- Hey guys with back to school in full swing,
I thought you might enjoy another healthy breakfast idea.
So this one is one of my favorites,
it's a vanilla flavored chia pudding
with homemade granola.
It's super simple to put together.
You can prep it all on the weekend
and have a great, healthy breakfast in the week ahead.
And special thanks to Kroger and their OptUp app
for sponsoring and collaborating with me on this episode.
The inspiration for this recipe was born
after using Kroger's OptUp app,
which is my new favorite thing.
It's a free mobile app created by Kroger,
that works with your local Kroger owned grocery store.
I love it because it helps you make healthier choices
when you're grocery shopping each week,
because it provides nutritional information
and ratings on the products you use most.
And if something gets a low score,
it gives you healthier recommendations
for other products to buy, I love that.
You can then add items to your cart
to order from the Kroger mobile app or website.
I'll leave you a link in the description
for where you can download the free OptUp app
in the App Store or Google Play
or from their website, OptUpapp.com.
So while using this app I was totally shocked
to see how much sugar goes into yogurt and granola,
things that you think are supposed to be healthy of you.
And my kids love yogurt and granola for breakfast,
so I thought, there has to be a healthier way.
Okay let me show you how to make these low sugar,
but high in nutrition chia pudding with homemade granola.
So to prepare our chia seed pudding
we are first going to measure out
two and a half cups of almond milk.
You can use regular milk
if you wanted to as well, or soy milk.
And then to that you're also gonna add
a cup of plain Greek yogurt,
three teaspoons of vanilla.
So I find whenever I'm trying to cut back on the sugar,
I ramp up on the flavor,
because if something's really flavorful
you don't actually miss the sugar.
Then we're gonna add 3/4 cup of chia seeds.
Now chia seeds are really great to add
to something like this because they're gonna create
that kind of pudding-like consistency.
'Cause anytime they hit something that's liquid,
like the almond milk, they'll to start to expand,
they become almost like a gelatin consistency.
They're also really high in fiber
and really strong in omega-3s,
so they're really nutritious too.
So then you can mix those up until everything is combined.
And then you're gonna portion these out into some glasses.
It'll fill anywhere from three to four glasses,
depending on how big your glasses are,
and you wanna go about 3/4 of the way up.
Then, you wanna refrigerate these, and anytime I'm taking
a bunch of glasses to the refrigerator
I like to set them in a jumbo muffin tin
because it's so much easier to just take the muffin tin
to the refrigerator than to try to juggle three glasses.
You wanna allow the puddings to refrigerator
anywhere from three to four hours,
I think overnight is even better.
And then we can get to work on our homemade granola.
So if you've never made granola before,
it's like the easiest thing to do.
And once you make one,
you're gonna wanna make all kinds of granola.
Because its basically the same recipe
and then you can just switch up the flavoring and the nuts
depending on the flavor you want.
So in a medium bowl, we're gonna add tow egg whites
to that we're gonna add two teaspoons of honey
and two teaspoons of brown sugar.
And then for our flavor,
we're gonna go with a teaspoon of ground cinnamon
and 1/4 teaspoon of ground cloves.
And then you're also gonna add
1/2 teaspoon of fresh orange zest,
and you'll find that flavor combination
between the cinnamon and the cloves and the orange,
just creates a really nice fall flavor.
So you can whisk that all up until everything is combined
and then we're gonna add two cups of old fashion oats.
So you'll see when you get to the grocery store
there's two different types of oats.
Don't go with the quick cooking oats
'cause those won't really work for granola,
you wanna make sure that you have the old fashion.
They have a much different texture to them
and they work much better for granola.
And then we're also gonna add some nuts,
just for some extra protein.
So I like to add 1/3 of a cup of pecans,
1/3 of a cup of unsalted cashews,
1/3 of a cup of dried cranberries,
which is a really great flavor combination
with the orange zest.
And I like the granola to have a little bit of chew in it,
so that will provide that.
And 1/3 of a cup of unsweetened coconut.
And then you can mix that all together,
and you wanna really mix it well
to make sure that the flavoring
and the egg white is coating all of these ingredients.
And then once it's all mixed up,
you can transfer it onto a rimmed lined cookie sheet,
and just spread it all out so it's on a single layer.
And then you're gonna pop in a 375 degree Fahrenheit oven.
And you wanna let this bake
for anywhere from 12 to 13 minutes,
just until the granola is golden brown
and starts to dry out.
Then once it's done, you can allow it to cool.
And then once it's completely cool,
I like to transfer it into an air tight container
and just keep it on my counter top.
And that way, every morning,
when I wanna use it to top my chia puddings,
it's right there and ready to go.
This granola also makes a great at the holiday time,
or you can also put some in the lunch box as well.
Okay, so now for our orange segments.
So what you wanna do first,
is slice off either end of the orange
and that's gonna give you a flat surface to work on.
Flip your orange upright.
And then, just with your knife,
you're gonna go around the orange
just slicing off the rind.
Making sure that you're getting close enough
to get the white part, the pith of the orange.
Then once all of that is removed,
you can go back in with your knife
and just remove anymore of the pith
that you missed the first time around.
And then, you're gonna be left with an orange
that will now show you the segments.
And you can see the orange segments
are in between the orange membranes.
And what you wanna do is take your knife
and slice in between each membrane
to release the orange segment.
And you can keep these in a bowl,
I actually just keep them there with the juice
because it keeps the orange nice and moist
and prevents it from drying out.
And then just pop it in your fridge
until it's ready to serve.
And then when it comes time to serve,
you can just take a handful of the granola,
sprinkle it on top your chia pudding,
place two or three orange segments on top
and there you have it.
You have a got a healthy
and nutritious breakfast ready to go.
I hope you guys give this one a try
and let me know what you think.
And special thanks to Kroger for sponsoring
and collaborating with me.
I hope you guys go check out the app.
It's pretty enlightening to see
where some of you favorite products land.
Alright you guys, I'll see you back here next time.
Until then, bye.