Chock Full of Goodness

From the moment I woke up yesterday, I had my fingers crossed that my Tuesday would be better than my Monday. Thankfully, it seemed to work – yesterday was simply stuffed full of amazingness!

A surprise delivery had me smiling before I had even made a dent in my to-do list: “Just Because” roses from The Coach.

Such stunning colors to brighten up my desk – and my day!

Although it wasn’t as exciting as a floral delivery, my lunch was pretty poppin’ as well. In less than three minutes, I was getting a killer protein fix from a GoGo Organics Steamed Brown Rice bowl topped with edamame and soy sauce.

The rice has a super nutty flavor to it, and it steams in the microwave in under two minutes. Technically it provides two servings…but who’s counting? 😉

After tossing back a few pistachios and dried cranberries, I turned my attention back to the work thang and powered through several hours of research and writing on pet health.

An after-work snack was necessary – who says a girl can’t have her dessert before her dinner?

Optima Blueberry Cereal + Almond Milk + Chocolate Chips hit the spot without killing my appetite for the main course – a salad beast from Whole Foods:

With the color combination in mind, I officially dub tonight’s dinner a Mardi Gras Salad. The entire box was filled with green, purple and yellow in the form of romaine, spring mix, purple cabbage, onions, peas, feta and a generous drizzle of honey mustard.

I powered through a 20 minute fat-burn workout on the elliptical, eeking out my goal of two miles in 20 minutes with just eight seconds to spare! Naturally, a sweet treat was on my mind the entire time: Chocolate Orange Chia Pudding.

After a year of blogging, I finally gave in to the chia seed phenomenon and picked up a small portion from the Whole Foods bulk bin.

With my penchant for fruit and chocolate combinations – especially that of orange and chocolate – I decided to give a citrusy spin on the popular chia pudding.

Chocolate Orange Chia Pudding

Vegan, serves one

Ingredients:

• 1/8 cup chia seeds
• 1/3 cup almond milk
• 1/2 tsp orange extract
• 3/4 tbsp cocoa powder
• 1 tbsp turbinado sugar
• orange slices (optional, for garnish)

Directions:

• In a small bowl, combine all of the ingredients. Stir well!
• Dish into serving glass and refrigerate for at least one hour.
• Garnish with fresh orange slices.

I loved the refreshing combination of the flavors. The gellish texture of the pudding was absolutely unique, but for someone with a lot of texture hang-ups, I thought it was delicious! Then again, I think just about anything chocolatey is delicious…

Beat that, Wednesday!

Are you a texture person? What are your thoughts on chia seed – or more specifically, chia pudding? Love it/hate it/have yet to try it?