Whipped Chocolate Chia Pudding

Happy New Year! Checking in with a quick breakfast recipe idea that was born out of my struggle to feed my very picky eight year old a nutritious breakfast. Chia pudding used to be a staple breakfast for her, flavored differently depending on the season or what was on hand, and I felt pretty good about her starting the day with a nice portion of the Omega-3 rich seeds. Then, one day she decided that she doesn’t like the texture of chia in her pudding any longer (too crunchy! too chewy!), and getting breakfast into her before leaving for school became a monumental task. I’m sure many parents out there can sympathize with me when I say I would pay money for this picky eating stage to be over. But for now, I deal with it by identifying a food Paloma loves and then trying to mask other nutritious ingredients with it. For example, she’s crazy about tomatoes, so I make a crushed tomato-based stew with other veggies mixed in, and she tends to be ok with eating that.
Recently, Paloma’s been obsessed with our tahini hot chocolate, and I figured that blending chia seeds into a similar mixture and letting it sit to solidify into a pudding could work. The chia is still there, but not as noticeable since it’s whipped up with the rest of the ingredients. And it worked – the child is fed, chia is back in business, and I loved the result so much for its simplicity that I decided to share it here. I like to make this pudding the night before and let it chill in the refrigerator overnight for the chia to become its most springy self. I’m also planning on trying this one out with carob powder instead of cacao, just to ease up our cacao consumption.
There are some links after the jump, have a peaceful Monday :)

Patti Smith on the Here’s The Thing Podcast

The Making of the Sqirl Cookbook Cover – one of our favorite cookbook covers of all time

The Art of Forecasting Food Trends – a prediction for what’s hot in 2017: ‘Jackfruit! Sorghum! Harissa! And don’t ignore horseradish, spirulina and Asian-inspired breakfasts. Authenticity and its cousin transparency are in. So is food inspired by Africa. Or maybe it’s the Philippines. Even French food has a constituency.’

Destroyer – an LA restaurant’s beautiful instagram

Dreaming in French, The Paris Years of Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy, Susan Sontag, and Angela Davis – currently reading

Things to Come – can’t wait to see this movie

Whipped Chocolate Chia Pudding

 

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Serves: 3-5

Ingredients

for the pudding

• 5-6 prunes
• 1½ tablespoon raw cacao powder
• 4 tablespoons chia seeds
• 2-3 tablespoons honey
• 1 tablespoon coconut oil
• ½ tablespoon almond butter
• ½ tablespoon tahini
• 2¼ cups water
• cacao nibs - for garnish
• hemp hearts - for garnish
  
  

optional add ins

• 1 tablespoon hemp (or other) protein
• ½ tablespoon mesquite powder
• 1 teaspoon maca powder
• 1 teaspoon moringa powder

Instructions

1. Comine all the ingredients in a high-speed blender until very smooth. Distribute between bowls or pour into a large jar, cover, and let sit in the refrigerator for a minimum of one hour or overnight before eating. Garnish with cacao nibs and hemp hearts.

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