As a little kid, I really really wanted a chia pet. They were SO COOL. Who am I kidding; they’re still cool! You can get one that looks like Obama:
Chia we can believe in
I mean, they’re amazing! Anyway, I’ve been food-experimenting a lot since moving to this city: we ate paleo-ish for awhile, which explains the gluten free recipes, and a few of my friends went vegan, so I’ve been playing with that, which led me to flaxseed as an egg substitute. Turns out you can do the exact same egg substitute using chia seeds (yeup, the exact same ones that go on barack obama’s clay head).
I was at my favorite grocery store the other day and saw a box of chia seeds. I had recently heard of them for this egg thing, and also almond pudding. Tapioca pudding is another thing from childhood that I coveted and never got (my mom is still very against processed food etc. but we did sometimes get jello/kraft mac because, well, three kids). Apparently it’s a thing that American grandmas make, based on the comments at allrecipes. My Vietnamese grandma made me beef wrapped in betel leaves and sticky rice in banana leaves from our backyard. So a little bit far from the all-American tapioca pudding. In any case, I heard that chia pudding is sort of like tapioca pudding so of course I decided to make it.
Nutritionally, it’d probably be better to walk in fields of chia rather than gold. Geez Sting don’t you care about your health?
What’s really nice about this pudding is you just need a mason jar (or that’s what I did anyway). Put all the ingredients in…
Just a touch of Vanilla makes this Nice, Nice. Baby.
And shake shake shake!
Agitate, joggle, worry… actually, just shake it. Don’t want to scare you off with too much technical JARgon
Then throw this in the fridge for awhile. I did it overnight and totally forgot about it, but I ended up with some hard clumps. I’ll have to experiment more, but I suspect that if you shake it after an hour or two, and then shake it again before you eat it for breakfast/dessert, you’ll have a more uniform texture.
Speaking of texture, this pudding fulfilled all of my wildest dreams. So that’s an advertisement to try it (I’m making it again right this minute for breakfast tomorrow!)
Chia pudding (adapted from detoxinista, which is a site I’ve used before!, and whole foods)
1/3 c chia seeds
1 c milk (I used whole, but I think almond/soy would be great and make this recipe vegan)
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 TB maple syrup
Put all ingredients in a mason jar or some other storage container. Shake. Refrigerate overnight or for several hours, shaking whenever you happen to open the fridge. Top with whatever and eat (I like bananas, but coconut, nuts, berries, anything would be great)
PS Look at this HILARIOUS thing I found on the internet when searching for ‘chia pet obama’! It is SO FUNNY. 
Baking and Math 
Appreciate this blog ppost