Christ is in our midst!
The endless creativity you can do with chia pudding is mind blowing. Once you enter the realm of making chia pudding, using my recipe that has been perfection, you can get lost in creativity for this recipe alone! Once you make the concoction, the topping choices are endless! Leftover fruit? Chia pudding! Savory and sweet superfood powder? Chia pudding! And thats what happened. I had a cup of frozen cherries leftover from making a cherry cake. Instead of refreezing the cherries, I made Monday’s breakfast in advance.
Initially, the idea did not start off with chia pudding. Rather, it started with making a Cross cake for our church feast day.
In order to honor the Adoration of the Cross, I used the cherries to make the cake darker, to symbolize the Blood of Christ, and for flavor. On the Third Sunday of Great and Holy Lent, the Orthodox Church commemorates the Precious and Life-Giving Cross of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Services include a special veneration of the Cross, which prepares the faithful for the commemoration of the Crucifixion during Holy Week. In kneeling before the crucifix and kissing it we are paying the highest honor to our Lord’s cross as the instrument of our salvation. I remember my first time experiencing the Adoration of the Cross with people venerating several times and a beloved church member said I had to fully venerate. At the time, given the condition of my back, I was not able to venerate the Cross.
With much love and gratitude, I am now able to venerate the Cross. Thanks to the healing from confession and receiving Holy Communion – a metropolitan calls it an essential spiritual weapon in the spiritual warfare – and visiting St Nektarios Monastery, my health has been improving. Glory to God!
The kind of cake I made was using the Vanilla cake recipe and simply adding in dark sweet cherries from Trader Joe’s for this beautiful day. This cake recipe created by this wonderful plant based baker, Anthea Cheng, has been my go to recipe since I have tried it. I used the original vanilla cake recipe for my wedding cake!!! That is how good it is!
Like I said, when you enter the realm of making chia pudding and can get it to taste to perfection, you can really go crazy and wild with the flavors. I had leftover cherries from the bag I used for the cake (1 cup, to be exact). I decided to make a smoothie out of it to try it out. I shared some with my husband and his son. I had 2 cups of some smoothie. And just like that, it was just enough to make a chia pudding recipe. 🙂
Cherry Cake
On a side note: If you would like to make my cherry cake, simply follow Anthea Cheng’s Vanilla cake recipe. I was using a cross mold so I simply added the cherries after I placed the batter in the mold. Add the cherries to your batter once it is well mixed; don’t over mix it or it will become tough cake. We may appreciate tough characters at the appropriate time, but no one likes and nor is there an appropriate time for a tough tasting cake.
INGREDIENTS
Simple Cherry Smoothie for the pudding
1 cup frozen cherries
4 1/2 cups of oat milk
Add these ingredients once the smoothie is made:
6 tbsp chia seeds (color of choice)
1/2 tsp ground vanilla or 1 tsp vanilla extract, optional
Liquid sweetener, maple syrup, agave or local honey, optional
Fruits of your choice, optional
DIRECTIONS
- Place the smoothie ingredients in the blender. Blend well. Reserve 2 and half cups on the side.
- Place the remainder of the ingredients, using 2 cups of the cherry smoothie, in a medium-sized mixing bowl and whisk until combined.
- Whisk from time to time in the first 10 minutes to prevent any lumps from forming, and then set aside to soak in the fridge for at least 20 minutes until thick and jelly-like (or leave overnight).
- Store the chia pudding in the fridge in a sealable glass jar and it will keep for a few days.
This is the part that gets fun! Add coconut flakes, berries and fruit of choice, mulberries, cacao nibs, and anything else that you like that is in season or local to you that will pair well.
My apologies for not including the nutritional information. I am in the process of making it easier to look for the information in a separate folder on the site. Given my health, I need to simplify for now so I don’t miss posting delicious recipes I come across.
A Spiritual Steward 
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