Chia Seed Pudding

I always say that you can’t argue with busy.  We are all busy in our own way, and everyone feels the effects of that “busy-ness” everyday.  Unfortunately, the area of our lives that tends to suffer when we are feeling particularly busy is in the kitchen.  After recently returning to the world of the full-time student, I’ve been feeling particularly busy lately.  And as a busy person, I urge you, another busy person, not to overlook the recently trendy chia seed.  In particular, I’d like to endorse this recipe for Chia Seed Pudding from the March issue of Food & Wine.  I overlooked it at first myself, but, at the urging of one of my restaurant co-workers, pulled it up again and tried it.  I’m so glad I did.  It is amazingly quick to make, pleasant to eat garnished or on its own, healthful, vegan (bonus if you’re into that), and easy enough to memorize and thus put together that much faster.

Chia seeds are available at stores like Whole Foods (and yes, if you’re wondering, they are the power behind a Chia Pet) and, according to Bob’s Red Mill, whose chia seeds I purchased, they were a staple food of the Mayans and Aztecs.  They also are reportedly a good source of Omega-3 and fiber.  But what I’m most concerned with is that I can combine them with almond milk, a little agave, and a small amount of lemon zest and (poof) I have pudding.  Despite the instructions in the recipe, I find that I can put all of the ingredients in at once and shake, and everything disperses quite well.  The really important thing about this recipe, though, is the shaking during the first 30-45 minutes.  I have found that if the pudding is agitated at about 15 minute intervals for the first 30-45 minutes, the seeds will not clump together and will thicken the pudding nicely.  After that, the shaking is less critical.

The finished pudding is both crunchy and creamy, with a mild melon-like flavor.  I am looking forward to varying the zest, trying lemon, lime, orange, and perhaps even grapefruit.

You can find the recipe for Grace Parisi’s Chia-Seed Pudding here.

Strawberry-Cinnamon Frozen Yogurt

While there were many, many upsides to our recent European extravaganza, one obvious downside was that it happened to take place right smack in the middle of our region’s strawberry season.  Before leaving, our CSA newsletter poured a little more salt in the wound - the best two weeks of strawberries would take place exactly during our vacation.  Since our household can make a couple of quarts of strawberries disappear pretty much like magic, this was a tough blow.

But it turns out that the gods (perhaps we came in contact with some “god of the strawberries” ruins while in Rome?) were smiling on us in a strange way.  While we were gone, our CSA share, which we split with our friends Anna and Nick, accidentally got delivered to the wrong house!  By the time it was determined that it had gone to Anna and Nick’s neighbors, it was too late for the vegetables to be returned in good shape.  Our CSA gained new members in the neighbors, but we were out of a share...until, of course, our CSA could make up for it.

The day after Kevin and I got back from our trip, I got a message from the CSA.  One of the options to make up for the missed share?  Strawberries!  It was perfect.  So last Monday night, 15 quarts of strawberries were delivered to Anna and Nick’s house.  It was great...but using them before they went bad required some strategizing.  Enter the Strawberry-Cinnamon Frozen Yogurt.

Anna actually discovered this recipe from ReadyMade magazine and the book Spice Dreams last summer as a great use for those ice cream makers that we had both received as wedding presents.  While the cinnamon may sound like an unlikely match for the strawberries, it works beautifully, and the unexpectedness of the combination is one of the reasons that I like it so much!  There is quite a bit of zingy lemon in this frozen yogurt as well - enough that I think it should even be included in the name.  The recipe calls for dried lemon zest, but since I was juicing a lemon anyway, I used fresh instead.  One tablespoon of fresh zest is about equivalent to one teaspoon of dried.  I made this recipe for my parents while they were visiting for the July 4th weekend and they absolutely loved it.

You can find the recipe for Strawberry-Cinnamon Frozen Yogurt here.

Simple Lemon Vinaigrette

I first made this vinaigrette out of necessity. Faced with a beautiful, but bare, freshly prepared salad and a refrigerator conspicuously devoid of the proper dressing, what else could I do? Fortunately, I always keep a lemon or two on hand. I whipped up this quick dressing and, since then, I make my own vinaigrette just as often as I buy it. This is the perfect dressing for the fresh baby lettuces, sprouts, and micro-greens that are showing up at the spring farmers' markets right about now. Using a good, green salad-grade olive oil makes all the difference.

Simple Lemon Vinaigrette

1/2 Lemon
1 tsp Honey
2-3 T Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Pinch of Salt
Freshly Ground Black Pepper

Squeeze the juice of the lemon into a medium-sized bowl. Add the honey, salt, and pepper to taste. Slowly stream in the olive oil, while whisking the mixture until combined. Taste and adjust as necessary.

To serve, add fresh salad greens to the bowl and toss.