vanilla cardamom chia seed pudding + honey poached clementines

My morning routine goes a little like this:

I wake up, usually early, before Michael leaves for work. I make myself a warm water with lemon, and then I make us a green smoothie. 

I take Bayley for a walk, the same route every morning. Two blocks north, four blocks west, two blocks south, then four blocks east back home. I pick up the New York Times from our front door step and go back upstairs and plan my day. 

Recently, I added a new step to this routine. I go out mid-morning and I get a cup of coffee. I quit drinking coffee for about a year because I thought it was healthier to not have that habit, however I found that I was really missing that part of my routine. I was not necessarily missing the coffee or the caffeine, I was missing the ritual of going out to get a cup of coffee.

In my neighborhood, there is no shortage of really good coffee places. I have about three that I frequent depending on my mood and the weather (how far I am willing to walk in the cold) and how strong of a cup of coffee I want (or need).

I love being a part of the morning hustle and bustle. I love watching other people take part in their morning routine. I love seeing the regulars sneer at the tourists who don’t know how to order efficiently. I love seeing what people are wearing and I listen to what they are ordering. I love to watch a good barista at work. 

It’s part of my routine, but I feel like it is a break from my routine. It breaks up my morning.

You might not have guessed it from reading this blog, but I get into a routine with recipes that I make for us at home. I will get stuck eating the same thing over and over, for breakfast especially. It is usually a green smoothie or eggs (made by Michael over the weekend). I’ve been trying to break it up by doing something different one or two days out of the week.

Recently I decided I was going to make some chia seed pudding and keep it around, for breakfast, for a snack, or maybe even for a little dessert. It's super easy to make, it's a set it and forget it type of recipe, so I figured it was an easy way to switch up my routine.

I decided to take it one step further and change up my chia seed pudding recipe a bit. Watch out, things are getting crazy over here. When we were in Switzerland a few weeks ago, a lot of the desserts we had were flavored with vanilla + cardamom. I decided that when I got home I needed to incorporate those ingredients, and chia seed pudding seemed like the perfect candidate.

I have never seen or made a fancy chia seed pudding, so I thought, why not. There is no reason chia seed pudding cannot get fancy. 

This fancy chia seed pudding helped break up my morning recipe routine, and then some. Because it is good to break up the routine once in a while. 

vanilla cardamom chia seed pudding + honey poached clementines 

Serves
4-6 

Ingredients

for the chia seed pudding:
3 cups of almond milk
3 tablespoons of maple syrup
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract 
1 vanilla bean, seeds scraped
1/4 teaspoon of cardamom
1/2 cup of chia seeds (you can add a little more if you like the pudding to be thicker) 

for the honey poached clementines:
3 celmentines, peeled and segments separated
1 1/2 cups of water
1/2 cup of fresh orange juice (this can be from clementines, or regular oranges)
1 teaspoon of vanilla
3 tablespoons of honey

Method

• Make the chia seed pudding by placing all of the ingredients in a medium sized mixing bowl and stir to combine everything. Transfer to a rectangle baking dish, cover and place in the refrigerator overnight (or for a minimum of three hours). 
• Place the water, orange juice, vanilla and honey in a small sauce pot and bring to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer for 10 minutes. Add in the clementines and simmer for 10 minutes. Remove from the heat and transfer to a separate bowl. 
• Spoon the chia seed pudding into bowls, and place the poached clementines on top. Drizzle a little of the remaining poaching liquid over the pudding. 
• The chia seed pudding will keep for several days in an air tight container in the fridge, but if you are serving with the clementines then it is best to poach them right before you are ready to serve.