Chia Seed Pudding

Hi Family and Friends! It’s been a little bit since I’ve posted any recipes and I hope this finds you all doing well and enjoying the beginning of summer.   The spring was a doozy in my household… busy kids, busy schedules, as well as Covid hitting our house in waves and kinda messing up all kinds of plans.  It’s such a strange virus, affecting people so differently – it hit yours truly pretty hard and took me more than a month to feel like myself again.  I can happily say I’m feeling 100% again and recently have been able to increase the intensity of my workouts a bit, making up for all that idle time, I suppose.  There’s nothing like feeling badly to make you appreciate feeling good!

While I was under the weather, I spent a good amount of time reading.  Not surprisingly, I was reading about food.  Stanley Tucci’s book Taste: My Life Through Food was given to me by a dear friend and remains one of my most favorite reads in a very long time.  I loved reading about his love of food and feeding others and it certainly got me excited about the idea of traveling again!  Another good read was David Lebovitz’s The Sweet Life in Paris.  I must have been feeling better when I read this book because there are too many dog-eared pages to count all the recipes I’d like to try.  Currently, I’m reading Ruth Reichl’s Memoir, Save Me the Plums. It’s a good read so far, but more about the behind the scenes of Gourmet magazine and not nearly as mouth watering as the two previous books I read.  

Mostly recently I’ve been working on my upcoming Kids Summer Cooking Camp.  I’ve got a small group of local kiddos coming next week for a 4 day cooking camp – each day has a different theme and I’m excited to get in the kitchen teaching again! 

The most exciting news is that last week our family returned from celebrating my husband’s 50th birthday on the beautiful island of Kauai.  It’s our favorite island by far and we always consider it a treat to go back.  As my husband noted, so little changes each time we visit and it’s kind of comforting to find the same ice cream/shave ice and poke shops year after year. 

There was one particular dish I had that made me recreate it less than 24 hours after we arrived home.  In Poipu Beach there is a coffee hut/breakfast place called Little Fish Coffee.  It’s the little yellow building on Poipu Rd. with the looong line the minute it opens.  I am not one for long lines, especially in the morning, but it was my husband’s birthday and we needed some good fuel before our hike in Waimea Canyon. Despite the long wait and the high prices, we all enjoyed our breakfast – I loved mine! Iced matcha latte with almond milk and chia seed pudding with fresh mango, kiwi, banana, and homemade granola – delicious. 

Chia seeds are one of my top favorite ingredients and I eat them every single day.  Chia in a smoothie, sprinkled on toast with almond butter or fairly regularly in a chia seed pudding.  I usually just eat the pudding plain but with the fruit, granola and coconut it’s a delicious, satisfying meal that keeps me full for hours and one I’ve enjoyed on the regular since we arrived back home.

We’ve got some adventures planned this summer and I have no doubt the food inspiration will be on overdrive – I hope to share some of those inspired recipes soon!

Cheers,

Christina