Ch-Ch-Ch-Chia!

If you add one new thing to your diet, it's gotta be Chia seeds! They are all the rage right

now, but this is one trend that's worth following and continuing for the long haul. Chia seeds (yes, the same type that grow crazy green hair on little ceramic heads) are absolutely chock full of nutrition! Just 2 Tbs pack a healthy load of protein, Omega 3's, calcium and fiber (nearly 50% of your fiber RDA -that'll keep ya regular!) to name just a few benefits. They are tiny and don't have much flavor so it is easy to sprinkle them into any dish for a relatively indiscernable nutrition power punch. I always keep a jar on my counter to make it easy to add these to whatever I'm making at the moment.

But....don't...eat...them...by...the...spoonful....

Trust me on this one. While it won't harm you, it's an event -yes, event, that you will probably want to live without. I know this from experience.

I usually get my daily dose of these magical seeds from my morning overnight oatmeal -which I LOVE! But this morning, my fridge was bare (I'd forgotten to make them last night). Knowing the nutritional kick these seeds have, I didn't want to miss out. I was in between meals, so I thought I'd just pop a tablespoon in my mouth and load up with health. Easy peasy -right?

Wrong! So very wrong. So very, very, very wrong.

Phase 1: An instant mouth full of little dry seeds. Somehow these seeds multiplied by a million and completely coated my entire mouth. I felt like I had sucked up the entire contents of a bean bag chair from the '70s.

Phase 2: Dry chewing. Chia seeds absorb about 20 times their weight in water, and this spoonful and absorbed every last drop of wetness in my mouth. I couldn't swallow, so I had to chew, and chew and chew and chew. Did I mention i had to chew -alot?

Phase 3: Weird growth. So as I chewed, the chia seeds became gelatinous and almost grew in my mouth, resulting in several snail like things in my mouth. And I don't mean good escargot snails, I mean fish tank snails, without their shells.

Phase 4: Coffee please! Fearing that these snails might come to life and burst out of my mouth seeking freedom, I had to think quick! My eyes landed on my hot cup of coffee and I knew this would do the trick. As I drank the coffee, the snails, battling hard to stand their ground, slowly began to melt and were finally "swallowable".

So in summary:

Don't...eat...them...by...the...spoonful....

That being said, they are absolutely an incredible, relatively non-noticable addition to almost any recipe you can come up with and the benefits of this incredible seed are MANY. They will benefit both how you feel and how you look!

So please, sprinkle some of these magic little seeds into your diet, or, if weird chewy snails are your thing....