chia pudding

OMG. Just look at the icicles that greeted me as I walked into work this morning.

Dicicles

Sorry in advance, especially if you are new reader, but the only term that could possibly describe this naturally forming phallic phenomena is “dick-cicles”. Really I can’t take credit for coining the term, Isaac is the mastermind behind that one. But seriously, isn’t that the craziest icicle creation you’ve ever seen?!?!?

Okay, now that I got that out of the way – here’s what I ate for breakfast.

Choco-coconut Chia Pudding with chocolate protein powder, coconut flakes, vanilla almond milk, and chia seeds. I made the mix last night and it got all gelatinous overnight, which was perfect because Isaac and I made it to the gym this morning (it wasn’t busy at all… hallelujah!). I took the pudding to work. topped it with a sliced banana and ate it at my desk.

I walked home for lunch annoyed by the every house that didn’t shovel their sidewalk. My normal 5 minute walk home took a whole 10-15 minutes because of them. I got happy and warm with a big bowl of potato soup with added tofu.

I also had a slice of toasted ww sunflower bread with Earth Balance. It wasn’t any pumpkin cornbread, but it was still quite tasty.

I’m not the biggest bread and butter fan, which probably stems from me loving to eat butter plain when I was young (Mom, Dad – why did you let me do this?). However today this little combo totally hit the spot.

I packed a Fruition Cran-Raspberry Bar for an afternoon snackarooney back at the office.

Smart thinking on my part as I was ready for something sweet soon after arriving back to my desk so I ended up gobbling this bar way before my normal snack time. The Cran-Raspberry wasn’t my favorite fruition flavor I’ve tried thus far. I think I like the blueberry best. But it was still tasty and it had chia seeds – which makes it great in my book!

The afternoon at work came and went and before I knew it dinner time had arrived. I prowled around the kitchen and decided to glaze some herbed tofu in the Maple Balsamic Sauce from ED&BV and baked it in the toaster oven.

Along with my delicious little tofu bites I had more potato soup. You know something is good when you choose it eat it for both lunch and dinner!!

It’s actually all gone now so I won’t be boring you all with it any longer.

Isaac and I went to see Fantastic Mr. Fox at a cheap theater near our house this evening. It was cute and the animation made it ridiculously fun to watch but I’m glad I only paid $2.00 and brought in my own microwaved popcorn.

See you all tomorrow with something more than potato soup and inappropriateness.

-Brittany

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Isaac and I woke up early (i.e. 8AM) this morning and went straight to the gym. It was actually Isaac’s idea to head directly there and I didn’t complain. I like to get my workouts in early on the weekends or else I get sucked into the computer or cleaning the day just seems to slip away.

So we made it there and I used the pumping iron plan combined with the WMM plan again.

Here’s what I did strength wise:

Lunge and Lift: 3 sets of 10 on each side
Stability Ball Hamstring Curl 3 sets of 12
Stability Ball Calf Raises 3 sets of 12
Step Ups 3 sets of 15 on each side
Plank: Held for 90 seconds
Side Plank: Held for 60 secs (each side)
Plank ups: 10
Boat Pose
Side Plank with twists: 10 on each side
Torso Twists: 2 sets of 10 on each side

I took it (kind of) easy on the cardio side of things- I warmed up by walking 5 minutes at 4 – 4.5 MPH on the treadmill, did the strength training plan above, and then hopped back on the treadmill. Isaac was itching to ditch the gym so I only had 10 minutes to get my heart rate up.

10 minute heart-pumping treadmill routine

Minutes 1-4 Walk: 4 MPH with a 3% incline
Minutes 5-9 Walk: 4 MPH – start with a 5% incline and increase it by 1% each minute until you reach 9% (the percentage of incline will correspond with the minute you are on.)
Minute 10 Walk: 4 MPH – 3 MPH with 3%-0& incline to cool down

**You could totally turn this into a full on cardio routine by repeating it several times.

I was glad we left the gym when we did because by the time we got home I was starving for breakfast and I knew exactly what I was having!

I’ve mentioned before that I love chia seeds. There’s no reason not to- they are nutritional powerhouses, very versatile, and become gelatinous when combined with liquid (so fun!). Typically I use them in smoothies or to make chia seed oats, but I’ve been wanting to get a little more experimental by trying some Chia Pudding. I’ve been drooling over Kristen’s Holiday Chia Pudding and the Chia Pudding Gina makes for breakfast for quite some time now so it was about time I made some of my own.

Kristen’s recipe involves some ingredients that I don’t have on hand so I decided to have a lovely bowl of chia pudding inspired by Gina for breakfast this morning.

1/4 cup whole chia seeds
3/4 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk
1/2 scoop vanilla brown rice protein powder
1 teaspoon maca powder
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 to 4 drops of Sweet Leaf liquid stevia
1/2 sliced banana

I simply put all the above ingredients (besides the banana into a bowl) and mixed them up. I had to stir quite a bit because the protein powder clumps and resists dissolving into the milk. Once everything was well combined I let the mixture sit on the counter for 8-10 minutes and stirred it a couple times during that time. If you google chia pudding you’ll find that there are many different recipes as well as methods for how long you should wait for the chia seeds to start gellin’. Really you could start eating it right away, but it nice to let the chia seeds gel up for consistency purposes. If you’re pressed for time in the morning, you could always make it the night before, store it in the fridge and have it for breakfast the next day, similar to Overnight Oats.

Just thought I’d highlight that one bowl has 13g of fiber and 14g of protein- now that’s great way to start the day!

I loved this pudding! The flavor was sweet and delicious plus it was super filling, much like oatmeal. And, the best part by far, was the crunchiness of the chia seeds – it made it seem like I was eating chia seed cereal.

Now that I think about it this post could have been titled Genius Gina as she was the lady behind both my morning activities. Most of my readers probably already know that she’s totally awesome and super inspiring but if you haven’t checked out her blog you most definitely should do that right now!

- Brittany