Ch ch ch Chia!

I have no energy.  Ever.  I live on caffeine.  I attribute this ridiculous state of my life to two small but major reasons:

So my lovely friend Emily has been oh-so-gently suggesting I try out Chia seeds.  They're like flax seeds, but better.  The Aztecs/Mayans/all those superpowers from back in the day ate these as one of their staple foods.  According to Ms. Emily, they give her enough energy to run a marathon. Or a couple miles.  Or she can make it through a day of work/crazy-1-yr-old-daughter-nonsense.  Whatever, I'm game.

I've been making green smoothies for a while now, courtesy of one of my favorite blogs, 100 Days of Real Food.  So basically I just added in a couple tablespoons of the handy-dandy chia seeds I ordered off Amazon.  Oh, and let them "gel", i.e. let the chia seeds sit in the yogurt in the fridge for 10ish minutes so they could soften up.  Good call, Em. :)  I couldn't taste the seeds, nor did I crunch on them, and I found I did have a touch more energy that day.  I call that a win!

Oh, and the littlest energy drain, i.e. the Sophsters, thoroughly enjoyed these as well.  Sneaking the greens into the 1 yr old's diet?  Yes, please!

Green Ch Ch Ch Chia! Smoothie Recipe
Adapted from 100 Days of Real Food

• 1.5-ish cups plain organic yogurt
• 1-ish cup berries, fresh or frozen
• 2 bananas (or 1 – 2 tablespoons of honey if you don’t like bananas) (Note: you can use frozen bananas but the texture will turn out closer to ice cream than a smoothie.  Delish, but if you're shooting for a smoothie here I'd use fresh)
• 2-ish tablespoons milk (Sensing a trend here?  I don't measure, I eyeball.  It's a smoothie people, not major surgery!)
• A couple handfuls of fresh dark greens (I've done baby spinach, spring salad mix because it was all I had on hand and most recently kale, which worked out just fine) 
• 2 tablespoons Chia seeds (or flax seeds, but then you can't sing the name of the smoothie)
• Optional: if using fresh berries (instead of frozen) add some ice cubes

Put yogurt and chia seeds in blender, pop in fridge for 10-15 minutes to soften up seeds.  Once they're ready, add your greens and milk and blend.  This ensures your greens get really blended into the yogurt and you won't walk around with green stuff in your teeth all day.  Once that's all blended and happy, add in your fruit (and ice if that's your jam) and blend. 

Drink up!!  Tis quite tasty, if I do say so myself.