Oat and Chia Overnight Pudding

We were dealing with a lot of tummy aches here in these parts recently. It was like clockwork, every weekday morning, we (and by we I mean my daughter) got a stomach ache. At first I was completely stumped by them. Where are they coming from? But, despite all my own experience, I was out to lunch. Even the doctor, at our yearly check-up, gave me “the look”–you know the one that says “Is this really your first time at the rodeo?!” But it’s not. Not only have I been to the rodeo I was the rodeo. As a kid, the changes associated with a new school year were always a source of stress for me. Everything about the new routines –new teacher, classroom, friends, seating assignment–tied me into knots. So after two comfortable years with the same teacher, my daughter has slowly taken command of her fourth grade status, one tummy ache at a time.

A few weeks ago, Scarlett could barely choke down an apple slice so the tummy troubles crushed our breakfast mojo. There I was, standing in the kitchen, holding a wee stack of blender pancakes studded with berries when she said, “I can’t eat anything. I’m too nauseous.” So I forced the meal on my husband who is normally left to fend for himself so was more than thrilled. Same thing the next few mornings with the French toast muffins she had eaten with abandon the week’s earlier. But time and these overnight puddings have helped bring my daughter back from her morning slump.

Photo by Maya Visnyei

Overnight refrigerator oats and chia puddings are a big thing in our house. They’re actually those breakfasts we start getting excited about even before we go to bed. So I combined the two and hoped this hybrid would help Scarlett get back into breakfast. It didn’t help right away but it definitely got her interested. She started with just a spoonful since she had to “test” the new recipe and then, by the third day, she was eating half of it. She wasn’t finishing them off in record time like before, but they were definitely too hard for her to pass up. I think it was the toppings that really roped her back in. Like a plain bowl of oats, these puddings, in our opinion, are just a delivery system for fun toppings. Both Scarlett and I love designing different combinations. I love to give mine a big spoonful of coconut almond butter that I stir in along with hemp seed hearts, flax meal and any fruit I have in the house while Scarlett showers hers with granola, honey, flax meal, and plenty of extra cinnamon. I’m happy to report that we only now have few tummy issues a week.  Although I can sense when one is brewing. In that case, I immediately start mixing a batch of these jars of happiness. After all, isn’t the point of yummy food to make us happy?