Chia Pudding--From Bust Magazine

This month's issue of Bust Magazine featured quite a few recipes, one of which was a recipe for Chia Pudding.  I've been wanting to try Chia seeds, and I had a single serving from June's +Vegan Cuts box, so I went to +Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market, bought a bag of +Bob's Red Mill Chia Seeds and a half gallon of +Silk Vanilla Almond Milk and to the kitchen I went.  I used the recipes proportion of ingredients and had a sauce pot going before I realized this was a no cook recipe.  I let the mixture chill in the refrigerator overnight and I had a tapioca like pudding that tasted sweet without being over-sweetened like real tapioca pudding.

The second time (this week) that I made the Chia Pudding, I did cook it.  I also doubled the recipe, substituted 1/2 C of the almond milk with Creole coffee made in the cafetera, added 1/4 C each Torani SF French Vanilla and SF Brown Sugar Cinnamon syrups, and a few tb of powdered cinnamon.  After bringing to a boil while stirring constantly, the pudding was well on its way to thickening.  It cooled on the stove for about 20 minutes and I packed it in two reusable  containers, because I'm sharing with my comadre, and they are cooling now in the fridge.

I think if this was made with plain unsweetened and low-fat almond milk, or soy/coconut/rice milk, it would be very suitable for a diabetic diet.  I sat down with a notebook and calculator and did some math; please fix any errors I made, I'm notoriously bad at counting.  Also, I rounded numbers a bit since 4.6666667 would be really hard to measure at home, at least for me.

The original recipe calls for 1 1/2 C milk substitute and 1/4 C chia seeds.  Since I used Vanilla Almond Milk, this is based on the nutritional content for that milk.  Most of the fat comes from the chia seeds, but it's good fat.  Most of the carbs come from the soy milk, but in a reasonable portion it's still only one starch exchange.

Totals for 14 oz of cooked pudding

21.75 g Fat
44 g Carbs (24 g Sugar and 20 g Fiber)
13.5 g Protein

Totals for a 4.5 oz serving (between 1/2 and 2/3 C cooked pudding)

7.25 g Fat
14.5 g Carbs (8 g Sugar and 6.5 g Fiber)
4.5 g Protein