Dignity for Breakfast! An Easy, Healthy, & VERY Tasty Vegetarian & Vegan Breakfast Recipe

This episode of the Love Liberation Series (LLS) is perfect for anyone who hates spending time cooking or cleaning in the morning (or anytime). It’s also for those who struggle to get themselves to eat breakfast instead of skipping it. I share my absolute joy and delight at discovering what feels like angels singing in my ear — a breakfast that truly works for me!

***I forgot to say right at the beginning of the recipe that you can use an alternative for honey to make it vegan. I do mention it towards the middle of the recipe. So please listen all the way through!***

Here’s what you’ll get:

1. Why mornings can be tough for eating and how I overcame it
2. My big revelation that helped me finally trick myself into eating breakfast
3. The key ingredients I keep on hand for quick, no-fuss meals
4. Step-by-step instructions for a nutrient-packed, tasty breakfast
5. Tips to prep ahead and customize it to your taste and needs

Love Liberation Series (LLS) is my way of celebrating what I love — no holding back. It’s a joyful rebellion against toning down, hiding, or apologizing for what lights us up.

📖 Full Recipe Here

Continue your listening with the Love Liberation Series Episodes Within the Podcast:

1. What I’m Loving Right Now: Real Self-Care, Money, & Dignity
2. Love what you love, you silly goose! Love Liberations Series + Heart opening rituals 
3. Laughing Baby Buddhas & Flying Pigs — Quirky as a Sacred Kind of Dignity 
4. Honoring Your Own Birthday — The Majesty of Incarnation 

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🌹 Want a deep dive into your situation? Book your 1:1 90 minute session here

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This podcast is for education only and is not a replacement for therapy. We suggest you seek out the help of a trained professional for help with your specific situation.

Transcript

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Dilshad 0:00

Welcome to the Delicious Dignity Podcast. Let's settle in securely and ever so nicely into the brilliance of our own dignity. I just want to remind you, in case you missed it or forgot, that LLS stands for Love Liberation Series. This is a series within Delicious Dignity Podcast, where every few episodes or so, I will liberate and will explode the love I have inside of me for someone, something, someplace, or some event. We're really working with the belief here that the point of life is to enjoy it. And so this series, if nothing else, is to inspire you and encourage you to let yourself love what you love. And the end result of that is that eventually you can ground and study yourself in your own delicious type of dignity, your own heaven on earth. So let yourself light up from the inside out and let's go to the episode. Hello, lovelies. I feel like I've waited months because I have waited months to share this recipe with you. I have been testing this recipe out and making sure it's something that I would actually want to eat and I have been eating it for months. So I am in integrity when I tell you this is the best thing that I have discovered. in probably the last few years. This recipe has it all. It is vegan and vegetarian approved. It is for people who hate cooking. It is for people who hate cleaning. It is for people who maybe just love cooking and cleaning, but don't have time on a particular day to do it. I mean, how can I have a podcast named Delicious Dignity if I didn't talk about food for at least some of the episodes, right? And because I love you, I'm going to just give you the recipe on the website, on the ritual guide link in the description. And the recipe is almost right at the top of the page. You don't have to scroll. There are no ads. You're welcome. Don't we all wish recipe websites were like that? Now, let me tell you why this is part of the Love Liberation series and why I love this so much. I have breakfast woes. Me and breakfast are not friends. I really cannot eat in the morning. Mornings are my time to go, go, go. And sitting down and cooking and eating felt like death. I just want to start my day. I want to do all the exciting things. And I also have a little bit of responsibilities. I have to feed and walk my dog. And sometimes I play with him. And sometimes when I'm bit bad and a bit naughty, I will start checking my work. I know that's not great, but I do that sometimes. You can ask my friends, you know, I'm the most over the top in the morning and sitting down and eating and cooking is just, oh my God, it is so annoying to me to do that in the morning. So to find a recipe like this, well, I didn't find it. I made it up, but to like, have this juicy breakfast that I have been eating for months and it actually works and it is healthy and it is tasty and it is easy and it's just, it puts me in a good mood and it doesn't take away from my morning. Can you just imagine how much love I have for this breakfast? I don't think I've consistently eaten breakfast pretty much my entire life. When I was a kid, I remember my poor mother. She would try so hard to get a breakfast in my stomach and I just couldn't do it even back then. So to have months where I am eating this breakfast, it's like a revelation. And if you listen to episode four and five, I talked about how I'm going away from hustle culture and I'm sort of up-leveling the inner dignity that I have. And one of the things I realized as part of leaving hustle culture is that I simply did not feed myself for the amount of work that I do, for the amount of activity that I do. I have such little fuel for so much work. And it's a form of self-neglect. And I discussed all of that in episodes four and five, but of course I didn't really mean to. It's just one of those things that I... sort of took my body for granted. I took my time for granted. I just, I love to work. So it's just something that happened, you know, I wasn't purposely doing it. But now that I found this recipe, that has all changed. And the fact that I've always had problems eating and that I was a fussy kid, and now that I have this recipe where it's no longer the case, it's just, Yeah, I have so much respect for myself for having this recipe. So it's really important for me to not have to cook a lot or clean in the morning because I'm just too excited to start my day. And I tried all of the frou-frou breakfast, like overnight oats and some egg recipes. And the thing is, I didn't want that eggy taste first thing in the morning. I know that's weird. For someone who's vegetarian and is okay with eating eggs, I don't like the eggy taste. That's a weird thing, but I just didn't want that first thing in the morning. I wanted something that was fun to eat, something that was crunchy, you know, something that I could bite into, but also was delicious. And I didn't think there was anything in the world that I could eat every single day because I'm someone that likes different things, different tastes, you know. And so the fact that it's lasted me this long just makes me so happy. So here's the big revelation for this recipe. This is a chia pudding recipe. And you might think, oh, Dilshad, why are you so happy about chia pudding recipes? Well, I'll tell you. It's because I had this revelation to make my chia pudding taste like an Indian dessert. That's the big secret. You got to make it taste like an Indian dessert. And now Indian is, you know, Indian dessert is like a gross oversimplification for the entire country of India. But you'll see what I mean when I say that in a second. Basically using traditional flavors in Indian desserts and making them into a breakfast. Let me tell you what this means. Okay. So the first thing is, before I go any further, is I want to just tell you that Chia seeds need to be soaked. You cannot have them dry or plain. And so this is a recipe you prepare the day before. Don't expect to eat it the same day because they have a tendency to expand a lot. They absorb a lot of moisture. So you want them to soak for as long as possible so that you don't get a stomach upset and you don't have any health issues because of the fact that you ate them dry. Okay, so that's all I'm going to say. So the first thing you do Again, this recipe is in the ritual guide, so you have it all written down. The purpose of me recording it as a podcast is to give you context, and maybe if you're like me and you need a little bit of support or somebody talking to you in your year while you do your chores, or in this case, make your first chia pudding breakfast, possibly your first chia pudding breakfast, then that's what this is for. You know, so you can have me talk you through it as you go through it. And that way you feel like you have a buddy and it makes you feel excited to make your breakfast. Basically, I'm treating you like you're another version of me. I know you might think this is overkill, but for me, whenever I have to do something that I perceive as a chore, it really helps to have a buddy. I think they call it body doubling. with people who have ADHD. It's kind of a similar concept. So anyway, if you're just interested in the recipe and nothing else, just go directly to the website in the description. Okay, but let's begin. Okay, okay. So the first thing you do is you, there's just one container that you need. That's it. And this container, you don't even have to wash it for a week. Because it just sits in your fridge, soaking up all the flavors for an entire week. So the only thing you have to clean after a week is one container. Okay, isn't that amazing? And in this one container, everything goes in it. So all the flavors, all the things I want to talk about, you're just basically cooking, cooking in air quotes in this container. The container has to be at least 36 ounces, if not 56 ounces, and it has to be glass. Do not use plastic or I will like come through the microphone and I will just do tap tap on your buttock. Oh my God, what's wrong with me? Okay, so because a 36 ounce container holds roughly four and a half cups and that's how many cups of liquid you will need to make this recipe because four and a half cups of this recipe will last you at least five days, if not an entire week. So five breakfasts or seven breakfasts. So this recipe is just centered around that amount, but you can adjust it to your preferences and I will tell you how. Okay, so the first thing you're going to do is in the glass container, you're going to add one tablespoon of honey for every four tablespoons of chia seeds. And so let's just say if you're following this recipe and you are going to use the full recipe, which is eight tablespoons of chia seeds. So what you're going to do is just to start with, add two tablespoons of honey. Now the honey needs to be melted in hot water. So when you add the two tablespoons of honey, you're also going to add half a cup of boiling water. Sorry, not half a cup, not half a cup. A quarter of a cup of boiling water so that you can just melt everything. If you want even less than that, that's fine. It's just that the water has to soak up the honey and it will also have to soak up the spices. So after the water is in and it's melting the honey, you want to add all your whole spices. So the whole spices are cinnamon, cardamom, and nutmeg. I like to hand pound fresh whole spices because nothing compares to freshly ground spices. The only thing I will say is that you can finely ground cardamom and nutmeg, but cinnamon is a little bit hard to do. So for the cinnamon sticks, I just add them whole and don't pound the sticks or grind them too much because otherwise you'll be left with these tiny woods pieces in your pudding and you're not going to enjoy that. Ask me how I know this. That's right, because I did it a bunch of times. And cinnamon extract or cinnamon flavoring that's made from real cinnamon and just, you know, packaged in those glass bottles, that's also a good option, but it just doesn't taste like an Indian dessert as much as fresh cinnamon sticks taste like. Okay, so you will just add your whole spices, just like maybe three big sticks of cinnamon, half a piece of nutmeg. And as far as the cardamom goes, that you might have to just adjust to your preferences. Because I use, yeah, the way I use cardamom is a little bit different. So maybe like a teaspoon of cardamom. And you pound that. But I don't use the shells of the cardamom. So that's the other thing. When I do pound the cardamom spices, I just grind the inside part of the cardamom. So I already buy the packet of cardamom seeds, but not the pods. So the pods are the ones with green, the green little capsule looking things. The seeds are just that. They look like black seeds. So I only buy the seeds, I don't buy the pods. And then I crush and I pound the seeds into a fine pound powder. I do the same for the nutmeg. Now, if that's too much work for you, I understand, baby. That's no problem. Just get ground spices instead, okay? Just start with that. This is me getting a little bit bougie, but that's okay. You start with ground spices. And the other thing that I have not experimented with, but I will like to, is you can also add saffron here. and melt the saffron because saffron is a very popular flavor in Indian desserts. So you can add some saffron in here too if you would like. If you don't want to, that's fine. After you add the spices, just immediately close the lid so that the hot water soaks and absorbs the spices. You're basically making like a tea of the spices and honey. And you let it sit for at least 10 minutes. I would prefer... almost 30 minutes to an hour, and it depends upon your patient's levels. If you can only wait 10 minutes, that's fine, bebe, you do you, okay? But give it at least 10 minutes. After it's all soaked and absorbed, then you add the chia seeds. And the only ratio you have to remember, everything else in this recipe is flexible except this part. The ratio is two tablespoons of chia seeds to half a cup of liquid. So two tablespoons, not teaspoons, tablespoons, two tablespoons of chia for half a cup of liquid. That is the only ratio you have to remember. So in this recipe, we are, I think we're doing eight tablespoons. Yeah, we're doing eight tablespoons of chia seeds. So you will need four cups of liquid. And the liquid you're going to use is coconut milk, not coconut cream. Ask me how I know this because I did it and it was awful. Use coconut milk. Now you can use any type of milk. It works the same. But to make it taste like an Indian dessert, you will need coconut cream. At this point, I forgot to say, if you're vegan, obviously don't use honey, right? You can use date sugar. You can use coconut sugar. It doesn't matter. I forgot to say that in the beginning, but that's an alternative that you can use. And I'm so sorry I forgot to say that. But anyway, back to the tablespoons of chia. So you can use any kind of milk, but just for this, the first time you make it, use coconut milk. This ratio really works. Please don't experiment with it the first time you make the pudding. Okay, just trust that it's two tablespoons of chia to half a cup of coconut milk. Now, let's say you've added eight tablespoons of chia and four cups of coconut milk. This is where you can add rose water. And this is as much to your liking as you would like. I like strong rose flavors. So I almost add half the bottle of rose water that I buy because I really like, I really want that rose taste in my dessert-like breakfast. Then I add vanilla essence, again, as much as you want to your liking, because what you can do at this point is stir everything. Make sure you stir everything. And once everything's stirred, you can just dab your finger in it and taste it and see whether you like this taste. And then adjust all the spices and the essences and the rose water accordingly. But just make sure you stir it before you do it. And then you let it sit. all together for 10 minutes. And then you come back to it and you stir again. And the reason for this is sometimes the chia seeds will sink to the bottom or things won't move around and stir together very easily. So that's why you want to wait for 10 minutes, then stir again, and then put it in the fridge overnight. Again, please do not eat chia seeds without soaking them. Okay, so this whole process, even though at first when you hear it might sound like a long process, the first time you do it, it might take a little bit longer than you would like. But after a while, it will take you maybe 20 minutes max. And this includes the waiting time. So really the amount of effort that's required is anywhere from five minutes to to maybe 10 minutes of effort. And then you make a whole week's worth of a meal, which is amazing. Amazing, right? Okay, so then you put it overnight and you leave it overnight and then the next day comes around and this is the first time you're eating your breakfast. So now what do you do? Now when it comes time to eat, I'm sorry that I said this before, but you do need an eating container, a small bowl and a spoon. And you're just going to plop up some of the chia pudding into your bowl. And the most essential parts that you put on top of the pudding is almond butter and blueberries and pistachios. Just make sure the pistachios are unroasted and unsalted. I don't know why this combination works. It just does. The pistachios are there to make it taste like an Indian dessert, but the almond butter and blueberries are totally nothing related to an Indian dessert. It just gives you another... Another angle to the chia seed pudding, which is antioxidants from the blueberries and a bunch of other things from the blueberries, but also the almond butter giving you a hit of protein too. And on top of this, you can do whatever you want. You can add hemp hearts, flax seeds, any seeds, poppy seeds, mulberries, strawberries, protein powder, collagen, crushed cashews, mango, anything you want. But I usually just stick to almond butter, blueberries, pistachios, hemp hearts, and poppy seeds. That's what I add on top of the chia pudding. Again, if all you want to eat is just plain chia pudding, that's fine too. You do you, boo boo. But this will be a breakfast that you will enjoy thoroughly every single day, I promise you. Now, a word about almond butter. My tip about almond butter and storing it. For me... the amount of almond butter I eat now is a lot. And I realized it always becomes so dry after a while of, you know, the first time I open it, I use two teaspoons of it and then afterwards it just becomes dry. Until I learned this trick. You have to store the glass jar upside down for a few hours the first time you buy it. So store it upside down and then you open it and then you mix the oil and the butter together. So mix it all in so the oil is not so separated from the almond butter and then again store it upside down for another day. And don't put it in the fridge because it sort of dries out. I don't know why this works but it works and so that's just a tip for storing almond butter. The other tip I can give you is to just how you want to set up your environment for success you can have a breakfast corner with all the seeds the nut butter the spices the condiments the honey so they're all in one place and you don't have to run around your kitchen again this is for people who really don't like cooking and cleaning that is why i'm over explaining this to like make your mornings as smooth and lovely as possible it might seem like overkill to some of you but to me These were tips that really saved my desire to eat breakfast. So have a breakfast corner and then you have a breakfast shelf in the fridge too, where you keep the milk that you will use, the hemp hearts, the chia seeds, the blueberries. Even if you're adding yogurt on top of the pudding, you can keep all of them in one place. So you don't have to run around trying to figure out where your breakfast toppings are going to be. And when you're prepping for this recipe, you can put me on. And I can play in your ear while you're prepping or you can put on some music or you can call a friend and use a body double. That's my other tip. Again, if cooking is your friend and you love it, this may not apply to you. It just makes it more fun. 36 ounce glass containers to 58 ounce glass containers are your friend because you make it all in bulk and then you have it for an entire week. And that just makes your morning so much easier. And I would also say, please invest in the good quality stuff. I know some people think that the label organic isn't actually a valid label, but some companies actually are truly organic. So try to buy organic as much as possible, but try to buy in bulk. So buy your spices in bulk. Don't buy those small little containers because over time, you'll just use them up faster. And you'll end up spending a lot more money for things that you didn't need to spend that much money on. So try to buy in bulk, like a whole big bag of cardamom seeds instead of just buying a small little teeny tiny glass jar with cardamom seeds. And you can find bulk items at natural grocery stores or even on Amazon. I'm realizing at this point that Part of the Amazon storefront should also have my recommendations for the type of rose water that you can buy that's actually delicious if you don't have the ability to go to India and get some of the rose essence that they use. There is a brand that I get through Amazon that works really well for cooking. I even use it to make chai, speaking of which, all the spices we talked about today are spices you can use to make chai, traditional Indian chai. So it has a lot of other uses other than just for the chia pudding recipe. And like I said, my last tip here will be two tablespoons of chia seeds for half a cup of liquid. That is the only ratio you need to remember for this recipe. Now, let's say that for whatever reason, this amount doesn't last you for a week, or it only lasts you four days or five days, that's fine. Don't sit there and think, oh, this recipe should last me that long a time. Just remember, I'm still getting used to eating breakfast, so my portions might be smaller than yours, especially if you're someone who's used to eating breakfast. Because at first, when I was making this recipe and trying it out, I really had to force myself to eat. I don't know if force myself is the right word, but I had to encourage myself and almost wave my pom-poms at myself to get me to eat the breakfast, to get me to sit down and eat the breakfast. I think the first two times I was trying to eat the breakfast, I thought to myself, how can I make myself eat this? And so I took my dog for a walk and I carried my breakfast bowl with me. And I said that until I finish my breakfast bowl, I'm not going to come back home. And that was the way I got myself to eat it. So the portions might not feed you for that long a time. And if it doesn't, please let me know so I can maybe adjust the recipe on the website. But it should last you for a long time, longer, long enough to give you breathing room during your breakfast time. And that being said, can you do me a favor? Can you please send me a picture of your pudding that you made? I can post it on my Instagram stories. I can post that on my Instagram post. And I can also post it on the website so that people get inspired, you know, and they know that I'm not the only one benefiting from this. There are other people who like it too. And maybe you modified it to your liking and they can see how you modified it and maybe get some ideas from it. Oh my God, you lovelies, this is such a big win for me this year, being able to eat breakfast. I have this dream that if I ever have a guest or I go to anybody's home and I'm staying with them, I'm going to make them this breakfast just so that they can delight in it and they can love it. You know, it's just, yeah, it's just such a beautiful breakfast. I don't know how else to explain it. So until next time, my lovelies, may you enjoy the dignity of a truly delightful, delicious breakfast. Bye. you