Pancake Heaven

Morning! I hope your week is off to a good start… mine is! I got to take my time getting into work today because I am working late tonight, so I woke up and decided to do the Shred Level 1. Jillian Michaels is not pleasant to wake up to, but I was very happy when it was over. I love how its only 20 minutes so its easy to squeeze in and it kicks my butt. It’s really the only strength training I’ve been doing lately, so I have to step it up because I’ve only been using 3 pound dumbbells. I know that sounds SO light and easy, but I promise you it is still very hard with the 3 lb weights. There are a few moves where I wish I had a little bit heavier weights though, so next time I have a chance I’ll pick up some 5 lb dumbbells.

Is it sad that what gets me through my workout is thinking about what I will eat after I’m done? You don’t know have to answer that, I already know. 🙂 Today I dreamed up some pancakes during my workout, and got to making them immediately after I was done. I’ve been using this mix:

Its sort of random that I’ve been using gluten free… I just found this all natural mix at Target on sale so I bought it. I don’t think it tastes that different from regular pancake/waffle mix, its just a little sweet. I decided to experiment a little bit and made the batter with:

• 1/4 cup of pancake mix
• 2 tbsp rolled oats
• 1/4 cup light soy milk
• 2 tbsp egg whites (I used AllWhites)

It turned out great! Adding the rolled oats added a nice texture to the pancakes and this recipe made 2 good sized ones. The batter seemed a little on the thin side when I first mixed everything together so I was a little nervous, but it thickened while standing when I was waiting for the pan to heat up.  They came out great and I finished them off with some delicious toppings.

On top I put:

• 1/4 cup nonfat greek yogurt
• 1 tsp almond butter
• 1 small sliced banana
• small handful of dried cherries (from the bulk bins!)

Amazing! I love experimenting with things and not going exactly by the box. Adding the oats and changing the ratio of liquid a bit made these have an awesome texture and added some whole grains. They were heavenly!

I’m off to work for a few hours and then heading back to the conference hotel in the afternoon. I should be back on my regular blogging schedule starting today. Happy Monday!

Snacky and The Shred

I’ve kind of been looking forward to putting up a new post tonight since I put up the last one so that my gross chaffing marks aren’t at the top of the page anymore… 😉 Today has seriously flown by, kind of like the weekend. I was definitely in a snacky mood today (again) and gave in (again). But you’re supposed to listen to your body, right!?

Afternoon snacks after lunch:

Triple Chocolate Chunk Vitatop (toasted) and a sliced up Gala Apple. My favorite flavor of the vitatops but I like Fujis better than Galas. It was still good though!

I got home and made some popcorn before heading to Whole Foods. Lately, I’ve been doing a few tablespoons of popcorn kernels in a brown paper bag and microwaving it and I don’t think I’ll ever go back to the pre-bagged stuff! I love making the popcorn straight from the kernels because you can measure it out and top it however you like. Plus, there’s no extra chemicals in there since you know exactly what you’re putting on it!

I used a little olive oil and some black pepper on this. yum. I use the regular setting on the microwave for popcorn and it works fine but sometimes I have to add an extra 30 seconds on to the time. It’s also way cheaper to do popcorn this way.. the entire bag of kernels (which has 40 servings!) was only $1.37!

Whole Foods was really good, too. I hadn’t been there in a looong time, and I just love their produce and their fish section (and pretty much everything else).  I got some leeks, oranges, blackberries, sweet potatoes, bananas, and baby spinach from the produce section, mussels from the fish section, and then Light Silk Soy Milk, Oikos nonfat greek yogurt (big container and the mini ones that have just 70 calories each!), and a bottle of Verdejo. I’m sure I’m missing something but those were the highlights.

I had wanted to get a workout in but time was slipping away, so I decided to do Jillian Michael’s 30 Day Shred. If you haven’t tried this workout, you must. They are quick 20 minute workouts but they are HARD. There are three levels that supposedly get progressively harder, but I think they’re all pretty hard but different. I was surprised when I tried Level 2 and thought it was easier than Level 1! I like doing them for a quick quick-your-butt workout when you don’t have much time, but you’re supposed to do it every day for 30 days and you should get drastic results if you go by the books. I’ve never done that before, nor do I plan to, but I like to throw these in to mix up my work out routine. I hadn’t done it in a LONG time, and it felt really good (and just as hard as I remember!)

I found this recipe for Carrot Sesame Salad a few weeks ago that I’ve been wanting to try and I finally got it together tonight to try it. I took 4 large carrots and used a veggie peeler to peel them, and then ribboned them with the peeler. It was kind of hard to get the hang of, but once I figured it out it was smooth sailing. I modified the recipe slightly, and used 2 tbsp rice vinegar, 2 tbsp low sodium soy sauce, 2 tsp sesame oil (the recipe calls for 2 tbsp), 1 tsp sugar, and 1 tsp each white and black sesame seeds (the recipe calls for all white, but I wanted to add a little more color).

I thought it turned out really good! There was a LOT of dressing for the amount of carrots, and I used more carrots than the recipe called for, so next time I’d either half the dressing recipe, or double the carrots. Not for the nutritional value (the dressing was light, especially after I cut down the oil), but because there was literally dressing pooled at the bottom of the bowl. The flavor was really good though, and I never thought to ribbon carrots before and use them for a salad so was excited to try something new!

I had about 1/3 of the carrot salad (1 1/3 large carrots worth) and then the leftover Moo Shi Vegetable from last night.

There was only one pancake left, so I just used that and then ate the rest with a fork. See how there’s sauce spreading out from under the Moo Shi thats out of the pancake? It was SO saucy. That was after I heated it up and poured (what I thought was) all the extra liquid out of the bowl. Really good flavor but too much sauce… a trend tonight I guess!

I’m gonna go relax and watch Nurse Jackie in a little while! I am loving this season so far (though its only been one episode before tonight!) Do any of you guys watch it? What do you think?

Be back tomorrow!