Monthly Archives: April 2011

Pancakes of Champions

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Afternoooon!  Sorry for being MIA yesterday.  I was on the go all day and when I finally did get home I had some intense paper writing to do.  Whew, so glad I’m finally done with that.  Well almost.  After tomorrow night, I’ll officially be done with two of my spring courses.  I think that calls for some baking celebrating!

This morning started with breakfast and it was definitely the breakfast pancakes of champions.  Protein pancakes.  These pancakes are delicious and nutritious.

Protein Pancakes – The Pancakes of Champions (serves 1) - recipe can easily be doubled

  • 1/4 cup spelt flour (don’t have spelt?…oat or buckwheat flour works just as well!)
  • 1/4 cup organic low fat cottage cheese
  • 4-5 tablespoons organic egg whites or 1 whole egg
  • 1 tsp ground flax
  • 1-2 tsp vietnamese cinnamon
  • 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
Mix all ingredients together until combined with a spoon or whisk.  Heat nonstick pan to medium heat.  Spoon into pan and cook about 3 mins on each side.  The batter does not really bubble so once the pancake no longer sticks to the pan it should be ready to be flipped.

Without toppings 1 serving of these pancakes has just 245 calories, 3.5 g of fat, 0.8 g saturated fats, 0.8 g sugar, and 20.9 g protein.  Double this recipe for just 490 calories and almost 42 grams of protein.

The pancake batter is easily adjusted to your taste.  Try adding agave, maple syrup, or mashed banana to sweeten it up.  Or if you’re more of a fillings-type person (blueberry, coconut, chocolate chip…), go ahead and mix em right in!  This batter is highly versatile and if it gets too dry just add some more egg whites.  My favorite way to eat them is just with a dollop of ‘cream’ (aka greek yogurt mixed with honey or agave) and strawberries.

Protein Pancakes with a side of ‘cream’ and strawberries

I went loco yesterday and bought 6 boxes of organic strawberries at whole foods.  They were on sale for only $1.99 and so sweet.  I just couldn’t pass them up.  Soo, I’ll be eating loads of strawberries for the next couple days, but no complaints there :)  I just lovee strawberry season!

It is absolutely beautiful out today so I think I’m going to take advantage of our clear skys and perhaps go for a run.  I hear the storms will be blowing in tomorrow and our skys will turn grey again.  Have a great day and make it an active one! :)

Lentil Chili and Love Handles

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Don’t you just love those meals that make planned leftovers that are even better the next day?  My go to Lentil Chili, which I found on the Whole Foods recipe page, is exactly that.  It reheats nicely and the flavors are even more developed the next night or even 2 nights later.   Recipe easily doubled.

Lentil Chili (adapted from Whole Foods Recipes)

  • 4 cups low-sodium vegetable broth
  • 1/2 medium yellow onion, chopped
  • 1/2 large bell pepper, chopped (i prefer green, but red, yellow, or orange work just as well)
  • 3  garlic cloves finely chopped
  • 2 teaspoons salt-free chili powder
  • 1/2 (16-ounce) package green lentils (about 1 1/8 cups lentils)
  • 1 (15-ounce) can no-salt-added diced tomatoes
Toppings:
  • 1/8 cup chopped cilantro
  • non-fat greek yogurt
Bring 1/3 cup broth to a simmer in a large pot over medium-high heat. Add onion, bell pepper, and garlic and cook about 5-8 minutes or until onion is translucent and pepper is tender. Stir in chili powder and cook 1 minute, stirring constantly. Add lentils, tomatoes and remaining 3 2/3 cups broth. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to medium-low and simmer, partially covered, 30 minutes or until lentils are almost tender. Uncover and cook 10 minutes longer. Stir in cilantro and add a dollop of greek yogurt on top, then serve.
Cook green peppers, onions, and garlic in 1/3 cup broth until tender and translucent
add chili powder and stir constantly for 1 min
Add diced tomatoes, lentils, and remaining vegetable broth; bring to boil
Bring to a medium-low simmer and cook partly covered for 30 mins
Uncover, cook another 10 mins and Voilà, dinner is served.

Served up with a dollop of greek yogurt and side of steamed broccoli

I just love how simple this recipe is.  It’s fat free, but with the amount of flavor and how quickly it fills you up, you would never know.

Now on to the love handles!  I’m currently multi-tasking by blogging and working on my school work at the same time, but I just took a mini-break and did a 7 min love handle workout by the Tone It Up girls.

It only took 7 mins, but I have so much more energy now and just instantly felt better and more motivated.  I’ve been loving all the workouts Tone It Up has been posting, especially to get us ready for bikini season!  They’re simple and relatively quick, yet super effective to the point where you can feel the burnnn.  Plus, they have great recipes!

Time to get back to my paper, then its off to bed.  I’m already thinking about breakfast tomorrow…I’m feelin either protein pancakes or a smoothie.  Depends on how many times I hit snooze in the morning ;)  Night!

Just another day

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Today was just another day, but a LONG productive and successful one at that!  And now we’re officially over the hump and onto the final sprint to the weekend.  Weee!

I of course started with breakfast.  I don’t think I could ever skip breakfast.  It’s only the best meal of the day.  Even if it’s a quick one like today that consisted of a toasted kamut bun spread with almond butter and topped with sliced bananas and a sprinkle of chia seeds.

I did a double workout this morning.  A 40 min PiYo (pilates and yoga mix) class that worked mainly abs and inner thighs (since April is inner thigh month according to my instructor) and then an hour-long Cardio Sculpt class which incorporates both cardio and weight lifting.  I think Cardio Sculpt is one of my favorite classes since we work the full body and get in some cardio all at once.  I can work up a serious sweat within the first 15 mins of the class.  Its amazingg!

I got home and whipped up some VMA fail.  It was such a bad fail that I didn’t even finish the cup.

Vega Chocolate Protein Powder + spinach = no go

You never know til you try it, but adding spinach to every shake I make is not a good idea.  At least I tried.  The only reason I was able to get more than half of that cup down was because of the peanut flour goodness on top.  Three cheers for peanut flour!!

After attempting to finish both my VMA fail and strategic management paper, I hit up Babes Chicken House with some friends for a artery clogging good ol fried chicken lunch.  I actually ended up ordering just the side veggies because I try to stick to eating just organic and free range meats when I do actually eat meat..  Plus, I don’t eat fried foods all that often, or at least I try to think that. My fried food weakness is french fries.  YUM.  But I’ve been so good I haven’t had them in over 40 days!  Woot!  I did however eat two deliciously fluffy biscuits that left me feeling guilty ALL afternoon.

It’s a good think I made enough for leftovers from dinner last night because I definitely did not have enough time to prepare anything that required too much prep time.  I just reheated last nights lentil chili and quickly steamed some baby spinach and called it dinner.  And as I expected, it was just as delicious as it was yesterday!

Last Nights Dinner – Lentil Chili with a dollop of greek yogurt and a side of steamed broccoli

Recipe to come tomorrow!  Night!