 1 tablespoon of organic almond butter
- 1 tablespoon of organic raw honey
- 2 large organic bananas
- 2-3 organic avocadoes
- 2-3 organic honey mangoes
- 8 medium organic strawberries
- 2 tablespoons of brown raw sugar
The process of making this pudding starts with soaking the seeds in a milk of choice. Today I mixed organic unsweetened vanilla almond milk with plain almond milk, and added just a bit of organic whole milk.
I usually don’t use vanilla flavor, but this is what I had today, so I diluted that milk with two others. I used to make this desert with regular whole organic milk, but then got scared of all the calories and switched to almond milk, which is very low in calories.
It takes just a few minutes for the seeds to expand, so you don’t need much time for soaking. The amount of seeds and milk really depends on how thick you’d like your pudding to be. My suggestion is to pour about 2 cups of seeds in a bowl, add some milk, and stir continuously. As seeds expand, you will see if you need to add more milk or more seeds. The entire stirring process takes no more than 15 minutes. I used to keep this bowl with seeds in the fridge overnight, but now I know better. Just don’t forget to stir or your seeds will become stuck together in lumps.
Next, when the seeds are almost done expanding, add honey and almond butter, and continue to stir all of it together. Peanut butter also works, but I like almond butter’s more gentle taste.
After combining those two ingredients, you are done with the base for your pudding. Pour it into cups or glasses of choice. Fill about 2/3 of it and leave 1/3 empty for other ingredients.
Next, take 2 or more ripe bananas. The number of bananas depends on the amount of pudding. This time I had just 6 glasses of it, so 2 large bananas were sufficient.
Mash bananas in a bowl with a fork and distribute evenly between pudding glasses.
I had about 2 heaping tablespoons for each glass.
Then take 2-3 sweet yellow mangoes and 2-3 avocadoes and blend them together.
Distribute this blend on top of banana layer in each glass.
Last, but not least - it’s strawberry time.
Put strawberries and brown raw sugar in the blender and blend it thoroughly.
Pour this fragrant strawberry jam over avocado and mango layer and fill the glasses all the way to the top. Voila, you are done!
Serve them cold and get all layers mixed up before eating.
The pudding can stay in the refrigerator for about three days. Enjoy and stay healthy!
