"Meat"loaf and Pudding

So, nothing new for dinner.  I made the "No-fu Loaf" from a few posts back.  Made a sandwich with some Go Veggie (purple) cheddar.  Instead of ketchup for the topping, I used some Annie's BBQ sauce.  Very yummy, I think I want seconds!

A few nights ago, I was craving something sweet.  I decided I wanted chia seed pudding.  If you've never made chia seed pudding, it's ridiculously easy.

What you need:

• Chia seeds
• Milk (I use almond, but you can use any milk you want!  I've made it with coconut milk before and it's amazing too!)
• Whatever spices you want
• Sweetener, if you want

If you are unfamiliar with chia seeds, let me enlighten you.  Yes, this is the same chia seeds as Cha-cha-cha-chia.  Yes, the same as the sculptures heads with grass growing from them.  Per Wikipedia: "Chia, is a species of flowering plant in the mint family ... according to the USDA, a one ounce (28 gram) serving of chia seeds contains 9 grams of fat, 5 milligrams of sodium, 11 grams of dietary fiber and 4 grams of protein. The seeds also have 18% of the recommended daily intake of calcium, 27% phosphorus and 30% manganese,^[7] similar in nutrient content to other edible seeds such as flax or sesame."  This is pretty amazing stuff.  I use it in stir-fry, salads, smoothies, all sorts of stuff.

So, pudding.  You take some chia seeds - as much or as little as you want.  Then milk - you want 5x the amount of milk as chia seeds.  So if you use 1/4 cup chia seeds, you would use 1 1/4 cup milk.  Next add what ever spices.  I suggest about 1 1/2 tsp vanilla, just for a little flavor.  Then you could add cocoa powder to make chocolate pudding (yum).  Some cinnamon and honey (or Honee) for a simple pudding.  I decided to do a chai pudding :)  I have there ground clove, ground cardamom, and ground cinnamon.  Very small amounts  of these spices are needed.  1 teaspoon of each, at the very most.  I think I used 1/2 tsp of cardamom, 1 tsp of cinnamon, and maybe 1/2 tsp of clove.  ( I did this a week ago, so forgive my bad numbers.)

Once you mix all the ingredients, you will need to put a lid on your bowl and refrigerate.  You need to go and shake the bowl about once or twice every ten minutes for the first 45 minutes.  The chia seeds will get stuck together if you don't, and that's not a very appetizing pudding, trust me.  Keep this in the fridge for about 24 hours.  You can break into it after 12 hours, but trust me, it's better after a whole day.

Chia seed pudding has a consistency similar to tapioca pudding.... not the same, but similar.  Don't be freaked out if you take a bite and it feels like you're chewing little eye balls :P

Unrelated to the rest of the post - I had a couple friends at work that had birthdays this past week.  I decided I would make them each their favorite cakes.  Now, before I decided this, I'm not sure I ever baked a cake before, let alone a vegan cake!  But the power of the internet is fantastic.  You can find just about anything.  I found a pretty great red velvet cake (lost the link now, but I'll try to find it), and an equally amazing vanilla cupcake recipe converted into a regular cake.  I used the recipe found here and just baked it in my circle Pyrex instead of a cupcake pan.  Here are my cakes:

With that, I bid you all a good evening.  Feel free to leave comments or questions!