Chia seeds

Still keeping nice and busy over the summer. Last weekend we drove up to Sudbury to go to my cousin's wedding. It was beautiful and we had a lot of fun. Saturday we went to my aunt and uncle's to celebrate my aunt's 70th birthday. We got to go swimming, jump into the hot tub, talk with family, and enjoy a lot of amazing food. It was a beautiful day and it was so much fun. We also got to spend a bit of time at my father in law's camp. We chatted, sat by the fire, and got to look at this amazing view.

We didn't get to spend that much time, but we will be going back in September and I'm really looking forward to it.

This weekend I had the chance to be at home to get things done. Yesterday I cleaned out the basement in order to start exercising down there again. Just need to set up the TV and DVD player. For supper we did a beer can chicken. I of course got my chicken from Aubrey's, and used the marinade that I got from St-Albert, Jamaican Jerk. My hubby got the BBQ going, prepared the chicken to go into our pan for beer can chicken, and got it cooking on the BBQ, which he basted it every once in a while with more of the marinade.

That was the final result, and it was delicious!!  Of course we still have some left for another time. I prepared some sweet potatoes with onions, as well as balsamic glazed asparagus to go along with it, and enjoyed a glass of Baco Noir.

 Today I got busy in the kitchen making turkey chili for 2 lunches each this week.

I also made some blueberry walnut muffins

And lastly a Berry Bright Chia Pudding, here's the recipe:

Serving size: 4 (4oz) servings

1 cup strawberries or raspberries - fresh of frozen (I used fresh raspberries)
1/2 cup coconut meat
1 1/2 cup coconut water
1/3 cup agave or honey (I used maple syrup)
1/4 tsp sea salt
3/4 cup white chia seeds
*water if you like it to be a little thinner

Place the berries, coconut meat, water, agave, and salt in a high speed blender and mix until smooth. Transfer mixture to a large serving bowl.

Slowly pour the chia seeds into the berry mixture, stirring constantly until thoroughly mixed together.

Place in fridge to chill and set up for at least 30 minutes. Pudding will thicken. If too thick for your liking, just add more water. Too thin? Add more chia seeds 1 tbsp at a time.

This recipe I got from Tone it up. I found out about them through a friend.  She was at Chapters and found their book of Tone it up, so I decided to check out the book and it's really good. I went through their website and I love how they built a community of women to help motivate each other to live healthy lives. I got the chili and blueberry muffins recipes from them as well. I got a few of their workout video's and look forward to trying them out.

Here's a bit more information about Chia seeds. A 1 ounce (28 grams) serving of chia seeds contains:

• Fiber: 11 grams.
• Protein: 4 grams.
• Fat: 9 grams (5 of which are Omega-3s).
• Calcium: 18% of the RDA.
• Manganese: 30% of the RDA.
• Magnesium: 30% of the RDA.
• Phosphorus: 27% of the RDA.
• They also contain a decent amount of Zinc, Vitamin B3 (Niacin), Potassium, Vitamin B1 (Thiamine) and Vitamin B2.

So as you can see Chia seeds are a super food!  They act as a gelatin, by absorbing a lot of water. You can make all sorts of different flavored "puddings" like the one above, you can add it to smoothies, or you can even use it as an egg substitute by putting 1 tbsp of chia seeds to 3 tbsp water for each egg your replacing. You can also sprinkle some chia seeds in all sorts of things like salads, yogurt, or oatmeal. If you haven't given them a try, I recommend you do because they are delicious!