Meatless Monday Blog Hop #3 with Chia Seed Pudding

You probably read the title of this post and thought: "What? Chia seeds?" And then you probably thought of Chia Pets and "ch-ch-ch-Chia!" 


Ah, memories. So glad I could bring that back for you. You're welcome :)

But, I'm not here to talk about "The gift that grows!" I'm here to talk about the amazing health benefits that chia seeds provide, benefits that are largely ignored by this country, as you can see by what we do commonly use them for. Yes, they're good for sprouting, but the way I like to enjoy them is in pudding. Chia seed pudding is sort of like rice pudding, only much easier to make. Easier meaning NO COOKING REQUIRED. That's right! Sooo easy. Instructions for basic chia seed pudding below...


Basic Chia Seed Pudding


1/2 cup chia seeds, white or black
2 cups almond, soy, or coconut milk (you can use cow's milk, although I highly recommend against it in order to keep it vegan as it is done so traditionally. Use organic milk if you really have a thing against the alternatives to cow's)

Pour chia seeds into a bowl large enough to hold them and the milk. Pour milk on top and mix with a fork until well-coated. Allow to sit for at least 2 hours before consumption. I enjoy them best after they've sat overnight and are extra gooey. While the chia seeds are soaking, they will start to expand and the mixture will take on a gel-like texture. The mixture will turn a purplish color and the seeds will look like they have a clear coating around them. It will not look very pretty, but you can make it look nicer by adding fresh fruit! 

the end result

The taste is almost non-existent, but it's the texture that I really enjoy. It's like a rice pudding with a creamy, light, delicate nutty flavor. I would recommend using vanilla-flavored milk if you want it to be sweeter. You can also mix in a 1/2-1 tsp sweetener, such as agave syrup or stevia extract. 

the brand I used

The main purpose of chia seed pudding is for health purposes. Chia seeds provide an abundance of omega-3 fatty acids, antioxidants, fiber and calcium. They provide lots of natural energy and help balance blood sugar. They are also quite inexpensive, although not always easy to find. I have a local health food store that carries them and you can find them at places like Whole Foods and Trader Joe's. You can also order them on vitacost.com. Read here for more info on the amazing chia seed.


Here are some delicious add-ins for your chia seed pudding:

• fresh fruit, such as banana, strawberries, and blueberries
• raw nuts, like cashews, almonds, and macadamias
• dried fruit, such as raisins, blueberries, and cherries
• vanilla extract
• raw oats
• cinnamon 

Here is another recipe for a yummy-sounding Chia Porridge from the back of the package I bought:


1 tbsp chia seeds
1 cup water
5 tbsp oats
1/2 banana, sliced
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tbsp agave nectar
2 tbsp chopped walnuts
1 oz coconut milk
Pinch of sea salt


Bring water to boil. Add all ingredients except for the coconut milk to the water and stir for about 5 minutes or until the texture thickens and is to your liking. Serve with the coconut milk poured on top.


SOUNDS GOOD!


This pudding is the perfect alternative to sweet treats. Your family (including yourself) may think it sounds and looks weird, but just give it a try and I think you will be pleasantly surprised. When I first tried this, it was brought to a church function by a close friend and served with banana. Many looked at it with a "WTF?' look on their faces, but everyone enjoyed it! Lily likes it with fruit mixed in and Paul likes it sweetened up. What style will you try?


Now it's time to link-up something yummy and meat-free. Since I shared a snack/treat today, you can link something like that up too. Of course,  you can link whatever you like, just please only link up vegetarian recipes! And please follow your hostess and visit some of the other blogs and leave some love! With the soon-to-be-disappearing Google Friend Connect, I suggest you start following me and others with Linky Followers.


Have a good week!

Sweet Saturday Blog Hop #2

Do you love synchronicities? I do, and I just noticed I've published 70 posts (now it's 71 though) and now have 70 followers. Perhaps I should play the lotto with number 70???

I just thought that was cool and that I would share :) I hope you found it interesting too!

Anyway, I have had the longest week and just want to keep today short and sweet, hence another Sweet Saturday blog hop. Yay! It's almost my baby girl's 2nd birthday and I thought I would share some pics from her 1st birthday just for fun, and because they're sweet! I made a really sweet cake that year, and am trying to decide what to do this year. She really likes chocolate now, so I am thinking a healthy version of a chocolate strawberry shortcake. What do you think?

Getting some love from Auntie

The cake!

The decor!

The fam :)

waiting for her cake...

with her present from Grandma

Thank you, Grandma!

I'm also trying to decide what theme to use. So far these are the choices I've come up with in relation to what she's into these days:

1. Elmo/Sesame Street
2. Animals
3. Mickey Mouse
4. Dancing
5. Cats and dogs

This year we'll be inviting a lot more people than we did last year, so I've already started planning. I just gotta send the invites and pick a theme already (I should probably choose the theme first, right?). 

If you have a sweet birthday party-related story to share from your blog, please link that up! Of course, you can link whatever you like as long as it's something sweet. It can be a blog post, an Etsy shop, your lovely website, your FB page, whatever! Link as many as you like, just don't link the same thing more than once, thanks!

<a href="http://jessica-healthymommyhealthybaby.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><img src="" alt="Healthy Mommy Healthy Baby" width="125" height="125" /></a>

Have a great weekend!!!!

February's Featured Blog of the Month!

It's becoming increasingly difficult for me to choose just one blog to focus on each month, as there are SO many wonderful blogs being created each day it seems. But, for the month of February, it was easy to choose this lovely little blog I stumbled upon (by chance we each became followers of each others blogs at the same time!). 


The appropriately named Summer writes the very sweet blog with the very sweet title, A Happy Mum. It has everything you could hope for in a mommy blog: it's well-written, it holds your interest, it has nice pictures, and a super cute layout! Some of my fave posts have been the one about her recent family trip to Kiruna, her daughter Angel's fave new "toy", and this tear-inducing (you've been warned!) letter to her lost would-be youngest child. The latter is a very compelling and brave post, and I salute Summer for being so bold and honest with her readers.


Please stop by A Happy Mum and show Summer some love! 






If you know a terrific blog that has 200 followers or less that could use some extra love, let me know in the comments. Feel free to nominate yourself, just remember the blog should be about motherhood, family, food, health, creativity, or crafting.

Meatless Monday Blog Hop #2: Juicing for the Whole Family

Something I like to do- especially in preparation for spring -is to juice cleanse. If you have a good juicer, it's relatively easy to do (although clean-up not so much) and what can be better than freshly squeezed juice? Here are some of my favorite combinations:

1-2 Granny Smith Apples
3 carrots

2 carrots
1 red apple (like Braeburn or Red Delicious) 
1 stalk celery
1 small piece fresh ginger (about 1 tsp)

1-2 cups cubed watermelon
1 small/medium sized aloe vera leaf (skinned)
Sprig of fresh mint

1-2 carrots
1-2 apples (any type)
1 handful spinach

These are all healthy and delicious combinations that we have tried and enjoyed in my home. We have a Juiceman Jr. that a dear friend of mine was thoughtful enough to give me while I was pregnant with Lily. The idea behind that being that it would help me lose any unwanted leftover "baby weight" I'd accumulated and also help me get back onto a healthy diet if need be.

Best. Gift. Ever.

Luckily enough for me (and please don't be jealous!), I was able to lose the extra weight after giving birth pretty quickly, but having the juicer was quite nice. We enjoyed many glasses of watermelon juice and aloe vera with fresh mint from the garden, and freshly squeezed orange, apple and carrot that summer following my little child of spring's birth :)

Carrot and Granny Smith apple juice

Lily likes the juice too, as long as fruit as involved. She is not too crazy about vegetable juices (neither am I...)- not even carrot! But, she loves some freshly juiced oranges and apples.


You can juice just about anything, although a lot depends on what kind of juicer you have. If you don't own a juicer, here are some great ones that can help you get started. Juicing benefits in many, many ways. It helps to cleanse and detoxify your body from the day-to-day stress and toxins we put into it. It provides healthy sugars and natural energy. It provides a multitude of nutritional benefits, including antioxidants, fiber, and phytonutrients. You can use it to help and maintain any function of the body, depending on what fruit or vegetable you choose to juice. 


One thing you should keep in mind when giving fresh fruit or vegetable juice to a small child, is that there is a large amount of high-energy natural sugars in most of them, especially in carrots, apples, pears and pineapple. You should only give children under 5 years old about 4 ounces  of fresh juice at a time; otherwise, the strong sugar content may be too much for them to handle and they will surely be bouncing off the walls! Also remember that these are healthy, beneficial sugars, but it is one of the good things you can have a bit too much of. It is not the same as when you buy juice in the store that is watered down, overly processed and pasteurized. Six ounces of fresh fruit juice is equal to one adult-sized serving of fruits and vegetables, so you'll want to give children a little less, depending on their weight and age.

I hope you enjoyed this change of pace with today's Meatless Monday recipes. You may not own a juicer yet, but this may entice you now. Once you drink fresh juice, it's hard to go back to the bottled kind!

Now it's time to share! Please link up a meat-free recipe at the bottom and visit some of the other blogs too. It can be a recipe for anything- soup, dessert, beverage, entree, whatever -as long as it doesn't use meat products. You can also link up multiple recipes if you'd like. Just follow me, your hostess, and please pass along.

Sweet Saturday #1

Today we are having a lazy morning. I've been sitting here doing my "blog stuff" for the past hour with Lily sitting beside me quietly playing with her new favorite toy: her Spongebob Colorform set that her Great Grannie Annie sent her. I took some pictures that were too cute not to share. And then I decided to take it a step further and make it a link party. 

I can't believe she's almost 2!

Do you have something sweet you'd like to share? Share it below and link back with this button I just whipped up...

<a href="http://jessica-healthymommyhealthybaby.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><img src="" alt="Healthy Mommy Healthy Baby" width="125" height="125" /></a>

 

I can't wait to see what you share! I love sweet stuff! Be sure to stop by some of the other posts and share some "awwwz", and I would love it if you'd follow me. Link closes at the end of the day tomorrow!

NEW Family Favorite: Black Bean, Sweet Potato and Garlic Sausage Skillet

So, after having all these leftover black beans from the soup I made last weekend, I decided to use them up yesterday. I also had some garlic chicken sausage leftover from the sauerkraut skillet I made on Saturday (I can post a recipe for that next week if anyone's interested), plus some sweet potatoes. That was when inspiration struck and I recalled how nicely the Cuban-style Black Bean Soup went with a baked yam. Then I thought, How 'bout I just throw this altogether in a pan and see what happens? And that's what I did :)

Black Bean, Sweet Potato and Garlic Sausage Skillet

makes 4-6 servings

Ingredients

2 cups cooked black beans, undrained

1 large or 2 medium/small sweet potatoes, cubed

2 links sliced garlic chicken sausage (I used Al Fresco Roasted Garlic)

3 cloves garlic, diced

1 small onion, diced

1 cup tomato sauce

2 tbsp olive oil

1 tsp hot sauce

1 tsp cumin

1 tsp paprika

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

Shredded cheddar cheese and/or sour cream for topping

In a large pot, boil some water then put the cubed sweet potato in and cook until slightly tender, but do not overcook as they will be added to the skillet and you don't want them to get mushy. Drain and set aside. If you have not already sliced the sausage, do so now; I sliced mine into little half moon-shaped slices as you can see in the picture below. I also removed the casing, but that is optional and up to you (my pup, Ogum, was happy to have them). Heat olive oil in medium/large skillet over low heat, and then add the onion and garlic, and saute for about 5-7 minutes, or until soft and fragrant. Add the sausage slices and stir with the onion and garlic for about a minute. Add the beans and tomato sauce and bring to a low simmer. Stir in all the seasonings, and add more to taste if desired. Lastly, add in the cubed yams and mix well, cooking for about another minute or two, then remove from heat and serve with a dollop of sour cream and/or shredded cheddar on top.

The red bell peppers were a nice touch that you could even throw into the skillet along with the onions and garlic

I discovered I was all out of sour cream when I made this, but I am guessing it will go well with this recipe for sure. Some fresh chopped cilantro would be a nice touch too! Alternatively, you could make everything separate from the yams and instead bake the yams whole, then cut open with the black beans and sausage served on top. Yummmm. The main reason I did not do that myself was because I didn't feel like waiting for the yams to bake. Some other add-ins could be:

• sliced jalapenos
• bell peppers
• diced fresh tomato

I will be honest: Lily turned her nose up at this when I put some in front of her, but once I got her try it, she gobbled it all up. So, if you face a similar issue with your kid(s), just try to convince them to take one bite, and hopefully they will be as pleasantly surprised as Lily was. The flavor combination of garlic, cheese, sweetness, and a light spiciness made this an interesting dish, like a Southwestern-style party in your mouth (insert dirty joke here). I hope you enjoy it as much as we did!

Sweet potatoes are usually a big favorite for kids, but Lily is not very into them. I recently had a Facebook convo with my sister-in-law and some of her friends about how weird it was that we all have kids who seem to prefer broccoli to yams! Not that we're complaining, just pleasantly surprised!

But, don't let the yam's sweet deliciousness fool you into thinking it's anything less than good for you. Sweet potatoes contain a high amount of vitamin c, as well as fiber, potassium and manganese. They also provide cardiovascular support, and blood sugar and weight controlling capabilities due to their high amounts of dietary fiber and complex carbs. Wild yams are even used in traditional Chinese herbal medicine to help clean the kidneys, support the digestive system, and even help balance your hormones during menopause. It's a pretty incredible little root! Read more about it here.

Yams are a perfect first food for baby. It's soft texture and subtle sweetness is ideal for easing your little bundle into the world of solid foods. It's popularly sold by companies like Gerber and Earth's Best in ready-to-eat containers, but why bother when it's so simple to just bake or boil one yourself and mash it up with some breast milk or formula? 

For baby, simply mash up 1-2 tbsps of cold well-cooked sweet potato with a tbsp of breast milk or formula and serve. Baby will love it! For babies over 9 months:

1 tbsp cooked black beans

1 tbsp mashed or cubed cooked yam

1 tbsp plain yogurt

Mix together and serve it up, they will love it! Top with some cheddar cheese, too, if they like that. 

Well, that's all for today. Have a wonderful weekend and please stop by next week for the second Meatless Monday blog hop and a new meat-free recipe!

Freebie + Some Announcements

OK, so today's post has nothing to do with health or food, but I received this link for an adorable little owl calendar freebie and wanted to share! It's so cute! The calendar is composed of different artists' renderings of owl art, and they are all fantastic!

So, I thought: who doesn't like owls? I gotta share this! Click the button to go to the page, choose your artwork and which month, then download! So easy!

 

My first Meatless Monday blog hop wasn't a huge success, but I did get a few tasty new recipes to try! Take a look, and stop by next Monday with your own meat-free recipe. Maybe I'll make a button for it to help spread the word...

Speaking of spreading the word, if you haven't stopped by my new blog, The Veillee, a collaborative aspiring writer's blog created with a good friend of mine, please do. Lots of dark and spooky stuff up right now on account of last month's posts being work inspired by Edgar Allen Poe. This month we're still looking for submissions, with a suggested theme of writing about what you're passionate about, or passion in general. Doesn't need to be "sexy passion" (unless you want it be!),  just anything that drives you or a character in a story, poem, play, etc. Also, with February being Black History Month and the month of Valentine's Day, feel free to share something related to either of those themes. A poem in support of equality...divulge on your first kiss...an ode to the love of your life...a tribute to an inspiring African-American person...the possibilities are endless!

I'll have another family favorite up for Friday, not sure which yet...be sure to stop by!

OH! P.S. I just found out I received a blog award from SoCalTess over at In Love by the Beach. Thanks, Tess! This is sweet and just what I needed for a burst of encouragement! Be sure to stop by her adorable blog and leave some love :)

My award! I'll be sure to pass it on in a future post, of course!