Panda Chia Pudding

Flaxseeds and chia seeds. Protein, fiber, and omega 3. There are so many recipes and articles about the so-called “superfoods”, and I’m afraid I became one of them who would soak oats and seeds overnight with my crazy dimples. It makes me so happy when I make this rejuvenatingly delicious breakfast.

The trend of the “chia pudding” game is strong, and there are so many ways to make the pudding as healthy as possible. I’m no an expert on superfoods, but here is what I do with my overnight oats:
I also added pandas, for the sake of being a Yuki. I couldn’t help it; I think it’s in my Japanese genes to make everything look heart-squishingly cute.
The layers are pretty simple. For the pandas, it’s the shiratama recipe I wrote before. I just added  the body parts on his face this time, so he would look like he’s taking a bath.

Fruits idea: Bananas, strawberries, blueberries, kiwis, mangos, and peaches. I personally love using mangos for this recipe, but you can add any fruits you like. 

The most difficult part of making this food is boiling the pandas. You need to be extra careful, otherwise your kitchen would end up looking like a panda murder scene.  So, good luck!

1: Prepare the overnight goodies.
Prep all the mixture before you go to bed. Put chia seeds, flaxseeds, oats, vanilla extract, and milk in a jar and mix them well. If you don’t mix well enough, it will leave you some chunks and we don’t want that. We want each chia seed to be equally soaked, so our bodies can digest easily. 
Here is how you do it:

A video posted by Yukitchen (@yukitchen_) on Apr 24, 2015 at 3:29am PDT

Just a spoon full of ground flaxseeds, keep the doctor away. They contain a lot of fiber, protein, and omega-3 fatty acids. Lots of good stuff.
2: Make the same one with Matcha.
Same ingredients with the one you already made, then add a tbsp matcha powder.
3: Soak them overnight.
Make sure you mix really well as shown in this picture! Try going back to mix it again after 10 minutes to make sure, if you are as obnoxious as me. 4: Freeze the bananas.
Cut the bananas into small pieces (because it’s so much easier to blend it later), and put them in a freezer overnight.5: Making shiratama.
Mix the panda ingredients and knead with your hand until the dough becomes smooth. If the mixture is too dry, add a little tofu. When it’s too dry, it doesn’t stick and it gets hard to work on making pandas. 6: Separate the dough into 2 colors
Take 1/3 of the dough and knead again with cocoa powder. The color of brown turns darker after boiling, so no need to put too much cocoa powder this time.7: It’s Panda time.
This is the best part. When attaching ears to the face or limbs to the body, make sure the dough is sticky enough to stick together, otherwise, they might fall apart when boiling. No one likes earless pandas!8: Boil them alive.
Toss the pandas gently in boiling water with low heat, and cook them till they float. (Be super gentle when you pick up the pandas. They are very fragile when dropping them into the water.) It should take around 10 minutes.
When pandas start to float, that means they are ready to be picked up.
They are floating completely in this picture, meaning, it’s time to pick up your pandas from the water 🙂9: Drain the pandas and keep them in the cold water to store
Keep the pandas aside in a fridge while you work on the chia pudding next. I used a baking sheet below the pandas to prevent them from sticking to the container.10: Here is your overnight oats.
This is how it should look like after a night. 11: Make a banana smoothie
Grab your frozen bananas you prepped yesterday and start blending. Add the non-dairy milk and a drop of vanilla extract, and blend very well.12: Cut the fruits.
Cut it small so it’s easier to make layers for your pudding parfait.12: Make layers and panda on top.
It’s up to you how you want to layer your parfait. I started with matcha pudding, then the smoothie, fruits, regular pudding, and back to matcha pudding on the last. It was just completely random. Place the panda on top and make sure you pour some extra pudding on his tummy, so he would look like he is taking a bath. It’s so cute this way. 13: You are done.
Put some cut fruits next to the pandas and you are done. I can see the flaxseeds, I can see the chia, and I can easily see the cuteness and loveliness that come with the superfood. “Oh hello there Miss. Panda, how are you this afternoon?”
“I’m quite soaked up, Mr. Panda.” 

This panda pudding was not only cute, but also very delicious; the banana smoothie and the pudding go well perfectly with a hint of matcha flavors.

Thanks for reading.

xx
-Yuki