Hiya Eric! It’s been a while! Yes, I actually agree with you. This is an older recipe, coming in at near 10 years old. At that point, my suspicion is, I hadn’t discovered chia seeds, yet. I really resisted them, as an ingredient, for a good long time. They just seemed like a weird “health food” and I was concerned they’d taste “healthy” (perish the thought!). Ultimately, I did give them a try and discovered how wonderful they are, not just for simple things like various breakfast puddings, but also in baking and to help hold moisture in things like this. These days, I typically use about 2 Tbsp (30mL) of ground chia seed to each lb (454g) of ground meat in things like sausages, meatloaves, meatballs, etc. They help hold much of the moisture, preventing it from oozing out …

Good catch! I hope this helps! 😀

Vanessa … You could just leave it out, or do a mixture of like parmesan and mozzarella. For some reason, the idea of the Mexican Queso Fresco just popped into my mind. I think that would be quite tasty!