chia seeds? yes please!

With school just right around the corner, I've been thinking more and more about how to make easy healthy meals for me and the hubs, continue exercising, and balance my daily schedule.  Let's be serious, sometimes it can be difficult to manage work, relationships, healthy eating, exercise, and anything else you might want to do!  So I'm all about finding ways to make things easier.

During the school year, I wake up at 5am every morning.  I have found that it is really difficult to eat breakfast this early in the morning.  Often times, I take my breakfast with me to work.  Another problem I run into is hunger.  When I eat so early and then teach all morning, I'm starving for my 20 minute lunch break.  

Well I have found a solution for my breakfast dilemma... CHIA SEEDS!

Have you heard of them?  ABC has deemed them the "It" food of 2013.

If you haven't, you need too! Chia seeds have MANY benefits.  One of the most important benefits for me is that it helps control blood sugar!  They are extremely beneficial for diabetics!  Other benefits include weight loss, reduced appetite, feeling fuller faster, increased hydration, boosting energy, and lowering cholesterol.  Chia seeds do not add any flavoring to a dish, so they could be added to anything!  I promise you will start seeing them a little more around this blog.

I cannot take credit for this amazing recipe, it all goes to Gina over at Skinnytaste (her blog is amazing).  I just made a few changes to make it something I would enjoy even more!

My family was skeptical, but it tasted amazing.

I doubled the recipe and will continue doing that in the future.  I may even start packing them in containers to take to work! YUM!

 Berry Chia Breakfast Pudding

Serves 4, Serving Size 1 cup

2 cups of unsweetened Blue Diamond Almond Breeze Vanilla

1 tbsp Splenda

3/4 cup blueberries

3/4 cup sliced strawberries

4 tbsp chia seeds

Put all ingredients into a container that can be covered and stir them together.

Cover container and shake.

Wait 15 minutes and shake again.

Refrigerate overnight and ENJOY!

homemade fro-yo

Every now and again I like to make the hubs something sweet to eat, because I don't keep sweets in the house.  Since I can't eat them, it's easier just to not buy them at all.  But I like to make him a little something special every few weeks.

While shopping for healthy sweet treats on Pinterest, I ran across a recipe for Peach Fro-yo.

Um... YUM.

When I read the recipe, I told David about it immediately.  He loves ice cream and I knew it would be a hit.  On top of that, we had all of the ingredients, except the peaches.  To spare a trip to the grocery store, we decided to use some frozen mixed berries we had.  This recipe is EASY and requires very few ingredients!  We would highly recommend it and will be making it again one day (maybe with a different fruit next time?)

Mixed Berry Fro-Yo

2 1/2 cups 0% Fage Greek Yogurt

3 cups of Mixed Berries

1/4 cup Honey

Optional: A few packets of Splenda

Instructions:

First, put all of the ingredients in the blender and puree.

We have an automatic ice cream maker, so we put the mixture into the frozen container and turned it on for about 35 minutes.  Or as long as it takes for the puree to start stiffening.

Once the puree is stiffening, but the container in the freezer for an hour or two until frozen.

Easy?  I know right!

We are nursing our precious pup back this week.  She will officially not be having babies!  For most of this week, she has been and will be our little cone-head.  Hazel's not enjoying it too much, but she's handling it like a champ!

Hope you are having a great week!