How I Make Chia Pudding

Chia seeds have both soluble and insoluble fiber and are good for the gut, helping to promote the growth of good bacteria. They also have protein, something I'm always looking for. 

When I first bought the seeds, I had the same questions as everyone else. "How do I use this stuff?" "Will I like it?" "What if I don't like it?"

Fortunately I found 2 ways that I do like it. One, as a smoothie thickener. To use in smoothies, I add some water to the bottom of a smoothie cup, then I add 1 tablespoon of chia seeds. I allow this to stand for about 15 to 20 minutes, stirring from time to time. And finally I add the rest of the smoothie ingredients then blend.

The other way I use chia seeds is in pudding cups. This is my preferred use for chia. I mix up about 3 or 4 pudding cups at a time then keep them in the fridge. I prefer vanilla chia pudding. The chocolate chia pudding, made with cocoa powder, seemed to suffer from not cooking on the stove. Something about the raw-like cocoa powder that I didn't think was the greatest.

To make a single vanilla chia pudding cup I use:

• individual pyrex custard cup
• a spoon
• 1 tablespoon measuring spoon
• 1 teaspoon measuring spoon
• chia seeds
• sugar or honey or maple syrup
• salt
• vanilla flavoring
• milk (I use soy milk for mine and cow's milk for my family's)

Using standard pyrex custard cups: 

I stir together 1 heaping tablespoon of chia seeds, 2 to 2 1.2 teaspoons sugar, and a pinch salt in each cup. If using honey or maple syrup, add those with the liquid ingredients. The amount of sweetening is all to taste. I've found that if I make a batch that isn't sweet enough for me, I can quickly stir in a 1/2 teaspoon of sugar or honey

I add a dash of vanilla flavoring and milk to the top line in each custard cup and stir until I can't feel any granularity of the sugar at the bottom of the cups.

I allow the puddings to sit on the counter, leaving one spoon in one of the cups, reminding me to stir from time to time. When I see a darker drop in the pudding, I break it up with the back of the spoon against the cup. These are clusters of chia seeds. The overall texture is better, IMO, if the seeds are well-distributed in the pudding and nor clumped.

After about 2 hours of very brief stirring whenever I pass through the kitchen, I refrigerate the puddings overnight. 

After about 8-10 hours, this is what a pudding cup looks like from the side. The seeds have swollen and begun to thicken the liquid, and they're holding themselves distributed in the pudding. But the pudding is still not quite thick enough and won't be ready until after an overnight chill.

The whole process sounds much more involved typing it out than it really is in real life. It takes about 4 minutes hands-on time to make a batch of 3 or 4 pudding cups. And the clean-up is so much easier than cooked pudding.

For a healthy bonus, top chia pudding with sliced fresh fruit. 

I eat these puddings for snacks, breakfasts (with fresh or frozen fruit), and as sweet treats that are actually good for me.

January's Grocery Shopping Now Finished, Plus Another Retro Recipe

1962 Recipe and My Modified Version Using a Salad Kit as the Base

The above photo was Tuesday's dinner. I made a Mexi-tuna salad bowl, using the below recipe as inspiration. I've made the Guacamole Salad Bowl many times. It's delicious, and one of the few ways I actually like to eat canned tuna.

For Tuesday, I didn't have all of the "right" ingredients, but I did have enough to make a modified version of this main dish salad. I used 2 5-oz cans of tuna, 1 bagged salad kit (Dole's Chipotle Cheddar flavor that I got free with a coupon), some additional cabbage, 1 tomato, canned olives, additional cheddar cheese, some tortilla chips (bought with a coupon this week), some lentil sprouts, and additional mayo and salsa to stretch the dressing. I crumbled most of the tortilla chips into the salad as well as put a few on each plate. To round out the meal, we had mandarin segments and pumpkin pie squares with the salad.

I'm sure you've noticed, cans of tuna have shrunk significantly over the years. Did you know that the 5-oz on current can labels includes the water weight? Just below "5-oz" the label says "4-oz drained." To make a main dish salad for 4 adults, I find 2 of these cans necessary.

If I had had ripe avocados at the time, I would have mixed a half of one into the dressing packet that came with the salad kit and perhaps added a few of the seasonings in the recipe for Avocado Dressing. The recipe below is quite good, and I highly recommend it for anyone looking for a tasty tuna main dish salad.

This recipe was in my mother's cookbook. She clipped the recipe out of the July 1962 edition of Better Homes & Gardens magazine and inserted it into the cookbook's binder rings. I don't know when this began or ended, but in my mother's day, BH & G magazine accepted reader recipe submissions, which the magazine would publish in their monthly editions. The magazine suggested that readers clip these recipes and insert them into their own copies of the Better Homes & Gardens New Cookbook. In case you're not familiar, this cookbook is published binder-style, so pages can be added or removed. My mother routinely clipped these recipes and filed them under their appropriate headings in the cookbook. Some of my and my mother's favorite recipes from this cookbook are from the reader submissions. 

Grocery Shopping for January

I hadn't planned on finishing the grocery shopping so early in the month with still another week to go. However, two in my family were heading in the direction of WinCo this morning. I suggested a grocery stop there to save gas. And so, I purchased what we'll need for the rest of the month. Here are the details of shopping for January.

For the month, I spent $297.21, which is not bad. Of course, I didn't buy very much meat this month, just a couple of items for variety. I did, however, need to buy several bags of soy milk powder that will last a few months. I was after the free shipping offer, hence the five bags and not just one.

This is January -- no garden, and we're beginning to run low on the produce that I froze in summer and fall. Although I try to stick with budget-oriented winter produce, it does add up. Other purchases this month are part of restocking our back-up pantry, such as the 2 of gallons of vegetable oil, 2 bags of organic flour, and 2 jars of mayo, replenishing what we've used in the last few months.

The rest of my list is pretty standard for my household. Here's what we bought:

Dairy/Refrigerated

5 dozen eggs

3 gallons whole milk

5 pounds of pizza blend shredded cheese
2 pound block of sharp cheddar cheese

2 containers of tofu

2 pounds of butter

Fruits & Vegetables

fresh

6 bags of apples
several bunches bananas
3 lbs mandarin oranges

10 pounds carrots
4 heads, combined, green and red cabbages

2 green peppers

4 avocados

4 Roma tomatoes

1 family-sized bagged salad kit (coupon item)

dried

dried fruit (dates and cranberries)

frozen

2 bags frozen peas
2 bags frozen spinach
3 large bags frozen  broccoli cuts

canned

3 cans green beans (coupon item)

Pantry

roasted peanuts
peanut butter powder
2 gallons vegetable oil
2 jars of mayo
80 oz jug of honey
2 bags organic flour
2 boxes bran flakes (coupon item)
2 bags tortilla chips (coupon item)
chia seeds
large canister of oats (coupon item)
5 bags of powdered soy milk

unsweetened chocolate
wheat bran for muffins
sliced almonds
flax seed meal

Meat

large pack of boneless chicken breasts

pepperoni

2 cans of tuna

There are some ingredients in this list for a 1940s treat that I'll be making next week. Can you guess what those ingredients are?