Christine’s Vanilla Blackberry Chia Pots
Serves: 2
Prep time: 5 mins
Cook time: No cook
Ingredients:
200ml semi-skimmed, or soy milk
100g Greek yogurt or soy yogurt
2 tsp honey or maple syrup, or to taste
1 tsp vanilla extract or to taste
45g chia seeds
200g fresh blackberries or other berries
To serve:
Fresh berries / yogurt
This is a simple high-fibre breakfast option to support digestive health and help keep you feeling full through the morning. Make it the night before to allow time for the chia seeds to soak up the liquid. It is ideal for a grab-and-go breakfast, when time is short in the morning.
Method:
In a jug mix together the milk, yogurt, honey or maple syrup, vanilla extract. Stir in the chia seeds. Let sit and gel for about 10 minutes. Stir again, cover and store in the refrigerator overnight.
Place the blackberries or other berries in a pan with a splash of water and simmer for about five minutes. Stir every so often and break up the berries with a wooden spoon or spatula. Allow the berries to cool, spoon them into a container and chill overnight.
In the morning stir the chia pudding – add a little milk to thin if needed. Assemble the chia pudding and berry sauce in layers in jars, or bowls. Top with fresh berries and a spoonful of yogurt.
Engaging Kids
Kids who engage regularly with veg through veg-themed activities, such as arts and crafts, sensory experiences, growing and cooking are shown to be more likely to eat the veg they engage with. Encouraging kids to engage and play with veg is the handy first step to them developing a good relationship with veg and life-long healthy eating.
Kids in the kitchen
The eventual aim, if possible, is to get kids in the kitchen. Don’t worry, this doesn’t have to mean they are with you from start-to-end creating mess and rising stress levels! It can be as simple as giving them one small job (stirring, measuring, pouring, grating, chopping…) ideally involving veg. They can come in to do their little bit, and have fun with you for a few minutes. Getting them involved, making it playful and praising them plenty for their involvement, perhaps even serving it as dinner they “made”, makes it much more likely they will eat the food offered, not to mention teaching them important life skills. Find ideas, safety tips, videos and even a free chart in our Kids in the Kitchen section here.
Activities
While getting kids to interact with veggies for real and using their senses to explore them is best, encouraging hands off activities like arts & crafts, puzzles & games or at-home science experiments can be a great start, particularly for those who are fussier eaters or struggle with anything too sensory. Use these veg-themed activities as a stepping stone to interacting with the veg themselves. We have loads of crafty downloads here, puzzles here, and quirky science with veg here.
Sensory
Once you feel your child is ready to engage a little more, you can show them how to explore the veg you have on hand with their senses, coming up with playful silly descriptions of how a veg smells, feels, looks, sounds and perhaps even tastes. Find ideas, videos and some simple sensory education session ideas to get you started here.
Serving
The moments before food is offered can be a perfect opportunity for engagement that can help make it more likely a child will eat it! Giving children a sense of ownership in the meal can make a big difference to their feelings going into it and the pride they take in it. You know your child best, but if you aren’t sure where to start, we have some fun and simple ideas for easy roles you can give them in the serving process over here.
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