Blood Orange Chia Pudding

A simple, healthy four ingredient snack that feels like dessert!

I’m obsessed with blood oranges and so is the internet apparently. Just search for a recipe using blood orange and about a billion will pop up this time of year. They are in season right now and so it’s the perfect time to scoop them up before they are all gone again for another year! Last year I posted a blood orange donut recipe and a chocolate banana bread with a blood orange glaze. This year I made a batch of these lemon bars using blood orange juice instead and we baked blood orange glazed salmon for dinner last night. Can’t stop, won’t stop!!

Since I’ve been home with the baby for a few weeks and still have a little bit more time to go (it’s going by way toooooooo fast!), I’ve been bored with our usual weekday lunches and snacks. Wanting to jazz it up while I can without the pressure of throwing together food for work last minute, my lunches have been a bit more creative with big bowl salads and quesadillas.

This four ingredient chia pudding was my attempt to vamp up snack time as well and use up some ingredients, including the blood oranges. While being creative in the kitchen right now, I still need recipes that come together quickly with a two month old in stow. For this recipe, you literally just dump everything into a medium sized bowl and let it sit in the fridge until you are ready to enjoy it. Then you can portion it out into individual cups and top with orange segments and additional crystallized ginger.

The bonus with this recipe? It’s super pretty and pretty food just tastes even better!! Oh and it’s super healthy. Chia seeds have a TON of health benefits, but are best consumed after allowing them to soak for two hours so that their dense nutrients can be fully accessed by your body. Blood oranges are considered a superfood thanks to the power of potent anthocyanins that are also found in berries. Ginger is brain food with medicinal properties known to also aid in digestion and nausea. Finally coconut milk contains medium-chain fatty acid that’s easily absorbed and used by the body for energy. You’d think being loaded with fat that it would be bad for your cholesterol and heart, but this type of fat actually help to lower cholesterol, blood pressure, and prevent heart disease. That said, coconut milk is high in fat, which is why I used lite in this recipe so that it wouldn’t be too caloric. Of course, I’m no doctor, but these are just based on easily researched findings online. Needless to say, you can feel good about yourself while indulging in this snack and feel good about the ingredients you are putting into your body. This pudding is also dairy, gluten and soy free since it uses only four simple ingredients.

Enjoy! <3 K&R