The chia pudding I make the night before

This is the breakfast I make when I already know tomorrow is going to get away from me. Two tablespoons of chia seeds, half a cup of coconut milk, a splash of vanilla, and half a tablespoon of honey or maple. Stir it, put it in the fridge, go to bed.

It sets while you sleep. Chia seeds soak up whatever they are sitting in and swell into a gel, which is the whole trick. By morning it is thick enough to eat with a spoon, like yoghurt.

Give it a stir again after the first half hour if you are still up, so it does not clump at the bottom. Then top it with sliced banana, berries, or chopped almonds. That is the entire recipe.

Why I keep making it

Chia is one of the richest plant sources of omega 3 there is. Omega 3s are the anti inflammatory fats, the same family as the ones in oily fish, and inflammation is the quiet thing sitting underneath a lot of angry skin.

Here is the part nobody puts on the packet. The omega 3 in chia is ALA, and your body has to convert ALA into the forms it actually uses. It is not very good at that conversion. So chia is a real source, and it is not a replacement for salmon.

I would rather tell you that than sell you a jar of pudding as a skincare product.

What it does do, reliably, is fibre. A lot of it. Fibre is what keeps blood sugar steady instead of spiking, and steady blood sugar means fewer of the swings that turn up later as oil and breakouts. It is the least glamorous mechanism in skin and it is the one that shows up.

The coconut milk is there because it makes the whole thing taste like dessert. Use the full fat one. Fat is what carries the fat soluble vitamins out of whatever fruit you put on top, so it is earning its place.

The honest caveat

One breakfast does not change your face. Nothing you eat on a Tuesday shows up on Wednesday.

What a night before breakfast does is remove a decision from a morning that did not have room for one. You eat something with protein, fibre and good fat in it instead of nothing, and you do that on the days you would otherwise have skipped. That is the actual benefit, and it is worth more than the ingredient list.

The rest of the morning is the boring part. Wash your face, and dry it on something clean.

Recipe adapted from the vanilla chia pudding on urban. apron.

Elle x