Chia Pet Pudding

Chia seeds are the newest trendy food.  Not only are they linked to the Aztecs and Mayans, they claim to give a body everything from fiber to weightloss to reducing cholesterol. Every time something comes along that promises to deliver more than ceasing hunger, I think back to Michael Pollan's writings on nutritionism and smile, knowing the fad will pass.

Still, I couldn't wrap my head around how the same thing that could do this:

...could also make something delicious.  And that deliciousness would also be low in sugar, and even considered raw if done correctly.  I had some chia seeds in the pantry that I had used on homemade crackers, and didn't like very much, so it wasn't even wasting them to try this chia pudding, what we fondly refer to as chia PET pudding, because come on, that's hilarious.

There are a bunch of more creative recipes for chia (pet) pudding on the internet - mocha and chocolate varieties.  I went as simple as I could - I started out by mixing 1 cup of coconut-almond milk and 1/4 cup chia seeds, stirring together, stirring together the next morning when I thought I could eat it for breakfast and it wasn't ready, and then eating the next morning with some fresh raspberries.  First I mixed in a bit of sweetener and some vanilla extract.  Most recipes start with sugar but as you know, I try not to eat much of it, but just with the milk it wasn't quite sweet enough.

I liked it the first time, but the second time it seemed harder to eat. I swear I did it the same way, so I'm not sure what happened; I didn't even want mine, and just ate the fruit off the top.  I still have my eye on a few other versions of it that I might try should the pantry elves discover more chia seeds.  For now, it was a fun experiment but didn't change my life.