Overnight chia seed pudding- a great healthy way to start the day as breakfast or to eat as a mid day snack. Requires only 3 main ingredients and is easily customizable, vegan and gluten free.
My daily routine these days is that I wake up anywhere between 6.30-7.30am. Freshen up and then try to get an hour’s worth of exercise in. There are many online resources for home workouts but the ones that I am following are Cure.fit’s classes, Alo moves and MadFit’s youtube channel along with my pinterest board. I would one day like to tune in for Matt’s live zumba classes on zoom but due to the time difference have not been able to. I have also heard great reviews about Fitness Blender from friends, so you can probably check that too. What does your home workout look like, and what sites are you tuned into for your daily routine?
Exercise is followed by the sweeping and mopping of the kitchen and living room area on alternate days. The other days Anubhav vacuums the entire house and I take rest. The entire house is not mopped on a regular basis (although it is vacuumed) and I have made my peace with it. Post cleaning session, either Anubhav or I (depending on whether he has woken up) makes tea and then we watch the news/ catch up on mails/talk to parents.
Then I get down to making breakfast. We have a system where I cook, and Anubhav does the dishes. Sometimes he cooks and also does the dishes 🙂 .
Post breakfast, we have coffee sometimes and then either do some work, or chill watching something on TV. Rest of the day then goes either in cooking, eating or doing the dishes, and so far it has been pretty okay. I have finally gotten back to blogging- trying new recipes, styling and shooting them with no client approval lurking on my head. And I am thankful for that.
Its difficult to turn a blind eye to whats happening across the world though, so when I feel that I am bored or when things might be a little overwhelming I try to remind myself- I am so lucky to treat my problems as “problems”. That these “problems” are the only ones I have at the moment. That in spite of everything, we are still able to eat the food we enjoy eating- there might be some changes but not much- nothing absolutely nothing to crib about there. Yes cleaning the house, cooking meals, and then doing dishes are taking so much time these days and can be tiring but at least we can make ends meet and do so much more.
I do have my reservations using the words lucky or privileged, given that we have put in hard work to be here and the idea is not to undermine any one else’s efforts by calling them lucky or privileged, but I am grateful that whatever we have worked towards has put us in a comfortable position during this lockdown. Of course this year and probably the next we will have to make a lot of lifestyle changes and think about all unnecessary expenses that earlier we never gave a second thought to. We will also have to put a pause on some of our plans – a house of our own, a new car, and even going on those vacations. We never went on our honeymoon thinking we will go for it in March. I think that plan too might not see the light of the day till next year, given travel abroad might be challenging not only financially but due to health concerns. Again, I remind myself that I am lucky to call these as “problems”. And in time this too shall pass.
Coming to today’s recipe- I think chia puddings are just so delicious and convenient to make. You mix the chia seed with choice of milk, sweetener and flavorings at night, chop fruits in the morning, layer and serve. They are so easily customizable. Basically you need three ingredients- chia seeds, a sweetener, and choice of milk. You could leave out the sweetener in case you are topping with sweet fruits. Rest everything is optional and just adds to an already great breakfast/dessert option. You can use whatever fruits you have on hand to top. You can opt to add another layer of granola or not. You could choose to use toasted nuts instead.
In this recipe I have used a mix of coconut milk and yogurt. I added yogurt because I wanted to reduce the amount of coconut milk since coconut milk is generally more fat enriched and this was going to be breakfast, but feel free to use only coconut milk or almond milk or even regular cow’s milk. Just keep in mind if making with a more fatty milk, then to limit your serving size as only 1/2 cup of this pudding to make this count as a healthy breakfast, any more and it becomes an indulgent breakfast. You can add cocoa powder and make it a chocolate chia seed pudding- banana, raspberries, walnuts or almonds would make a lovely topping with a chocolate chia seed pudding. You can also add your protein powder to give it an additional nutrition boost.
This overnight chia seed pudding while great as breakfast, can also be a lovely mid day snack or a delicious post meal dessert. And since it is easily customizable to be vegan and gluten free, a perfect option for those with dietary restrictions.
In case you do not have chia seeds, and it is not easily available where you are- you could use basil /sabja seeds as well. I have a mango coconut basil seed pudding recipe lined up which makes a great substitute for chia seed based puddings. Like chia seeds, sabja/basil seeds too have many health benefits to them. Plus, if you are using basil seeds, since they swell up quicker you do not have to do the overnight chill and could just let them soak in the coconut milk for 30 minutes.
Let me know if you have any questions about any of the ingredients, will be happy to help. And in case you make this tag me in your creations on instagram, facebook or leave a comment here.
- 1 cup coconut milk
- ½ cup greek yogurt (you could sub with milk of choice if you want)
- 5 tbsp chia seeds
- 1 tbsp maple syrup, or as desired (you can use any sweetener of your choice)
- 1 tsp vanilla
- ½ tsp cinnamon powder
- 2 tbsp protein powder (optional)
- Granola (optional)
- Fruits of choice (I used strawberries and blueberries here)
- In a bowl, add the milk, yogurt, vanilla, cinnamon powder, protein powder (if using) and chia seeds. Mix well. Taste and see in case you need to add more sweetener. Let rest for 5 minutes and then mix again. This additional step avoids the chia seeds clumping while they are chilling in the refrigerator.
- Cover bowl and refrigerate at least 2 hours or overnight.
- In the morning, divide the pudding into 3 glasses and layer with some granola/nuts and choice of fruits. Enjoy cold.
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Yay! you are back with the recipes. Need some inspiration during this lockdown 🙂
Keep writing 😀