I’ve been having fun playing with chia seeds in my food. You’d think I was doing submissions for my Weekly Food Challenge, but alas, I didn’t plan our my food-playing well enough to do so. The good news is that I plan on starting my Weekly Food Challenge back up and chia seeds will be featured in a couple weeks. If you don’t have any yet, get you some! I hear they’re hard to find.
Back to my post…
I’ve been enjoying the blueberries I picked from the farm awhile back in my morning oats. I froze all the ones I couldn’t eat immediately and have found through experimentation they cook up quite nicely in oatmeal.
General directions: Just place a handful of frozen blueberries in the bottom of a bowl (no de-frosting necessary!). Top with old-fashioned rolled oats (I use 1/4 cup) and water (I use 1/2 cup). Stir. Microwave for 2 minutes. Done-zo! Ok, not tototally done…done cooking but I add a wee bit of sweetener – sugar or agave – and some skim milk. Stir. Now enjoy!
Having loved how my chia seeds plumped up in that Chia Fizz drink, I wondered if they’d drink up the water from my bowl of AM oats, too. To this particular bowl, I added the usual handful of frozen blueberries, a pinch of golden flaxseed (I know they should be ground, but I like the texture of them whole), and a pinch of chia seeds.
Following general directions above: Top with oats and water. Stir. Microwave. Stir. Add drizzle agave and some skim milk and stir. Top with ground flaxseed. Yum!
Here’s what it looks like just after microwaving. I love how the pretty purplish-blue swirls start showing through the oats.
The end result ready to be enjoyed. Delish and nutrish!! 
Oh…and the chia seeds…they did plump up quite nicely! I really enjoyed them cooked into the oats and will definitely enjoy them this way again soon!
by Diana on July 31, 2009
in Article
Yesterday, I found an article, “What does it mean if organic food is no healthier than regular food?“, on a news site saying organic foods are not as healthy as regular food. Since they didn’t publish any calculations or statistics on how their study resulted in this conclusion, I can’t say how they’re quantifying how “nutritious” or “healthy” the foods they researched are.
If what they mean is that an organic tomato has the same amount of vitamins and nutrients as a regular tomato, then I say, “No duh!” I don’t necessarily expect an organic tomato to have more, for example, Vitamin C than a standard tomato.
For me personally, I try to buy organic food because I want to avoid the pesticides, hormones, and whatever else can be used to grow non-organic foods. I prefer local foods because supporting local businesses supports your community and can help reduce your carbon footprint, since local foods don’t have to travel as far (or use as much gas, etc.) to get to you.
I prefer to eat locally grown/raised, pesticide-free, hormone-free foods and though they may not be more “nutritional”, as far as amounts of vitamins and nutrients, I do think they are “healthier.”
And btw, there are some other people who do seem to have opposing views from the article linked above. Here’s a post called “Fruits and vegetables yielding fewer nutrients than in the past. “
Kath organized a group get-together at Nolen Kitchen for tonight, and hubby and I were able to join in on the festivities.
We had the good idea to arrive at the restaurant early to do dinner and our friends Amanda and Justin had the same idea! We ended up grabbing a table out on the patio. It was suuuuper humid outside – think Southern stickiness – but after being stuck in a cubicle all day, I was ready to be outdoors!
Though the special tonight was $2 beers, I ended up getting a $10 blueberry bellini. Oh well, it sounded tasty!
Everyone else showed up right around or after the food started arriving. We met up with the others: Kath, Matt, Allison, Caitlin, Jason, and Kate.
Amanda was kind enough to share one of her risotto fritters. They were nice and crispy on the outside, soft on the inside, with some gooey cheesy-cheese!
Hubby and I decided to eat tapas style and order a couple small plates. We started with some crab and artichoke dip, which we shared with Amanda and Justin to pay the favor of the risotto fritter back.
The crab dip was so much better than I thought it would be. I didn’t think I was a fan of crab dips, but this stuff was the bomb! Nice tender crab with pieces of artichoke and gooey-cheese…mmm…all on top of tender pita pieces. So good! I had a hard time stopping myself from eating this stuff. In fact, I think I only stopped when I ran out of pitas.
We also ordered a big Country Greek salad which had tons of fresh veggies, a light vinaigrette dressing, and delish cheese on top.
For our “entree”, we got some Kobe beef sliders with Nolen fries, baby greens, onions, and mayo.
During dinner, I let Kath play with my DSLR. I think she’s going to get one soon and I bet she’ll LOVE it as much as I love mine!!
Here are some people photos…I think Kath took most of these while she was playing my camera…I know Matt took one…
Nice work!
Thanks for organizing Kath!! We had an awesome time! Movies tomorrow?
You guys were close, but Rebecca from All Vegged Out guessed right!
I FINALLY got to try that Chia Fizz drink from my Clean Eating Mag that I’ve been drooling over for weeks!
I started with some fresh mint and lime that I got from the Farmer’s Market this past weekend (can’t wait to visit a new one this weekend!)
I muddled the lime and mint using the back of a spoon, since I didn’t have a muddler.
Some Trader Joe’s Organic Blue Agave Sweetener sweetened my drink.
Then, there were the chia seeds, of course!
Add some Pellegrino.
Let drink chill in the fridge for about 15 minutes.
Add ice cubes and enjoy! Dee-licious and so refreshing! I love the way those little chia seeds soak whatever liquids you introduce them to and get all gelatinous! They remind me ever-so-slightly of the bubbles in bubble tea (a fave drink of mine).
I can’t wait to have another one of these…maybe I’ll make one up this weekend?
Btw, I’m going to pick up my Weekly Food Challenges again soon. I’m going to feature chia seeds in the next couple weeks, but I hear they’re hard to find, so go ahead and pick some up if you want to play along!
