Not only can sprinkling chia seeds directly onto food increase the nutritional value of any dish, with its antioxidants, protein and fiber, but using chia as a substitute for oil or eggs in your baked goods will provide even more benefits. Creating chia recipes is as easy as mixing 1 part (weight) of whole chia seed to 9 parts of water and letting it stand for 30 minutes. The mixture will create a gel that you can use to replace an equal portion of egg or oil in your favorite recipes for cakes, cookies and more.

The only difference between healthy chia recipes and your traditional baking recipes is that the resulting foods will be higher in nutrition, including the healthy omega 3 fatty acid that everyone needs in their diet. The foods modified in this way will also contain less of the unhealthy fats that are present in many types of cooking oils and eggs. When using chia in recipes, you can replace 25%, 50% or 75% of the oil or eggs with chia seed gel, depending on your individual taste and the way the food feels in your mouth.