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Benefits of Chia Seed

If you haven’t heard about the many benefits of chia seed, here are a couple resources

The Top 10 Benefits of Eating Chia Seeds

What is Chia?

If you don’t have time to check out the above pages, here is a summary. Basically chia seeds are being touted as a super-food for a number of reasons. They are great source of fiber, antioxidants, vitamins and minerals. They also contain Omega-3, an essential fatty acid and even a good amount of protein! If you aren’t including this amazing nutritional powerhouse, you are definitely missing out.

One of the unique properties of chia seeds is the way they absorb liquid and gel up. This helps you to feel full on less calories. Also important is the fact that you don’t have to grind them up in order to digest them as you would with something like flax seed.

To get my daily tablespoon or two of chia seed, I add some to my oatmeal, cereal, soup, or shake. I also often mix a tablespoon in with a drink in the evening as kind of an energy drink before a workout or run. This last option may not be for everyone. If you don’t like your drinks to have a “pulpy” texture then you probably won’t like adding chia to your drinks. If you do want to add it to a drink, you will need to let it sit for 30 minutes to an hour to let it absorb as much liquid as possible, otherwise it is like drinking grit.

Popularity: 10%

Healthy Protein Pancakes

If you like pancakes and are looking for a healthy substitution that actually tastes great, give these a try!  This is one of my all time favorite recipes – seriously, these are so good you can’t even tell they are healthy.  There’s no flour and no sugar in them.  I like to make a double batch then freeze a bunch of them for easy reheating later on.

• 1 cup uncooked whole grain oats
• 4 whole eggs (or if you prefer egg whites only, use 6)
• 1 cup fat free cottage cheese
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
• 2 packages or 2 teaspoons of sugar substitute

Combine all of the ingredients in a blender until you have a nice smooth batter (approximately 1 minute).  You will need a fairly powerful blender and you might have to stir a few times to get everything to mix.  Cook them just like normal pancakes.

I like to serve them with some blueberries on top and 2 tablespoons of E.D. Smith no sugar added syrup.

3 medium sized pancakes (about 150 grams) is only 262 calories with 9g fat, 24g carb, 21g protein.

If you haven’t tried these before you might be turned off by the idea of making pancakes out of cottage cheese and oats but trust me, they are really good.  My kids like them as much as regular pancakes!

Popularity: 65%