Mexican Chocolate Chia Pudding

Have you heard about these Chia seeds?



I got this bag at the local Ingels. That store is really amazing. I had heard about these Chia seeds, not only from my blog crush, but from a recent book, Born to Run. The book starts off explaining how most of us humans are not made to run long distances, but then towards the end explains how we can all run long distances. Since I had recently quit running and starting teaching step aerobics, this book interested me. Not only does this book goes against the grain in a lot of the running lore it talks about, it also advocates a vegan diet. Why? Because a)whole food, vegan diets are more easily digested so you can eat more, and b) since they are more easily digested, you can train more. I don't think that will help me. I get super super sick on mile 9 of a 13 mile run no matter if I am eating gel, beans, hummus, gatorade, tomato soup, or nothing. That is why I quit. But it was so weird to read about our plant based diet without expecting it. Again. And it was so weird for my running partner, who later borrowed the book from me, to hear the benefits of a plant based diet. Again.

At any rate, they do discuss the diets of different long distance runners and some of them come from Mexico, where these chia seeds are found. Well, it peaked my interest, and they had them a freaking Ingels. It was like it was meant to be!

Chia seeds, I think, are the same things that grow on your Chia pet. Not my Chia pet, I never had one, but if you did, I think this was what you were growing. In the book, it talks about the energy obtained after the Chia seeds.



I started off small. A little pudding. You can do a lot with Chia seeds. You can put them in your water bottle for extra energy, or you can combine them with cocoa powder, sweetener, and almond milk for a pudding. Guess which one I picked? I followed this recipe and made it twice. The first time I let it chill for only an hour. This it what the pictures are from. After an hour, I checked it, was impressed it did thicken up, but it wasn't not at all like I picture. Hmmm, well, oh well. I'll just have another bite. And another, and another. Before I knew it, the whole bowl of pudding was gone.



The seeds do swell up a bit, which cause the thickening of the pudding, but the seeds are still there. If you would like to try some, I still have most of a bag.

The second time I made this, I added some ground red pepper and some salt as well. I also let it chill longer. Again, a nice snack, but stretching it if you wanted a pudding.This is not a low calorie dessert. The recipe calls for 4 TB of chia seeds. At 60 calories each, that is 240 calories just in chia seeds. Add the sweetener, cocoa, almond milk, and it ends up about 300 calories. Appropriate for a post dinner snack, but not for weight loss. But still, a whole food. Good, tasty. Will probably make again.