Thrive Foods: Blueberry Chia Pudding

As you can imagine, I own one or two books about food and nutrition. Make that more like 20 or 30…at least. {A fact that was made ever apparent as I emptied my bookshelves to make room for painting the nursery.}

You’d be surprised how many of them aren’t cookbooks. I love looking at new recipes, but I’m not a big recipe follower. I’d much rather read about the actual food and nutrients themselves. I’m a dork. It’s also my job, so that makes up for a little bit of the nerdiness, right?

One of my many favorites is Thrive: The Vegan Nutrition Guide by Brendan Brazier, an professional Ironman triathlete.

I was thrilled when Vega sent me a copy of his latest book, Thrive Foods, which is all about the actual foods he believes make the ideal diet.

What I love about the book is that it doesn’t just stop at “this food has this nutrient, and this is why that’s good”. It explains why those nutrients are important, why we aren’t getting enough, and what the impact of industry and the environment has on these foods.

He explains the toll that food production places on the environment- how many resources are used to create a pound of meat vs. a pound of veggies, etc. I knew meat production made a big impact on the land, but I was surprised by just how much water and other resources went in to such production.

Brendan then goes on to explain how we can use whole foods to improve our health. He goes into great detail {understandable detail} on each of these components. It’s great to hear what he has to say about these foods, as he’s essentially used himself as a guinea pig over the years.

Brendan started down the road of whole food living when he suffered from adrenal exhaustion during his intense triathlon training. Through experimentation and research he discovered it wasn’t that he was training too hard- it was that he wasn’t recovering well enough. Recovery means rest, of course, but it also means proper fueling and energy. He talks about this a lot in his other books, and then includes some recipes using these principles.

Thrive Foods places the emphasis on the recipes part- it’s packed with 200 recipes, all plant-based, and all created from whole foods. The recipes in this book aren’t just Brendan’s though- he’s recruited recipes from well-known chefs and restaurants around the world, which adds a great dimension to the book.

Many of the recipes do look a little intimidating at first glance- there are things you may never have heard of or seen in the grocery store, like sacha inchi seeds and yacon syrup. These things are easily substituted, or give you the little nudge you need to experiment with something new.

Plenty of the recipes use common, everyday foods, just not always in a way you would expect. Dates become sweeteners and chia seeds become emulsifiers. Beans and quinoa turn into pizza crusts, and nuts become cheese.

There are a few complicated recipes mixed in with some delightfully simple recipes- like zucchini with marinara.

As I thumbed through the book I couldn’t decide what I wanted to make. Some seemed a little scary; others would require a trip to the health food store. But there were quite a few I could make with things already in my pantry.

I used this opportunity to make something I’d always meant to, but never had: chia pudding.

When you add water to chia seeds, magic happens and they thicken and almost gelatinize the water. This is what makes them such a great egg substitute. It also makes a great pudding base.

Along with some cashews, dates, and blueberries, this simple recipe packs a powerful nutrition punch.

The one thing I’m slightly discouraged about by the book is the number of recipes that require a more powerful blender than I own, and will probably ever own. I was immensely pleased when the recipe I chose required a blender, and mine worked perfectly well for the job!

Now that I have my first brave recipe experimentation down, I’m excited to try a few more, like pumpkin gnocchi, avocado pesto, and vanilla protein ice cream with caramel syrup.

When Brendan first started down the road of plant-based eating for optimal health, he was so encouraged by the results that he developed several products that would make it easy on others to eat the same way without as much work. You may recognize is product line: Vega. They make great protein powders and whole food powders, along with bars, etc. The powders make for great smoothie bases when you don’t feel like starting from scratch.

Have you read any of the Thrive books? Have you tried anything from the Vega line?

And help me pick a green crib on tiny sneakers!