Whilst researching the health benefits of Chia seeds I realised I don’t actually know how I would incorporate chia seeds into my diet. I decided to look into a bit more, and share what I found, just in-case anyone else was in the same boat as me. Here are my favourite 5 ideas:

1. Quick and easy!

Take one tablespoon of chia seeds, put it in your mouth, chew and swallow.
This will give you 1.75g of omega-3 (in the form of alpha-linolieic acid), and for many people this is all you will need, its quick, easy, painless (and a really lazy). This is my favorite :)

2. Still very simple, but a lot nicer

Add some chia seeds to a bowl of yoghurt with a banana, honey, berries and anything else you like to go with your yoghurt. Chia seeds go so well with yogurt that a company in America actually makes chia and yogurt product! The chia seeds add another dimension to the texture and it is really nice. Don’t add too many though, the crunch can quickly change from enjoyable to hard work and annoying. Use the seeds sparingly.

3. Ever made flapjacks (or protein flapjacks)?

These require a bit more effort, but are worth it, and come with more benefits than just the chia seeds! They can be easily added to any flapjack recipe to add a crunch (try and use a healthy recipe though. I’m not a chef, and I can’t make up recipes, so I just modified this one a bit, but just used chia seeds to replace the sunflower seeds and flax seeds.

4. Drink them!

You can add chia seeds to any smoothie or milk shake. I added them to one of my morning smoothies. Just make sure you soak the chia seeds before hand (over night is best, 1 tablespoon of chia seeds needs about 4 tablespoons of water), they go kind of gelatinous and are much easier to blend up. Don’t worry though, this doesn’t make your milkshake gooey!

Play around with different milkshake recipes, and let me know if you find something awesome.

5. Thickener

This isn’t something I have tried, but apparently chia seeds can be used as a thickener for gravy or soup in the same way corn starch can be. Something to add to your Sunday roast gravy perhaps?If you have any other ideas please let me know, and if you haven’t already read the article on chia seeds, have a read here.

Image courtesy of sweetbeetandgreenbean