Chia seed pudding

Chia pudding with cherries and coconut flakes

This heat and humidity is feeling a bit stifling, but better with cold chia seed pudding and some of the summer fruit that is currently available, which for me at the moment are sour cherries and black raspberries. I made 2 variations on this recipe so far (cherry-vanilla and chocolate), though the options are endless. The basic recipe is below, and you can modify and add flavors or toppings as you like. It's so easy, and turns out to be nice for a breakfast-y cereal type of thing, or more like a dessert (the chocolate version in particular!). This recipe is mildly sweet to my tastes, so add more if you want something sweeter.

*I don't have a high speed blender, but if you do, you could blend the final product and it will be more like a pudding consistency and less like a chia seed consistency.

Chia Seed Pudding

1/3 c chia seeds

1 can coconut milk

1/3 c. water

1 T maple syrup or honey or sweetener of choice

pinch of salt

1 tsp vanilla

*If you want it chocolate: add 2 1/2 T cocoa powder

*If you want cherry flavor, add 1/4 c cherry juice

Chocolate chia pudding with black raspberries

Mix all ingredients in a bowl, and let sit for at least 30 minutes, at which time give it another stir. I put mine in the fridge overnight, though if I do that without leaving it out first, the coconut oil separates and creates a firm layer on the top that I mix in later.

Serve with your favorite toppings: berries, sour cherries, bananas, chocolate pieces, coconut flakes, cream, whipped cream, nuts, granola, etc.

Keeps in the fridge for 5-7 days, maybe more, but I have not tested that yet!

Garden Bounty - Brussel Sprout leaves, pesto, and berries

The garden is in full swing: the zucchini and cucumbers are flowering, the green beans and arugula are carrying on, the blueberries and black raspberries are winding down, and I just ate the last snap peas. Everything else is just getting a LOT bigger and greener. Due to the growth and increasing plant size, I am thinning out a bunch of greens and plants to give more space. This is sometimes hard for me because I seem to get a little hoard-like and want all of the plants to stay and keep growing, but I am learning that more space = bigger and happier plants.

So, thinning it is: kale and beet plants, but had not thought about eating the brussel sprout plants. My Charming Companion sent me this post about the tastiness of brussel sprout leaves though, and we made a big pile of them last weekend. They are a little like super tender collards - you only need to saute them for a minute or two and they are delicious. Here they are all piled up ready to slice.

They got cooked outside on the outdoor rocket stove for a leisurely outdoor breakfast and tea. Here is My Charming Companion adding the tiny kindling sticks to heat the tea.

The sprout leaves were really nice sauteed in a little olive oil with some salt. Super simple.

A couple of other weekend meal highlights included unearthing some frozen pesto from 2011 (time to eat that up before we process more for the freezer!) and putting it on steamed green beans. Omg. I could have eaten this all weekend and still wanted more. Pesto! It's so good. I think this was even a vegan version with no cheese in there. Just steam the green beans until tender (3-5 minutes), remove from heat and stir in the pesto. These were a new pole bean variety that were super long and thin and tasty.

The nasturtiums are also looking really pretty, and I throw them in all my salads. This one included an early cucumber, the last snap peas, tons of fresh basil and parsley (think equal part fresh herbs to arugula), and a mini carrot that was all red on the outside and orange in the middle. You can't see it, but it matched the nasturtiums! This salad got a dressing with some of the aforementioned pesto (mixed with olive oil and a little vinegar) because I really just wanted to keep eating pesto. It turns out the pesto makes a great dressing, and I especially recommend it with lots of fresh basil in the salad too.

Another "omg I am going to die this is so delicious" menu item from the garden was berries with toasted coconut and toasted almonds. Sometimes I take shortcuts and don't toast coconut flakes. No more. Just stick the flakes under the broiler for about 2 minutes (keep an eye on them because it goes really fast) and watch them turn a nice toasty brown and taste how the flavor sky rockets. With the almonds and fresh berries, covered with coconut milk and a little vanilla, this was amazing. Like cereal, like dessert, like a bowl of goodness.

Doro Wat and Garden Berries!

It's finally cooling off! The heat of the past week enforced some strict relaxation time for me - I spent many hours laying around in front of a fan, reading. The reading has included some YA sci-fi, but also a non-fiction book called The Man who Quit Money that is really sticking with me. I've been thinking about it ever since I finished, and am feeling affected by the person's story and thoughtful choices to live not just outside a cash economy, but really in total separation from it because he doesn't barter or trade. He's been living this way for over 13 years, and it sounds like somewhat of a spiritual practice for him.

So, while pondering a gift economy, I got to enjoy some bounty from the garden: the rest of the snap peas, the first zucchini and cucumber, and also blueberries and black raspberries! The berries usually don't ripen at the same time, but because of the late and weird weather this summer/spring, they somehow have and so I get to enjoy them together, which is quite delicious. I mostly am eating them with some coconut milk or cream on top, but made some pancakes this morning as a conduit for the berries. The leftover pancakes functioned as crepes to hold more berries for lunch. Yum!


I also tried a recipe from Nom Nom Paleo for Doro Wat, an Ethiopian dish that is primarily chicken, berbere spice, onions, chicken broth, and hardboiled eggs, plus some lime juice and ginger in there. It was really delicious and pretty easy - all on the stove top so did not heat the house up too much. I don't use berbere spice very much, but I bought a really nice blend (that was not as spicy as regular berbere) in Iowa City a couple of years ago. The flavor is really different from the other foods I've been eating lately, so it was a nice change. The Doro Wat reheated nicely for lunch, and was a good dish to eat where I had air conditioning!

This is my extremely un-photogenic version of the dish!