The following is a guest post by Paige Billings, a Florida-based recipe developer, blogger & photographer. You can find Paige’s blog here.

WOW! Guys this recipe name is a mouthful, but let’s be honest...after one bite of this recipe you will be keeping your mouthful with this delicious treat! That was an easy dad joke I just had to use!

Hi! I’m Paige, a professional food photographer, as well as a gluten-free and vegan recipe developer. Also, a huge fan of granola - I mean I love granola! I use to eat it by the bowl full with almond milk, coconut yogurt really anything, and then the day came where I found out that granola is deep fried. YUCK. Don’t get me wrong here, I am all about a 80% healthy 20% indulgent diet, but I couldn’t for the life of me figure out why you had to deep fry granola when baking it tastes better anyway!

I had a friend in college that use to make her own granola and I started helping her because it was a win win. I spent time with my friend and got to pick through delicious granola bite by bite every weekend. I found the perfect ratio granola a few years ago that I make at least once every two weeks and ALWAYS keep it on hand! This granola lead me down the path to chia pudding...see guys my story circles back! Chia pudding. If you haven’t heard of it before, you might be thinking to yourself “what in the heck is this weird thing? And wait you eat it for breakfast but it’s a pudding?”

YES to all of the above!

Essentially, when you take chia seeds and soak them, they create almost a gelatin outer orb around the seed itself. If you soak enough chia seeds in a delicious combination of coconut milk and kombucha, you get the best dang breakfast that keeps you full of healthy fat from the coconut, fiber from the chia seeds and probiotics from the kombucha. When I was working in an office, I would premake a batch for the week, set them into tupperware and viola perfect easy healthy breakfast!

Let’s put together our granola & pudding!

As we embrace August we embrace the start of school and the crazy holiday season (on the horizon if you’re an adult!) and with that comes the need for easy meals, make ahead snacks and mindlessly healthy options! Although oatmeal is a delicious option, it’s still toasty in August and this chia pudding is a perfect cool alternative for those hot mornings heading out the door for school or work!

Not only will you stay full until lunch but you will also be 100% satisfied. My chia pudding is just the perfect balance of sweet and soft that compliments the crunchy granola topper! Add a drizzle of honey or maple syrup for extra sweetness if you so desire and enjoy your morning meal - it’s seriously the most important meal and this one is full of delicious goodies!

Whether you are a graduate, mom, dad, nanny or have no affiliation with school, the school year is upon us and we all have to start out the fall on a great food! Try making this today and tag me in your pictures so I can share a bite from afar with you!

ABOUT PAIGE:

Not one day has gone by that Paige Billings has not believed that cake can solve most problems. After being told she was allergic to gluten, Paige realized she had to modify her cake recipes. Committed to making her cakes just as delicious as before, Paige has combined her passion for baking, design, and photography into her career as a freelance food photographer, freelance copy and photography editor, and recipe developer. Her delicious and beautiful recipes that can be found on her blog, instagram, and in the secret pages of her ongoing cookbook. Though Paige has lived in many places, from the Bay Area of California, where she grew up, to Montana, where she graduated from Montana State University. She now works out of her Utah home with the help of her eager taste testers, husband, Drew and dog, Moose.

Today's blog is written by our very own Daina Trout, MS, MPH

Daina is not just our Co-Founder, she is also a nutritionist that has spent her adult life dedicated to finding and sharing health and wellness through food. With 2 masters' degrees in nutritional biochemistry and public health, Daina has called upon her education often while leading the way at Health-Ade - from how we make every batch of kombucha, to how we talk about gut health to consumers, to even how healthy our employee workplace is! She even writes a few blogs here and there. Happy reading! :)