pumpkin chia pudding

Purty. Purty purty pudding. Autumnal goodness abounding. Healthy too. Really. I am this pudding’s bitch.
I just wish I’d had the suggested cookie crumbs to layer with it that Angela of Oh She Glows recommends.
This recipe for pumpkin chia pudding
from Oh She Glows is healthy, and charming, and cute. Much like Angela, creator of the blog. What if all bloggers only made food that resembled them? What would I make? Would it be one endless stream of black rice, dark chocolate, black coffee and black jelly beans to reflect my attire? Or perhaps the stark opposite: cottage cheese, endive, cauliflower and other anemic foods to be my pale skin? Or nerd-y food? Whatever they ate in my favorite books like The Great Gatsby! Oh wait, did that. I dunno.
What food resembles you?

I want to know. So please leave a comment and tell me. In the meantime, if you dig easy, tasty, pumpkin-y goodness and don’t mind the crunchy little chias(I personally love it, some folks do not)then give this pudding a whirl. An thank goodness for easy, seeing as this is my last weekend of playing the dancer who gets her leg ripped off(literally and physically), I did not have a lot of time for fancy cuisine.

Pumpkin Chia Pudding(adapted from Oh She Glows blog by Angela Liddon)
1 c. almond milk
1 c. pumpkin
2 Tbsp. chia seeds
2 Tbsp. vanilla protein powder
3/4 tsp. cinnamon(I increased this from 1/2 tsp.)
1/4 tsp. ginger
pinch nutmeg
2 Tbsp. maple syrup
1 packet Equal(my addition, bad me!)
Mix it up. I used my immersion blender. Cause I could. Chill a couple hours then eat up. Feel healthy. Look in the mirror and see if you are getting Angela’s “glow”. Repeat.

cookie dough? we shall see.

Anyone who has read much of this blog may have noticed I consider myself an expert on cookie dough. I am the dough whisperer, hear me roar. The Doughminatrix. So I see a recipe on Heather Eats Almond Butter for a cookie dough smoothie and I feel the need to put it to the test. Plus it used nutritional yeast, which I have been playing around with. Plus it had interesting instructions such as not too blend to much because “you don’t want the nooch to get completely obliterated b/c it adds that gritty cookie dough-like texture”.
That’s some pretty tough, sexy writing for an entry on a smoothie. Nooch? Huh? Oh, nutritional yeast. Duh. I am not sure that gritty is the word that comes to mind when I think of dough, but Heather’s use of italics made me think that there must be something kick-ass to the smoothie’s grittiness.
Can’t get shake-y without a dose of kick-ass.
Lastly, this shake used chia seeds. I’d not yet tried these darlings of the health blogosphere. I thought cookie dough would be a good way for them to make their Scrumptious Gruel debut. Put on your long white gloves, little chias, you’ve got a ball to go to.
The verdict?
Oh. My. God.
This does taste like cookie dough. Next time I am going to not add the additional two tablespoons of water I added(they were not in the original recipe) so it is thicker. Also I will use more chocolate and I won’t halve the recipe like I did this time. I did not want to commit to a full big shake until I had judged its doughiness. I have commitment issues. Foodwise, anyway.
Here’s what I did this time around:
Cookie Dough Smoothie(only slightly adapted from Heather Eats Almond Butter)
1/4 cup oatmeal
1/4 cup + 1/4 cup plain unsweetened almond milk
1 1/2 teaspoons chia seed
1 1/2 teaspoons of nutritional yeast
1 packet of Equal(Articficial sweeteners!Bad me,I know.Oh well.)
pinch salt
pinch cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 teaspoons chocolate chips(Ghiradelli Bittersweet)
Mix oatmeal, the first 1/4 cup almond milk and chia seed and put in refrigerator for 6 hours. I added a couple of tablespoons of water halfway through, thinking it would be too thick. I was wrong. After 6 hours, blend with second 1/4 cup of almond milk, cinnamon, salt, vanilla and sweetener. Add nutritional yeast and blend just a bit. Add chips and blend a tad more. There ya go.
I am still the Doughminatrix. Meow.

Question for the readers? What foods are you master/mistress of?