Chocolate? What’s not to love? This Chocolate Chia Pudding is so easy and so good. Unsweetened plain cocoa powder is one of my favorite foods to recommend for kids. Here’s why you should let your kids enjoy it:
It has a good mineral profile, providing zinc, manganese, magnesium, phosphorus, iron, and copper.
It is rich in polyphenols, which lend antioxidant power.
It might even help you boost good cholesterol – that is, the high density lipoprotein (HDL) that helps cholesterol work healthfully in the body.
It has an array of all macronutrients too, including protein, carbs, fiber, and fats.
Plain cocoa powder is unsweetened and has no cane sugar – which means you can get its health benefits when you use it in all sorts of recipes.
This Chocolate Chia Pudding recipe brings together a bunch of all-good ingredients, giving you a fast easy option to store bought sugary pudding cups. Besides cocoa powder, the recipe’s chia brings the pudding texture to life while delivering its own complement of minerals (potassium, calcium, Â phosphorus), omega 3 fats, protein, and fiber. Full fat canned coconut milk – another go to in many of my nutrition care plans – gives high calorie, easy to digest fats that work well for a fast-access energy boost, without sugar. These fats, called medium chain triglycerides (MCTs), have an array of health benefits for heart health, weight loss, and even immune support. And good local organic honey – raw if your children are over a year old – will give antioxidants, more traces of minerals, and all the sweet you need.
For Paleo Chocolate Chia Pudding, just blend ingredients and chill – it will set in 1-3 hours. I’ve had some batches set quickly, while others take longer – in that case, I’ll add an extra spoonful of chia and give it another hour or more to set.
Paleo Chocolate Chia Pudding
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Rich and creamy, deep cocoa flavor, with soft texture of gelled chia seed. Enjoy!
In a blender, food processor, or with hand mixer, combine all ingredients but the chia seeds. Process until texture is smooth and all ingredients are evenly blended.
Fold in chia seeds, so that they are evenly distributed throughout the pudding mixture. Cover and place in refrigerator until firm.
If pudding hasn't set after two hours, stir in 1 more tablespoon chia seeds and allow another hour for it to set.
Oatmeal, tigernut flour, and chia are great foods for getting different types of fiber into our diets. Fiber is what helps build diversity in our gut microbiomes – and there is growing evidence that this is pivotal for preventing food allergy. It’s possible that microbiome therapies may help correct and treat food allergy too, along with many other conditions. But how do you get picky eaters to go there?
Cookies! Here’s an easy recipe to use all three of those foods in one. Tigernut flour is easy to work with and gives baked goods a warm earthy flavor and texture. Combined with oats ground in to flour, it makes an easy texture for a nice twist on the usual oatmeal cookie that anyone can enjoy. Even kids with conditions like Crohn’s disease, food allergy, celiac, or other inflammatory bowel conditions where sweets, eggs, dairy or gluten can wreak havoc will enjoy these cookies.
Everyone needs a cookie now and then! Pack these in your kids’ lunches or enjoy as snacks. No cane sugar, no eggs, lots of fiber and minerals. If your gang can roll with (GF CF no sugar) chocolate chips, chopped nuts, or raisins, add those too. Option to leave oats whole for coarse texture, or grind oats into a fine flour in a food processor for easier digestion in tender or toddler tummies. I have a mini-size food processor in my kitchen to make this task simple and fast. Lastly, see below for why stevia is included – here’s the one I recommend. It is pure organic plant extract, no fillers, in glycerite (not alcohol).
Oatmeal Tigernut Flour Cookies
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Soft, chewy, oat-y cookies that work with all kinds of elimination diets. See amazon links above for hard to find ingredients.
Preheat oven to 350 and grease a baking sheet with coconut oil. Lay a piece of baking parchment on top. Set aside to soak for at least five minutes, or til other ingredients are ready.
Place the chia seeds in a cup or small bowl. Add the water, so that chia seeds are covered. Press any that stick to sides of cup or bowl down into the water with a spoon or spatula, so they can soak. Set aside.
Measure 1/4 gluten free oats and place in a food processor. Process into a fine flour. Use this in your dry ingredient mixture. Make sure it measures 1/4 cup when ground.
In a medium size bowl, mix together dry ingredients: Tigernut flour, oat flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking powder, and salt. Blend til evenly combined.
In another bowl, combine wet ingredients: Melted coconut oil, vanilla, honey, and stevia drops (why stevia? See note below!). Mix with electric mixer or whisk with a fork or whisk until these are evenly blended. Then add the soaked chia seeds. Stir until all are evenly blended.
Stir wet ingredients into dry, and combine all till evenly mixed. If you are adding chocolate chips, nuts, or raisins, stir these in now.
Place on baking sheet, bake x 15-20 minutes, til slightly browned on bottoms and tops. Enjoy!
Recipe Notes
White chia seeds have a higher amount of omega-3 fatty acids than black chia seeds - which have more protein than the white ones. The omega-3 fatty acids can have a bitter taste, hence the extra help from stevia in this recipe. If you want to go for the slightly bigger protein boost, use black chia seeds instead - they will look like poppy seeds in your final product, which some picky eaters may object to ("what are THOSE? I don't like 'bits'"). They white ones will disappear!
Tigernut flour is something I had heard of often, but never used, until I needed an option without almond flour, gluten, any grain flours, or nut flours. I also had to omit eggs in this case, which are substituted here with “chia eggs” – and it worked! This is a dense, moist bread, almost crumb cake like. If your kids are missing muffins on an elimination diet, give this a try in small muffin tins. I’ve baked it here as a sweet bread.
This tigernut flour recipe is easy on the gut – it’s compatible with auto-immune Paleo (AIP) and modified Specific Carbohydrate Diets (SCD, some of users of which can comfortably enjoy this flour).It’s low FODMAPS too – which means it may work for toddlers emerging from FPIES restricted diets. Of course, always check with your care team before going forward.
Tigernut flour is not from nuts at all, but from a starchy root vegetable which is roasted then ground into a fine powder. Tigernuts were a food source for humans thousands of years ago! The flour yields a nutty earthy taste and texture. It’s a great source of gut-helping prebiotic fiber as well as minerals like iron, zinc, potassium, and magnesium – plus some protein too.
This flour can be a little hard to find, but it can be had on line. In my region in Boulder, Colorado, I found it at my favorite Natural Grocers. It’s also always available on amazon and Organic Gemini Tiger Nut Flour is the brand I have tested in this recipe.
Tigernut Blueberry Peach Breakfast Bread
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A moist, sweet, dense treat for breakfast or snacking. Bake in a bread pan or in small paper lined muffin tins.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a bread loaf baking pan with coconut oil.
Combine chia seed with water in a small bowl and set aside. Allow chia seeds to gel for at least five minutes while you prepare other ingredients.
Combine the dry ingredients in a medium bowl.
In another bowl, whisk together the melted coconut oil, vanilla, and honey. Then stir in the chopped peaches and softened blueberries, followed by the soaked chia seeds.
Add the wet ingredients to the dry, and mix til evenly combined.
Scoop batter into prepared baking pan and bake x 30 minutes for bread, and 20 minutes for muffins. Top and edges should be browned and toothpick will come out clean except for fruit.
Recipe Notes
For peaches, you can use canned as long as organic and thoroughly rinsed of all packing juices. You can use frozen thawed fruit as well if preferred.
These pumpkin chia pudding cups are unbelievably easy and yummy. This started out as a standard baked custard, but it actually works better to skip that step completely and just pop them in the fridge to firm up!
FPIES, Crohns flares, food allergies, and inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) can be challenging and frightening for anyone, let alone kids. It’s so discouraging when it seems there is nothing to eat, and food only hurts. Here is a soothing, nourishing recipe that uses safe, easily digested ingredients that are low FODMAPs and allowed on SCD as well as IBD and AIP restricted diets. It’s free of grains, gluten, egg, dairy, nuts, and sugar. Plus it’s yummy! Use only plain unsweetened organic ingredients, with no fillers, additives, or sugars added to the canned goods.
Pumpkin Chia Pudding Cups
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Perfect pumpkin chia pudding, sweet and simple. For an extra treat, top with coconut whipped cream: Refrigerate a can of coconut milk overnight. Drain off liquid, and whip the solid fat into a topping. Add a couple drops of stevia or honey for extra sweet.
Perfect pumpkin chia pudding, sweet and simple. For an extra treat, top with coconut whipped cream: Refrigerate a can of coconut milk overnight. Drain off liquid, and whip the solid fat into a topping. Add a couple drops of stevia or honey for extra sweet.
In a large mixing bowl, combine all ingredients, saving chia seeds for last. Stir thoroughly, til smooth and evenly mixed. You might find this works best in a food processor, blender, or mixing bowl with electric mixer.
Chill for an hour or more, until set. You can pour entire mixture into one large bowl, or into six individual cups.
Enjoy plain or with a blob of freshly whipped coconut creme.
