Sweetener-Free Cinnamon Chia Pudding
Happy Friday! Just a short and sweet post today to finish up the week.
Since I haven’t been eating sweeteners lately, I’ve had to get a little creative when it comes to snacks. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner are easy, since I usually load up on veggies, proteins, and fats at those meals. But snacks prove to be much more challenging. After a while, a person gets pretty tired of almonds and walnuts.
The other day I whipped up this easy chia pudding in the morning with some squash puree that I had sitting in the fridge. After a few hours in the refrigerator, it gelled up nicely and made for a satisfying light afternoon snack. I didn’t sweeten my pudding, but the squash provided a lovely amount of natural sweetness on its own. I must say, though, that it wouldn’t hurt to add a little honey or maple syrup to the pudding for a little boost.
Despite a few food restrictions, I’m still enjoying my healing protocol and am learning new things every day. My sweet tooth has pretty much vanished since I’ve been eating such a low sugar diet for the past 20 or so days. Things like coconut butter, pears, and celery (yes, celery…) are tasting incredibly sweet and delicious to me now.
A quick recap:
- Digestion: Great! I’m still incorporating sauerkraut daily into my diet and probiotics as well. (I also drink kombucha a few times per week.) I fell off the wagon a little with my regular bone broth consumption, but I hope to simmer another pot of it soon to stock in the fridge and freezer. Overall, I feel like I’m digesting my food well and, when I make sure to eat regular balanced meals and snacks, I don’t have stomach aches.
- Skin: I don’t want to jinx anything, but I woke up this morning and thought that my skin looked better than it had in weeks. As anyone who deals with skin issues knows, that can change pretty quickly, but I’ll take any progress I can get and be grateful for small steps in the right direction! I’ve been playing around with a variety of skincare methods lately, so I hope to share my thoughts about those soon.
- Sleep: This week has been pretty good in the sleep department. I find that doing calming, “low stimulation” things before bed (like a reading a book instead of surfing the web), helps settle my mind before going to sleep. I’m still waking up a few times per night, but the tossing and turning has stopped and I feel well rested upon waking. More on sleep in a different post!
- Stress: This week has been a little stressful for various reasons, but I’m managing. Every day I’m learning that you can’t control the stressor, but you can control your reaction to it. That’s giving me a lot of freedom…and a lot to work on!
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Stay tuned for more updates! I promise to talk about supplements, sleep, and skincare very soon. Thanks for sticking with me!
Now. The pudding.
Sweetener-Free Cinnamon Chia Pudding
Serves 1
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1/4 cup homemade winter squash puree (I like butternut, acorn, or delicata for this)
1/4 cup water
2 tablespoons canned coconut milk (full fat)
1 tablespoon whole chia seeds
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Optional: sweetener of choice, to taste (honey, maple syrup, stevia, etc.)
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In a small bowl, whisk together all of the ingredients. Cover and place in the refrigerator for at least 3 hours (or overnight) to thicken up. Once the pudding has thickened, grab a spoon and enjoy!
Optional Toppings:
- Shredded unsweetened coconut
- Raw cacao nibs
- Chopped nuts or seeds
- Fresh fruit
I am a fan of squash subbing for pudding! Although right now, I have some leftover pureed japanese sweet potatoes that might do nicely here…gears are turning! This sounds delightful.
Cool! I love how creative we can get when we’re avoiding certain delights :)
Hallie, the kombucha may be keeping you up at night! I am personally extremely sensitive to caffeine ie. taking fish oil capsules with green tea extract in the morning for a few days will have me jittery, anxious and waking up all night long (I sold the rest of the bottle to a friend). This week I was getting insomnia again for the first time in many weeks and I realized it was because a remedy my naturopath had put me on had green tea extract in it too!
Here’s an amazing website with tons of tips for making kombucha, including how to get rid of the majority of the caffeine! :)
http://users.bestweb.net/~om/kombucha_balance/
Just noticed “cacao nibs” in the optional toppings list… you may want to try staying away from chocolate too and see if that helps! Giving up chocolate was HARD for me but I still indulge occasionally and good sleep and a calmer state of mind is well worth it, in my opinion. :)
One more thing I just remembered – the aforementioned naturopath recommended that I try unplugging everything around me and keeping my phone well away for a better sleep. Maybe this will help you?
Looks absolutely fabulous – I wish delicata hadn’t disappeared from my local markets though! Really looking forward to your post about skin; mine has been struggling since coming to this Canadian winter weather from Australia. :)
OMG! This is delicious!!! I’m doing the Body Ecology Diet right now, so I totally “get” the need for unsweetened snacks. This was perfect. I used butternut squash and was surprised how sweet it tasted (after several weeks of avoiding sweeteners). I’ll be making this again soon. Thank you!!!
Oh my, how did I overlook this delightful recipe!? Love the use of squash here Hallie. Definitely pinning it for safe keeping :)
I love the use of squash in this recipe. I sneak carrot puree into mac & cheese for my kids so I always have a batch frozen. I wonder if the carrot would sweeten as much as the squash.
I’m new on this site, but since I’m hypoglycemic I’m finding some of the recipes very helpful. I’ve only been on a sugar free eating “way of life” for a week. Glad to hear that some of the desires for “sweet” deminish after a while. I do have a question though– Do you cook your own winter squash or are you finding it somewhere already pureed or cooked? I live at high altitude and it takes a butternut squash, for example, about 1 hr to cook. Thanks for letting me stop in!
Elizabeth: Welcome! :) I make my own squash puree. I bake them in the oven whole, just pricking them a few times first with a knife. I don’t live at altitude and they take about an hour. Then I scoop out the flesh and puree it in a food processor. It does take a little work, but the sweetness is so much better than anything canned or frozen!