life is hard but your stools don't have to be
plus an easy ube chia seed and oats pudding recipe for you
ANNOUNCEMENT!
my dear friend, my next cookbook, 108 Asian Cookies, is coming this October, and if you preorder now, you will receive a year-long subscription to my premium substack (worth $70) and access to new recipes all year long! Preorders mean so, so much to underrepresented authors like me and show publishers and retailers that voices like mine deserve prominent spaces on the bookshelves!
Thank you!
END OF ANNOUNCEMENT
dear friend,
did you know that we spend thousands of hours during our lifetimes… pooping? I mean, life is already hard, and then sometimes, so are our stools. what the heck, right? You’d think evolution would do us a solid and make sure we expel our feculence and get on with our day to survive whatever it throws at us, be it wild animals, crazy weather with golf-ball-sized hail, and infections of the past and the modern-day demons that haunt us now.
See, our stools were never meant to be hard or difficult to pass. Today, we sit a lot, and our guts are always all scrunched up in there, hoping we’d stand or walk more for a chance to breathe. Our ancestors moved much more than we did, which helped lubricate their bowels.
Thanks to the heavily processed foods that are readily available in the West and our busy schedules, we’re feeding our guts junk and less and less fiber from natural whole foods. We’re more likely to eat a jelly sandwich than a fresh fruit with its skin on. In fact, whenever I leave the skin on my potatoes, people online are shocked. Like why would she eat the skin? Bro, the skin is often packed with fiber and nutrients. That’s why.
If you look at all the areas where humans live the longest and healthiest these days, you’ll see older adults, like the ones in Okinawa, Japan, squatting like baddies deep into their nineties. They don’t have couches at home, and they squat or sit on the floor when they eat. Their diets also consist of many veggies and whole foods, and their lifestyles are more in tune with our hunter-gatherer ancestors. They don’t eat a whole lot of meat. And I can bet you, they’re not doom-scrolling on their phones, nursing nuggets on the can.
I get it. As a society, we’ve become more sedentary and seekers of comfort and convenience. It’s so much easier to drink bottled juice with added sugars than to munch on a whole fruit, not the cut up kind, but like a white peach with its skin and seed intact.
Life’s hard, and our stools? They’ve become harder. FUGGGGGG.
But it doesn’t have to be this way. Now, I’m not here to tell you that life can be softer, because no, I don’t believe that. I believe we need hardships in our life in order for us to grow and appreciate all that we have and earned. But stools, heck, they can and should be softer.
I mean, let’s get deep and a little TMI here—don’t you feel better each time after a glorious bowel movement, one that leaves you feeling lighter and, well, freer? When your guts are properly emptied, gosh, that feeling is glorious. Your guts are telling you they’re happy. I mean, I don’t know about you, but I get hits of dopamine, and my day just feels brighter. Like I can conquer the world now that I’m bowel-free!
And here’s where I’ve got your back: something simple and easy that’ll get things moving in the right direction for your guts—like this ube chia seed and oats pudding recipe I developed.
Trust me, it’s like an edible slime (and yeah, I’m using slime in the best possible way) that acts like a sticky glue in your gut. It grabs all the gunk and helps draw it out, leaving you feeling light and refreshed. I promise you you’ll have the best bowel movement the day after. It’s creamy, dreamy, and a total game-changer for your digestive tract (the pudding, not your bowel movement, lmao).
You will need a nice, strong blender for this recipe and a few ingredients that should already be in your pantry. Also, no soaking of the chia seeds is needed, or refrigerating the oats overnight to achieve pudding consistency, so this recipe is quite time-friendly!
I can’t promise you all the answers to a better life, to attract more love, but you can always find good, fun recipes here, and sometimes, they’ll even help you poo, like this edible glue… I couldn’t resist a good pun.
Instant ube Chia Seed and Overnight Oats Pudding Recipe by Kat Lieu
Ingredients:
1 cup Greek yogurt
1 can of coconut milk
maple syrup, honey, or sugar, to taste
1 heaping tablespoon ube halaya
1 teaspoon ube extract
1 teaspoon red miso or a pinch of salt
2/3 cup oats
3 to 4 tablespoons chia seeds
Fruits, berries, or coconut shreds (as optional toppings)
Instructions:
Add all the ingredients to a good, strong blender, starting with the wet ingredients before adding the dry. This way, everything will blend up more efficiently and smoothly. Blend until slightly thickened and smooth, a few minutes. Note that the pudding will continue to thicken as the minutes tick by. You must blend the chia seeds finely.
Transfer to serving bowls or mason jars if storing. Before serving, top with your toppings of choice. You can also drizzle more sweetener in the pudding if it’s not sweet enough for you, because the sweeter you are, the sweeter your sweet tooth tends to be. 🫰🏻🫰🏻
Notes and Variations:
Vegan Option: For a vegan version, use vegan Greek yogurt or substitute it with silken tofu. Instead of ube halaya, you can use roasted purple sweet potato.
Miso: Not all miso is gluten-free, so be sure to check the labels if you need a gluten-free option.
Flavor Variations: Get creative with the flavors! Instead of ube extract and ube halaya, you can swap them out for frozen fruits (like mango, strawberry, or blueberry) to make different fruity puddings. Just blend them in for a new twist!
Thickening Tip: After refrigerating the pudding overnight, it will thicken significantly. It’ll be so thick, in fact, that you can scoop it out and roll it into fun little balls for a snack. Think of it like a pudding you can eat on the go!
And there you have it! Life is always going to be hard, but your stools don’t have to be!
xoxoxo,
Kat
“One day, I will be the Asian Julia Child…”- Kat Lieu <3
And you are paving the path for me to achieve this dream, dear friend <3
I have made this and it is DIVINE!! hell yeah!! UBE FOREVER