Coconut Raspberry Chia Breakfast Pudding Cups

I’m not usually one to jump on the Trendy Food Train. I mean sure, I eat a bit more quinoa than I would have even considered eating 5 years ago, and maybe I’ll venture out and make kale chips one of these days, but usually when I hear about some “new” (aka ancient, just recently discovered in pop culture), healthy, antioxidant superfood, I roll my eyes. These ingredients have been around for hundreds of years, and yet people go suddenly gaga for them.

I usually just stick to my comfort food recipes, and if I’m feeling healthy, well, veggies and smoothies do the trick.

So it’s a big step for me to be posting a chia seed recipe right now.

I’m sure you’ve heard about this “new” superfood. To be honest, I’d never even heard about chia seeds until this year, and the word “chia” just brought along fond memories of these little buggers.

Apparently chia seeds were grown by the Aztecs hundreds of years ago, and were almost as important to them as maize. Who knew?

They’re super healthy, loaded with tons of fibre, protein and antioxidants. I’m not a health nut, but that sounds good to me.

My curiosity grew when I heard someone say you could use chia seeds to replace eggs in some recipes. What? They’re little grains, they kind of look like sesame seeds, how on earth would they replace eggs? Well, put the little guys in liquid and let it sit for a few hours, and the seeds expand and turn into little jelly balls, kind of like the balls that are found in tapioca pudding, but smaller.

Well, I haven’t tried replacing eggs with these things yet, but I have made some for breakfast, and it’s my new favourite thing.

The night before, I simply mix together some chia seeds with a bit of liquid (this recipe calls for some almond milk and some coconut milk), top with some frozen raspberries (I love the texture of the frozen rather than fresh in this recipe), top with some shredded coconut and maybe a drizzle of honey, and stick it in the fridge overnight. They don’t take a full night to expand, but I find it’s easiest to just let them do their thing while I sleep.

Then I can toss the jar in my gym bag in the morning, spend an hour at the gym and then have a delicious and healthy post-workout breakfast in zero seconds flat.

Talk about awesome! The mixture tastes of coconut and almond milk, and has the texture (almost) of tapioca pudding. You can use whatever toppings you want, use any kind of berry, or nut, or whatever you can dream up. I’m hooked on chia seeds!