My new found love of 'Chia Power'...

With my love of cooking comes my love of great ingredients to use. Especially things that have great health benefits. I do however find it a little overwhelming from time to time all these so called 'Super Foods'. I never like how weight loss fads are attached to them but finding something that I can add to little meals for not just Huddo but for Troy & myself to gives us a bit of an extra boost......hey I'm all for that!

About two Sundays ago out doing the groceries with Huddo we did our new thing of going to Boost Juice and getting him a little banana smoothie to sip on while I do the groceries. They offered me a 'free chia boost' now I know they aren't going to offer poison but I don't like eating things particularly supplement-based things without knowing what they are all about. So they gave me a card and after 20 seconds I said 'Yeah for sure throw a bit of that in his smoothie!'.

I then proceded to go to the health food store for another bottle of my trusty Breastfeeding Support supplement and there on the main shelf......bags of Chia seeds.
For those that haven't heard of them, the back of the packet reads as follows-

The Chia seed (salvia hispanica) is hightest know source of Omega-3 EFA's (8 times more than Salmon!) and unlike other sources of this important essential fatty acid (eg: flaxseed or fish), it is highly stable due to its powerful naturally occurring antioxidants. We've combined both varieties of seed (black and white) thus maximising their unique nutritional benefits for your optimal health.

Chia is also a good source of protein, phosphorous, folate, zinc, fibre, Vitamins A, B12 & C, and a great source of 18 amino acids (including tryptophan & tyrosine). Packed with complete protein (up to 23%) and 5 times more calcium than milk, 6 times more fibre than oatbran, 3 times more iron than spinach, 15 times more magnesium than broccoli and an ORAC value 4 times higher than blueberries. Is that an easy way to add more nutrition to your daily diet?

So I've been ensuring that each of us has a little serve of these flavourless goodies each day. And mixing up how to have them has also been a bit of fun.

Last week I made a batch of bikkies with the seeds in them.

The recipe is as follows:

Ingredients

1/2 cup of oats

1/2 cup of Kellog's All-Bran

100g butter

1 cup of flour.

1 egg

1/3 cup of Chia Seeds

40g of Sultanas

2 tablespoons of Golden Syrup

2 tablespoons of brown sugar

Method

Combine all ingredients together and then roll mix into little balls onto a lined baking tray and then bake in over of 180oC for 20-25 minutes. (They very much resemble the taste of an Anzac biscuit with sultanas!)

Other options I've done are mixed some into Huddo's breakfast cereal with his fruit and weetbix. The seeds go quite soft in liquid and are also very hydrating due to how they retain liquid.

For Troy and I,  I have been sprinkling some on our toast then placing our poached eggs on top. The heat from the toast and the eggs has also been a great way to soften them before eating.

I forgot to take a pic of the bikkies sorry but as I mentioned they very much resembled an Anzac bikkie.

As for the seeds I got here is a pic of the pack...

This is a 250g pack and cost $9.95. :)