If you are like me, then you sometimes struggle to maintain your weight. Your love for food is over-powering. And it is so hard to say no to anything. Especially sweets and desserts. Enter the strawberry coconut chia seed pudding. Delicious, nutritious, and sweet without breaking your sugar calorie bank!

Even though we see lots of dessert posts on social media and food magazines, it is misleading because we really shouldn’t be having dessert every day.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news. It’s just reality, y’all. Many of my nursing home patients have diabetes and continue to eat dessert almost every meal. This habit is pretty hard to escape in the US. And there are some pretty dire health consequences.

If there’s something I learned from studying public health policy, it’s that food companies are often not our friends. I get it: they need to sell their products. Unfortunately for you and me, that means they lure us in with luscious looking ice cream, cakes, and pies. Which means more money in the corporations’ pockets and more inches on our waistline.

Don’t swear off chocolate cake forever, but find ways to satisfy your sweet tooth without over-indulging all the time.

So what can you have instead?

Fruit!

Yogurt! And lots of it! Especially if you flavor it yourself and give yourself better control over how much sugar is in it.

Did you know that 1 serving of commercially prepared fruit-flavored yogurt can have as much sugar as your daily recommended sugar intake? For my full rant on that, please see my post on pina colada yogurt parfait.

Yeah…not good.

How Much Sugar To Add?

Try to add just enough sugar so that you start to taste some sweetness and feel satisfied. Any sugar added after that is not necessary. Plus it will be harmful to your health. Try 1 tsp at a time to see if it is sweet enough for you.

This recipe for strawberry coconut chia pudding has less than 5g of added sugar per serving. That’s a whole lot better than commercially made fruit-flavored yogurts that have anywhere between 12g – 29g of sugar per container.

What brand of yogurt should I use?

How long do I soak chia seeds?

At least 30 minutes, in my experience. Under-soaked chia seeds are very crunchy and unpleasant to eat.

What is oat milk?

A “milk” made by soaking oatmeal in water. It’s magical!

In my option, oat milk tastes better than any nut milk I’ve ever had. It is an amazing substitute for milk.

If you have sensitivities to milk, then oat milk is a must!

What kinds of fruit should I use?

I chose strawberries and coconut, but you can use whatever fruit you’d like. Fresh mangoes, cherries, raspberries, blueberries. You do you!

Price Comparison

If you order a yogurt parfait at a restaurant it will cost you $7-8 in the Los Angeles area. What did I spend to make 2 servings of this yogurt parfait? Yogurt ($1), strawberries ($.50), dried coconut ($.25), coconut milk ($.10), honey ($.10), oat milk ($.10)

Restaurant ($7-8) vs. Home-made ($1.03)

If you buy a yogurt parfait at a restaurant, you are paying 7x-8x the price! For the sake of your wallet and your health, try making it on your own. The best part is you can choose the freshest, tastiest fruit. You can also control the sugar, which is essential for a healthy life.

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Strawberry Coconut Chia Pudding

A lightly sweet healthy dessert or breakfast. Creamy and refreshing.

Course Breakfast, Dessert

Cuisine American

Keyword chia pudding, coconut chia pudding, strawberry chia pudding

Prep Time 5 minutes minutes

Soak Time 1 hour hour

Total Time 1 hour hour 5 minutes minutes

Servings 2 people

Ingredients

• 2 tsp chia seeds
• 1/4 c oat milk unsweetened
• 2 tbsp coconut milk
• 1 1/2 tsp brown sugar
• 1 tsp honey
• 1 pinch salt
• 1/2 c full fat yogurt
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 6 fresh strawberries pureed
• 1 tbsp coconut flakes unsweetened

Instructions

• Puree strawberries.
• Add strawberry puree with chia seeds, oat milk, honey, coconut milk, brown sugar, salt, yogurt, vanilla extract, and coconut flake.
• Mix well until honey and sugar are dissolved completely.
• Allow to sit in the refrigerator 1 hour-overnight.

Tag me on Instagram @jennskitchendiary if you made this! Would love to see your variations!

Pina Colada Yogurt for Dessert

Desserts! Er…I mean yogurt for breakfast! Let’s be honest, I have been craving cakes, desserts, and ice cream like mad lately because of my new healthy habits. Since they are not a regular part of my diet, I cannot justify having ice cream for breakfast. But luckily, I CAN have this pina colada yogurt for breakfast and it is every bit as satisfying, rich, and creamy as ice cream is.

Overcome the Lies-Stick with Plain Full Fat Yogurt

The trick to a delicious yogurt parfait is using full fat yogurt. Oh-my-goodness! I feel like I have been lied to all my life by yogurt companies and their low-fat or non-fat corn-syrup-laden grossness. I have now completely boycotted flavored yogurts and now I will never turn back. Flavored yogurts are often filled with way too much sugar and lots of unnatural ingredients that I cannot pronounce.

Another bone I want to pick with the dairy industry is: why do you keep making everything low-fat or fat-free? We know you just fill all that emptiness with sugar instead. I have discovered full fat plain yogurt and I am NEVER going back. My goodness, the rich delicious flavor and mouth-feel are incomparable to any fat-free yogurt I’ve ever had to eat. The great news is that this delicious base becomes the canvas on which you can paint using the full palette of natural seasonings and fruits available, from vanilla extract to brown sugar, honey, and fruit. The world is your oyster. I decided to go with a pina colada yogurt, but I definitely encourage you to be creative!

The Beauty of Home-Made Fruit Flavored Yogurt

It is through this re-awakening of my love of yogurt that has inspired this pina colada yogurt parfait. It can be your breakfast, but seriously it makes a mean dessert if you are trying to avoid ice cream. If you’re feeling more decadent, check out my recipe for fresh peach crisp. Hope you give it a try and enjoy this easy yet delicious recipe!

The amazing thing is-you can make your own fruit flavored yogurt for a fraction of the sugar and calories, and it will taste even MORE delicious than that pre-packaged stuff we are tricked into purchasing.

Here’s something that I learned through my cooking experiments with sweets- there is a point at which we reach a sweet spot of tasting sweetness in our food. After that point, even if you add more sugar, it does not necessarily increase your satisfaction or even pleasure with the sweetness. Instead, it becomes overly sweet.

How Much Sugar To Add?

Unfortunately, many of us have had our taste buds trained by the food industry to crave overly sweet foods. But don’t take my word for it. Give it a try yourself and sweeten your own foods to your liking and see if you can taste the difference.

What brand of yogurt should I use?

Making pina colada yogurt ahead of time?

If you are making this yogurt parfait ahead of time, make sure to omit the pineapple until you serve. I’ve noticed that the pineapple emits bitterness throughout the yogurt when it is soaked in it for too long.

Can I use bottled lime juice?

Always choose fresh-squeezed lemon and lime juice when you can, especially if you do not plan to heat up/cook your dish. You can really tell the difference in terms of freshness of flavor.

Bottled juices are probably fine for marinades since there are many other flavors and you will be cooking the flavor out, but nothing can replace the zesty bite of freshly squeezed citrus!

Price Comparison

If you order a yogurt parfait at a restaurant it will cost you $7-8 in the Los Angeles area. What did I spend to make 2 servings of this yogurt parfait? Yogurt ($1), pineapple ($.50), dried coconut ($.25), honey ($.25).

Restaurant ($7-8) vs. Home-made ($1)

The mark-up on prepared yogurt parfaits is very steep. So, I would highly recommend preparing your own yogurt parfaits at home and spend more time eating in. The great part about it is that you can better control the amount of sugar as well. Given health issues and the increase in diabetes worldwide, it is important to have more control over our sugar consumption.

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Pina Colada Yogurt

Course Breakfast

Cuisine American

Keyword breakfast, easy brunch food, healthy dessert, pina colada yogurt recipe

Prep Time 5 minutes minutes

Total Time 5 minutes minutes

Servings 2 people

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cup full fat plain yogurt
• ½ cup chopped pineapple frozen or fresh
• 1 tbsp honey or brown sugar
• 1 tbsp unsweetened shredded coconut
• 1/2 tsp of fresh lime zest
• 1 tsp lime juice

Instructions

• Zest lime and squeeze out juice. Place into yogurt along with pineapple, honey/brown sugar, and shredded coconut.
• Mix ingredients together and serve immediately! It’s that easy!
• Adjust honey and brown sugar to taste. Or substitute with 1/2 tsp of Stevia for a healthier yogurt dish.

Tag me on Instagram @jennskitchendiary if you made this! Would love to see your variations!