Pancake Saturday

I woke up at 7:30 this morning, which is earlier than usual as of late, for a very special reason: pancakes! I rarely make pancakes and the only two times I've done so on the blog have been for dinner. Also, my pancake recipes were never as good as I felt they could be; they never gave me that warm, fuzzy pancake feeling. Instead, they were much too dense and tasted too "healthy" and lacked that light delectable fluffiness. Due to this, I avoid making pancakes unless I have a craving. Well, I had a random craving last night and prepared ahead of time to make pancakes this morning. The result is my best pancake recipe to date, and arguably one of the best that I've ever eaten.


Lemon blueberry silver dollar pancakes
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup whole wheat flour
- 1/4 cup oats
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- Pinch of sea salt
- Opt: 1/2 tsp maca

- 3/4 cup non-dairy milk
- 1/2 tsp agave
- 1/2 tsp coconut oil
- Zest of 1/2-1 lemon, depending on size
- Blueberries

Instructions
Night before:
- Soak oats in milk. Set in fridge overnight.
- Sift together flour, baking powder, salt and maca, if using. Sifting is key, especially if using a whole grain flour. It made my dry mixture incredibly soft and is great to remove all those tiny lumps. Set aside.
Day of:
- Preheat oven to 200.
- Heat a griddle or non-stick skillet on medium heat.
- Add the oat/milk mixture to the dry mixture. To this, add the agave, coconut oil, and lemon zest. Whisk to combine.
- Spoon 1 tablespoon of batter in the skillet and allow to cook for 1 minute. Dot each pancake with 3-4 blueberries and continue to cook until bubbles form on the surface. Flip and cook for a few minutes on the other side until golden.
- Place cooked pancakes in the oven to stay warm until serving. Grab a cup of coffee and enjoy a nice weekend breakfast.

Makes 6 mini pancakes


For some reason, there's something about eating small pancakes that's so fun and satisfying. I much prefer them to regular pancakes.


The end result was a light, fluffy but filling pancake. It had all the elements of a traditional pancake but the satiety of whole grains. The lemon flavor came through beautifully without being overpowering; it brightened the entire dish. Also, I prefer adding blueberries (or other toppings) to the top of the pancakes while cooking instead of to the batter. This way, the batter isn't weighed down and the blueberries sort of burst and let out their juices on the surface of the pancake when you cut into them.


Maybe I should make pancakes more often.

Getting My Veggies In

I know I said I needed to cleanse because I feel like I've been eating too many grains and fruits and not enough veggies, but I had another pancake craving today. I don't know why, but when the weather is dreary or I'm not feeling well, I simply must have pancakes. Trust me, I spent a long time trying to convince myself to make a big, delicious salad, but in the end the rainy weather and the neglected spelt flour beckoned me to make 'cakes. Since I didn't want to dismiss veggies completely, I came up with:


Carrot cake pancakes w/ "cream cheese" frosting

I used this recipe, but added 1 large shredded carrot instead of blueberries, upped the cinnamon and added 1/2 tsp of ginger.

For the "cream cheese" topping, I warmed some Wildwood plain soyogurt with 1/2 tsp vanilla, a sprinkle of cinnamon, a pinch of ginger and a drop of agave (like my precise measurements?) and poured it over top. Then sprinkled with some reconstituted raisins and shredded coconut. Unfortunately I had no walnuts, but those would be a lovely addition.



These were SO good! I'd like to try making the topping with coconut butter sometime - I bet it would taste amazing. Remember, you can always find a way to get your veggies. ;)

I'm leaving on a jet plane to Orlando tomorrow morning; I'm excited! I need to prepare breakfast & lunch for tomorrow, pack, do yoga, then try to get a good nights sleep.

I'm Sick.

I'm not sure whether it's food poisoning or a stomach bug, but today has been pretty obnoxious. I did manage to pull through and take a final exam, rock a 10 mile work out, and pack up most of my stuff (I'm leaving campus tomorrow). I'm a fighter.

I digress. I had plans to make some sort of lo mein dish tonight. I have snow peas and frozen stir fry veggies that I needed to use up. However, when I'm sick, my body usually craves one thing and one thing only: breakfast.


Blueberry cinnamon spelt pancakes (adapted from here)

Ingredients
- 1/2 cup sprouted spelt flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tbsp flax meal
- Pinch sea salt
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 3/4 cup almond milk (original recipe calls for 1/2, but I found my batter too thick, so I added more)
- 1 tsp agave (or other sweetener)
- 1/2 tsp vanilla
- 1/3 cup frozen (or fresh) blueberries

Instructions
- Combine and mix dry ingredients.
- Add almond milk and remaining wet ingredients to dry mixture. Whisk to combine.
- Spray a skillet or griddle with cooking spray and put on medium heat. Ladle one ladleful of batter into the skillet. Mine fit two at a time.
- When edges begin to turn golden and bubbles form on the top of the pancake, flip. Cook on the other side until pancake is golden brown.
- Finish with desired toppings and enjoy!

I topped mine with a big blob of warm berry applesauce, but I didn't photograph it because they weren't looking too photogenic. Actually, I almost didn't post this at all, but a friend told me that I should. I really liked this recipe; it's basic and the spelt gives a nice heartiness.


I normally don't eat breakfast for dinner, but what my body wants, my body gets.

Aside from that, I've eaten nothing but sweet/breakfast items all day. Well, aside from some raw zucchini. Oh, I bet zucchini cocoa/carob pancakes would be delicious. Mmm, comfort.

What are your sickness comfort foods?

Food rut

Hey everyone! I haven't posted in a few days, mostly because I don't think I've eaten anything blog-worthy. Which leads me to this question: What do you do when you're in a food rut? I don't know what to make anymore and whatever I do make just doesn't amaze me. Nothing I've made has been bad, but it hasn't been anything spectacular, either. When I eat a meal, I want to be wowed. Here are a couple recent eats, anyway:


A whole wheat/flax wrap filled with chickpea salad, salsa, spinach, and avocado. For the chickpea salad I used a cayenne mayonnaise and added cilantro, lime juice and diced red pepper. On the side I had kale chips sprinkled with nooch and fresh pineapple. Note: there are few things in life better than fresh, juicy pineapple.

Tonight I was randomly craving breakfast, so that's what I had:


Tofu scramble (I OD'd a little on the tumeric) with crimini mushrooms and spinach with a savory pancake recipe adapted from Heather Eats Almond Butter.

Instead of making the pancakes pizza inspired, I made mine Indian spiced. I used:
- 1 tsp curry powder
- 1/2 tsp cumin, cardomom and ginger

and added it to the oat flour/flax/S&P and water mixture. I topped them with baba ghanoush.

The pancakes were good, but didn't pack as much of a punch as I would have preferred. I guess I wanted something more, but I'm not sure what. The scramble was pretty awesome, though, especially for it being my first one.

This post definitely proved to me that I eat my greens.

On another note, I think I'm slowly losing interest in yoga and gaining interest in running. I've been using the same videos for months and while I enjoy yoga, I want to spice things up. I don't have the funds to pay for classes or videos online, so I'm pretty limited. I tried something new today and it ended horribly, so I guess I'm in a yoga rut, too.

I need to get out of these ruts!