Tag Archives: Pumpkin

Festive Pancake Roundup

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As promised and since it’s Christmas Eve, I thought I would gather all the festive pancake recipes for the month and put them here.  Maybe your family is into Holiday Pancakes like mine (erg…me…erg…) but anyways.  Does that sound like we are going to the rodeo?  I don’t know the title continues to amuse me. 

First Merry Christmas Eve.

From the Thanksgiving spectrum we have pumpkin pancakes.

pumpkinpancakes

Then my personal favorites: Eggnog Pancakes.

eggnog2

Gingerbread were also delicious.

gingerbread

As well as mom’s favorites peppermint.

Then a new (to me) and staple fig pancakes.

 Hope you have enjoyed this months Holiday editions.  Any recommendations and ideas for new pancakes are always welcome.

Now that the Holiday series is done…my blog has so many different options and directions to go…obviously…

Have a Happy Holidays.

Lightening up Pancakes

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So as part of the Monday pancake series, instead of a recipe this week I am actually posting a few helpful hints of how to make recipes healthier.  Let’s face it-pancakes are not always the healthiest recipes but that doesn’t mean you can’t make them that way.  While I’m not saying diner pancakes are made in this regard…you can!   While I realize not everyone wants to lighten up their pancakes, many people do.

Instead of adding oil you can substitute a half cup of pumpkin, applesauce or greek yogurt.  All three make the pancakes especially moist and delicious.

pumpkin pancakes

Greek yogurt pancakes

If you don’t want to consume a lot of carbohydrates, think about using a high protein flour such as peanut flour.

Instead of using high sugary maple syrup top your pancakes with sugar free syrup, peanut butter, greek yogurt, Nutella (well…that is just me), jam and jellies, fruit.

topped with basically an entire container of greek yogurt…maybe there is pancakes in there? maybe…

greek yogurt sandwich pancakes.

topped with apples

 

 

Another thing you can do (disclaimer…I personally don’t prefer the taste) is switch an egg to egg whites saving fat cholesterol.  You need something to bind the pancake together and make it fluffy but if you would prefer egg whites to egg that is for you.

Questions for you:

  1. How do you lighten up pancakes?
  2. How do you lighten up any recipe? 

Pumpkin Pancakes

By Posted in Breakfast, Pumpkin Tagged , , , , , 26 Comments

I’ve blogged about this recipe before, so if you have followed my blog for over 2 years now…you’ve probably seen it.  Seeing that covers about 2 people and both are far better cooks then me…I figured it wasn’t a big deal.  Upon searching through my archives however, I can’t find this recipe so I’ll just make this a staple post to link back too. This recipe is worth ten repeats in my mind at least. 

As bloggers, we are all obsessed with pumpkin.  Am I right?

I feel that way…I don’t make it through a full day without reading about how someone enjoys pumpkin.  I don’t say I mind though.  Next month is gingerbread…I personally like hard egg nog…

Pumpkin Pancakes

½ cup flour
1 egg
½ cup pumpkin
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice or cinnamon
Sweetener to taste

Cook at roughly 350 degrees.

This recipe is relatively easy.  Mix all the wet ingredients (including pumpkin) then add the flour…flip and cook.  It also works with peanut flour for a high protein breakfast.  I’ve made it with both.

I always have the best luck photographing these too…

The pumpkin replaces the oil and makes these quite moist and quite delicious.  I try and make them once a week so I can get my vitamin K and turn orange…therefore not having to go fake tanning (I kid).

Question for you:

1.       Do you like pumpkin?

2.       What is your favorite way to use it (feel free to link a recipe). 

Food Staples

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Food de Hollie
After my WIAW rage, (ha) I got a few emails about what I stock at my house to cook. I can assure you some of it is probably weird, some is strange I guess not all of it so whatever.
Breakfast Foods:
1. Greek yogurt

I like to hoard the containers like no big deal…

2. Peanut flour (I have at least 1 serving daily normally…my “odd food”)
3. Eggs (I go through a dozen eggs once a week)
4. Liquid egg whites
5. Sugar Free syrup (for waffles/pancakes)
6. Ghirardelli unsweetened cocoa powder (once you try this stuff you’ll never go back)
7. Stevia and truvia (depending on my mood)
8. Peanut butter
9. pumpkin
10. skim milk
Lunch foods: (While I normally have lunch on campus, I occasionally pack my lunch)
Which is normally a peanut butter and jelly sandwich with a greek yogurt. Well actually it’s two because I have one at 11 and one at 2.

Dinner:
1. Lots of frozen vegetable steamers (broccoli, asparagus, brussel sprouts!)

My favorite dinner ever.  Salmon, brussel sprouts and mushrooms

2. Fresh vegetables include onions, garlic, kale and mushrooms
3. Frozen steak and chicken to grill on my george foreman
4. Fresh fish normally bought day of from the supermarket to grill

Snacks:
1. Quest protein bars (these are my current favorites).
2. Greek yogurt+ pumpkin
3. Protein shakes made of Xanthem gum, pumpkin, skim milk and greek yogurt
4. Hard boiled eggs

Random other things  I like:

1. I always have hot cocoa stocked
2. and ice cream

3. Coffee creamer (I am in a Baileys Irish Cream mood lately)

But other then that I have dessert at restaurants because they are clearly better then anything I could make
Question for you: Name your top five staple foods.

1. Eggs
2. Greek yogurt
3. Peanut flour and cocoa powder (for pancakes…it counts as one)
4. Salmon
5. Xanthem gum for smoothies

WIAW Real Talk

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I haven’t done a WIAW blog in a while. I was reading blogs the other day, maybe last week…sometime ago and I was thinking about how a good portion of the time I just find WIAW blog posts annoying.

Breakfast today was a waffle with greek yogurt and jam

I can only have 12 ounces of coffee daily.  This picture does not justice for the amount of cream I add. 

 

 

 I will be completely honest and I don’t really believe 95% of bloggers posting what they have eaten throughout the day.  Especially posting a “full day” of eats.  It’s like the less you eat, the better your blog looks, the more people will read your blog.  I understand you want to showcase yourselves in good light, but damn I want to know some people eat pizza or some people find regular peanut butter good versus sweet chocolate double stuffed with a splash of vanilla super specialized almond butter. 

 

Really, I just want to know other people shop at Walmart for 90% of their groceries and I can relate to what they are eating.  I understand a lot of bloggers are vega, have some sort of GI tract issue or some other thing that justifies their need for such intricate food…but most of my groceries come from Walmart. 

Lunch today was 2 bagels with nutella. I had one at 11 and one at 2. That is normally how my lunches are. I forgot my greek yogurts for some odd reason…oh well.

 

I am all for eating weird foods but there comes a point that I can’t even try some recipes because it takes such specialized food that I don’t stock. When the hell did we start thinking milking almonds was a good idea? 

So instead I had a pumpkin protein shake when I got home. 1 cup of greek yogurt, 1/2 cup of pumpkin, cinnamon, ice cubes and xanthen gum to thicken it

 

As we all know, I’m not a chef.  I’m terrible at cooking (also cleaning and don’t care for babies…can you I’ll be a great stay at home housewife?). 

My quick and staple dinner is always fish+kale+ Brussel sprouts. Maybe I’ll get adventurous one day.

 

I want to say, I’m not trying to call anyone out.  The only thing I’m saying is that if you participate in WIAW and post 500 calories worth of extreme healthy food and that’s it…It doesn’t make me want to read your blog. 

Incase you are wondering this ended up being about 2300 calories.   If I could have more gas station coffee (the doctor told me the amount of caffeine I intake could affect bone growth) then it would be 2600 because I know my coffees have about 300 calories.  I’ll run 4 miles for that any day.

 

Question for you: What do you think of WIAW posts?