Healthier Pancake Toppings and Options

August 1, 2014August 2, 20142 Comments

With my series of overindulgent posts as of recent, I feel the need to balance out the calories and cholesterol with something a little bit healthier: Pancakes.

That’s not a joke. I totally think pancakes can be healthy. You just have to know how to do them. As a kid, I hated pancakes. I always thought they tasted funny. Then something magical happened, I tried IHOP’s pancakes and I loved them. That’s when I realized what I hated was Bisquick pancakes. That’s all my mom ever made. Sorry mom, but bisquick is just gross. When I discovered my love of pancakes, I wanted to eat them all the time. While we all know pancakes aren’t always the healthiest breakfast, there are ways to lighted up your pancakes and especially the toppings so they’re still fun and delicious but won’t undo your workout. Here are a few ways to keep your pancakes a little on the healthier side so you can enjoy them guilt-free.

Choose a Better Pancake Base

Pancakes can basically be a carb fest (nothing wrong with that), but if you’re looking to balance your meal, adding protein powder is a great start. I’m a big fan of protein pancakes because the extra protein helps keep you full.

Some of my favorites are:

Vanilla Coconut Protein Pancakes

Pumpkin Protein Pancakes

Banana Protein Pancakes

The fun part of protein pancakes is you can play with different flours and protein powders and find a mix that you love.

If making your own pancakes from scratch isn’t your thing or you’re really not looking to add some extra protein, there are some pancake mixes that are pretty natural and overall healthy. I love Kodiak Cakes, because they’re super easy to make (just add water) and the ingredients are all natural.

You could also go the Paleo Pancake route. It’s not exactly a pancake but still pretty darn tasty.

Lighten Up Your Toppings

When I was younger, I ate the regular old pancake syrup you get at the grocery store. Nowadays, I try to stick with toppings that don’t have any chemicals or artificial sweeteners. Straight up maple syrup is a little too intense for me, so generally I like to mix it up to create different types of syrups and sauces and toppings.

My latest obsession is fruit purees mixed with maple syrup.

I like to puree some fresh peaches and mixed it with maple syrup… about 2 tbsp peach puree + 1 tbsp of maple syrup for one person. You can also just puree the fruit and skip the maple syrup. I tried that with banana (simmered them in water first, but raw works) and it was awesome:

My other favorite combo is plain greek yogurt with maple syrup.

But in general, fruit is a great topping. It helps bulk up the volume without adding as many calories as eating extra pancakes. Berries are always a great addition…

But you can also get creative, like topping your pancakes with persimmon!

Portion Control

I love a big stack of pancakes. Mostly because it looks pretty, but also because it’s fun to eat. But eating 4 or 5 full sized pancakes is a lot. So what I do is I made them smaller! That way I feel like I’m eating a lot but really I’m not.

I generally use a tbsp measurer to prepare my pancakes. Each pancake is composed of 2 tbsp of batter, instead of about 1/4 cup (4 tbsp) which is normal.

In the photo above, the banana slices show how the pancakes are actually pretty small. Despite the fact that the portion size is smaller, I still feel like I’m getting a good amount of pancakes.

I’m all for eating a full stack of pancakes with butter and maple syrup every once a while. But on a normal day basis, I like to keep it a bit lighter. Pancakes can still be enjoyed if you’re trying to stay healthy. It’s just about making sure you make the right choices.

What’s your favorite way to slim down your pancakes?

The Time We Cooked Alpaca and Ate Guinea Pig in Peru

December 5, 2013December 6, 201312 Comments

After the Inca Trail, we decided to take it easy the remainder of the trip. Before we left, I booked a cooking class in Cusco with Erick from Marcelo Batata (one of the best restaurants in Cusco). I was looking forward to it the whole trip, because obviously I love food.

The class was small it was just me, Jesse and a woman from the US who worked for a travel agency in Lima. The class was awesome. We learned about all the different native plants, grains, fruits and vegetables, and fun facts like how Peru has about 3,800 different varieties of potato.

Can you guess what these are?

Dehydrated potatoes! Crazy right?

Throughout the whole class (which went from 1pm-7pm) we were given small little amuse bouche.

The first was a mahi mahi ceviche, which was divine.

Then there was a smoked octopus olive bite,

And some delicious bruschetta-like goodie with pork ragu and scrambled egg. All the amuse bouche were what we would call “New Peruvian,” modern twists on traditional dishes. It was seriously some of the most amazing food I’ve eaten. The flavor combos were out of this world. There were a bunch more (probably 3 or 4 more) but I won’t bore you with that.

After talking about native foods of Peru, we got to try a bunch of them!

We tried a passionfruit (a different variety from what we’re used to), a pepino (my favorite, it tasted like a combination of cucumber and cantaloupe), lucuma (super tasty! I brought lucuma jam home!), cherimoya, mango, aguaymanto (Jesse’s favorite, they look like little tomatoes but are sweet and a little tart) and grapes.

After sampling the fruits, we got to the kitchen…

We were preparing two dishes: Causa and Alpaca Saltado

Causa is a traditional Peruvian dish, served cold. It involves potatoes mashed with aji cream sauce, avocado, black olives, spicy mayonnaise, shredded chicken and hard boiled egg all layered into a wonderful masterpiece.

Here was my causa:

I’m definitely going to try to make this again, because it was delightful and pretty easy! After we sat down to enjoy our causa, we had a lesson on Pisco along with pisco tasting and cocktail-making.

With out cocktails in hand, we were ready to make alpaca saltado. So before I tell you about that, I should tell you that Lomo Saltado is pretty much the most common Peruvian dish you can find. If you go to any Peruvian restaurant, they’re almost guaranteed to have lomo saltado. It’s a beef stir fry dish (influenced by the large number of Chinese immigrants), it’s served with fried potatoes and rice.

Traditionally, it’s made with beef (lomo=beef), but in this class we made it with alpaca meat. Honestly, the alpaca meat pretty much tasted like beef. But back to the cooking… We were ready to go!

So the chef explained that the reason Lomo Saltado is called such is that Peruvians saw Chinese immigrants flipping beef in their pans and the verb saltar in Spanish means to jump, and thus jumping beef… lomo saltado. Ta-da!

But what that meant for us is that the whole time, we had to flip the veggies and meat around in the pan. So I started in deep concentration….

But pretty soon, half my alpaca and vegetables were on the floor…

But oh well, it still turned out great! It’s a surprisingly easy dish to make. The only part we didn’t get a photo of is the flambe part! You pour some pisco in the pan and light it on fire! That was super fun.

After assembling our dishes, we sat down for dinner. I was so full from all the appetizers that I didn’t finish the dish, but it was great. Despite fullness, there’s always room for dessert, right? So the chef brought over a platter of chocolate treats for us to try.

Amazing. Amazing. Amazing. (But blurry photo womp) Peruvians have a big sweet tooth so we got along well.

The cooking class was definitely one of the highlights of the trip. It was a lot of fun, and totally worth it.

The next day was our last day in Cusco. We knew what we HAD to have for lunch: cuy (aka Guinea Pig). Cuy is another one of those traditional Peruvian things that we just had to try. So that morning we went to the coca museum, and while I was chatting with the museum attendant (one of the perks of knowing the language), I asked her where we should try cuy. She recommended a place, which was great because 1. it wasn’t full of tourists and 2. it was cheaper.

There we also got our first taste (of many) of chicha, a local homemade corn beer. At this place they mixed it with strawberry puree. It was delicious…

and also enormous. So with our delicious beverages (we also got a local beer, Cusqueña) we ordered one portion of cuy, not really knowing what to expect. But this is what arrived at the table:

Claws, face, teeth and all. Yup.

I think we sat there for a few minutes sort of unsure what to do with it. The skin was really tough and there was really little meat on the whole thing. The little paws and teeth were really off-putting. We picked at it for a bit and decided that cuy wasn’t really for us. The meat didn’t taste bad, it was a bit rubbery, but not bad. I think we both decided that we don’t need to eat it again. But we tried it so mission accomplished!

We spent the next few hours wandering and sitting in the Plaza de Armas people watching. Then we headed to the airport for our final destination in Peru: Arequipa!

Coming up… the time we went to a monastery where nuns never leave, and then saw some condors and vicuñas…

Ok so tell me what you think…. are you totally grossed out? Would you try cuy (guinea pig)?

Previous Peru Posts:

The Time We Hiked Through the Andes to Machu Picchu

Back from Peru

Hello from Peru

Farm Fresh to You: Get Produced Delivered, Eat More Vegetables

October 2, 20135 Comments

I’m going to be honest. This is not what I had in mind for dinner tonight.

I had a salad for lunch and because I’m all about balance, I’m generally of the belief that if I had a salad for lunch, I’m certainly not having one for dinner. But here I am. Having a salad for dinner after I had one for lunch. I don’t want to be one of those girls. I’m not one of those girls.

Let me tell you the story of this salad, because really it started a few weeks ago.

Several weeks ago, Living Social was running a deal for Farm Fresh to You. It’s like a CSA delivered to your house, but instead of buying in at the beginning of the season, you can just order whenever you want it and pay weekly. So I saw the deal: $15 for a delivery box of vegetables.

If you used to read my blog when I was in grad school, you’ll know that I had a CSA share in Ithaca, NY from the Early Morning Farm and I absolutely loved it. Every week I was so excited to pick up my share at the farmer’s market. I got to try new and exciting vegetables like rhubarb and kohlrabi. For a foodie writing her thesis on Sustainable Food Systems, you can probably imagine how amazing that was for me.

When I left Ithaca, I was sad that I wouldn’t have a CSA share to pick up weekly anymore. CSA shares in Southern California are basically twice as expensive as my share was in Ithaca (I paid about $20 per week back then). So I was bummed. I couldn’t afford to get one. Let’s be honest, healthy living can be expensive. (Remember how I got a second job to pay for Crossfit… omm yeah).

So when I saw this Living Social deal for Farm Fresh to You, I was all over it. Last week, I placed my order and my box arrived today. I had it delivered to my office because I was worried I wouldn’t be home when they delivered it and the heat wave here has been rough. Now let me tell you, during my drive home, I was thinking about all the possible things to have for dinner, completely forgetting the box was in the backseat.

By the time I got home I had pretty much decided I wanted polenta with a poached egg. But then I remembered the box full of vegetables. I unpacked them and saw everything that was inside:

1 head of lettuce
1 honeydew melon
2 delicata squash
1lb potatoes
3 apples
2 oranges
2 pears
1 pack of Berry Kiwi
1/2 lb green beans
1 bunch of carrots

That’s when I remembered: Oh yeah, I used to eat salads all the time because that shit goes bad real fast AND I hate to waste food. There’s no two ways around it, you have to be a voracious vegetable eater if the box is just for you (and that’s the case for me, since I live alone).

And you know what goes bad first? Lettuce. You can wrap it in a paper towel to keep it crisper longer, but let’s be honest, it’s not making it past 4 days. I wish the box included kale instead of lettuce… but alas not reality. So that’s when I knew salad was for dinner.

Instead of that polenta and poached egg dinner I had in mind, I threw together a salad of lettuce, carrot, edamame and a Moringstar Farms Veggie Patty. For dressing, I mixed together some natural peanut butter, hoisin sauce, sriracha and vegetable broth, for a little Asian inspiration (Note: that’s basically how you make the dipping sauce for Vietnamese Spring Rolls).

So you’re probably thinking… good for you! Pat on the back for having a salad! Who gives a crap!?!

Well really the whole point of all this was to tell you one of the top benefits of having one of these produce delivery services (or a CSA share) and why I’m considering getting it again: it forces you to eat more vegetables. And not just that… organic vegetables, even better!

Farm Fresh to You brought my count of vegetables for the day from 4 to 6 (plus 3 servings of fruit). While I probably would have added spinach to my polenta with poached eggs, the box diversified my vegetable intake, because I already had spinach in my smoothie this morning. Even better, different nutrients!

Overall: I was pleased with what was in the box. It had a little too much fruit for my liking, but I love the idea. I think in the future I’ll just choose the vegetable-only box. I’m all for eating more organic vegetables, because with a sweet tooth like mine, I can always use extra vegetables to balance it out (I’ll be completely honest, after the salad I had a spoonful of peanut butter mixed with sweetened condensed milk for dessert… I know… we won’t talk about it anymore).

Oh and just so you know, I was not compensated by Farm Fresh to You. I bought the Living Social deal on my own and these are just my opinions.

Have you tried a produce delivery service? Did you like it?

Life After the Paleo Challenge

September 19, 2013September 20, 201319 Comments

A few months ago, I was frustrated with my body and how I felt. I’m a firm believer in the idea that your diet can affect how you feel about yourself. So I decided I wanted to try to do a 30 Day Paleo Challenge.

Remember that?

Yeah I had a terrible time and ended the challenge after 14 days. It’s funny because I was miserable but that post has become one of the most popular posts on my blog (after Samoas Bars and Buffalo Chicken Spaghetti Squash). Paleo really wasn’t for me, and I came to terms with the fact that I need to listen to my body and NOT force a lifestyle on myself just because it’s popular.

Today, I went to lunch with some co-workers to 118 Degrees. It’s a raw, vegan restaurant. Afterward, another co-worker who didn’t go with us, asked me what I thought. I said it was tasty. He suggested I try a vegan diet for 30 days.

I said no thanks.

I’m not against vegans. As a former vegetarian, I’m ok with meat-free meals. But the real reason I said no is I think I’ve finally figured out what works for me. So I figured I’d go ahead and tell you a little bit about how I figured it out.

Note: this is just what I’ve found works for me. I’m not a nutritionist or advocating you eat the way I do. I’m just sharing what works for me in hopes it’ll help you figure out what works for you.

It’s All About Balance

This is going to sound cheesy, but what works for me is balance. I know you’ve heard it a million times, but really, being able to have everything in moderation keeps me sane. So just to give you a little bit of a breakdown, this is what an average day look like:

Breakfast:

Green Smoothie: 1/2 frozen banana, 5-6 frozen mango chunks, handful of spinach, handful of kale, protein powder, water and ice.

After I did my search for the best protein powder, I bought some Garden of Life Vanilla protein. Then Garden of Life was nice enough to send me some Raw Fit to try, it has more protein and green coffee bean extract and a bunch of other stuff. That stuff is seriously amazing. Flavor-wise, the vanilla raw protein is better tasting, but Raw Fit seriously keeps me full for 4-5 hours. And that’s even after crossfit. I’m amazed. I hate to sound like an ad for Garden of Life, but I’m definitely buying the Raw Fit as soon as I run out.

Lunch:

I rarely ever buy lunch. Honestly, most weeks I eat the exact same thing for lunch everyday, just because I cook once per week and eat leftovers.

When putting together my meals, I try to keep this ratio in mind: 2 parts vegetable, 1 part whole grain, 1 part protein.

So here are some examples of lunches I’ve been having recently:

Tilapia with cumin and paprika, with Quinoa Salad
Kale salad (just kale with olive oil, lemon, salt and pepper) with ground turkey cooked in spices with bulgur wheat
Kale salad with rotisserie chicken and rice
Kale salad (can you tell I’m obsessed) with a veggie patty

Honestly, I eat a lot of kale salad because it holds up well and there’s no cooking involved. I can throw it together in the morning, put dressing (really just olive oil, lemon, salt and pepper) on it and it’s not soggy and gross like other salads would be by lunch. Also, I just think it tastes good, which is important. Lunch should be fun, even if it’s healthy.

Dinner:

Ok I wish this was my dinner all the time but yeah right.

Especially now that it’s been hot, the last thing I want to do is cook, but I’ve been trying. Either way, the fact that breakfast and lunch were so healthy makes me feel better about eating a banana with peanut butter and ice cream for dinner. Not that I recommend that, but baby steps right?

But I’ve been working on it. Recently I’ve made:

Vanilla coconut protein pancakes

Grilled Pizza and grilled corn

Grilled Tilapia

Now that it gets cooler, I’ll concentrate on making more stews (which I’m a huge fan of). Like:

Caldo de Pollo

Coconut Curry

In a Nutshell…

Overall, I feel better about life. And honestly, making sure I go to Crossfit at least 3 times a week really helps.

But in terms of diet, I’ve found a few key things:

1. More protein early in the day helps keep me fuller longer. Raw Fit has 28g of protein per serving. That’s a lot. I’m thinking of trying two scoops of the raw protein when I run out of Raw Fit to see how that tastes/feels (that would be 32g of protein, woah! too much?).

2. Whole grains help keep me full and satisfied. I still try not to eat too much bread, because that’s processed but I’ve been having of whole grains like quinoa, bulgur, and barley. But even then, I usually only have about 1/2 cup at a time. Moderation is key.

3. I like eating a lot of vegetables. If I concentrate on having 4-5 servings of vegetables per day, I feel great and usually end up eating pretty healthy.

4. Snacks aren’t essential and actually discouraged. I can’t really snack. Once I start, I have a hard time stopping the consumption process until I’m full. I’d rather just eat meals. Might not work for everyone but works for me.

5. Nothing is off limits. I’m more likely to eat when I’m hungry and stop when I’m full when I don’t feel like I can’t have a certain food. On the Paleo challenge, I remember I was constantly thinking about what I could eat. Lately, I just haven’t found myself worrying about that, which is great. I mean, let’s be honest, as a foodie, I constantly think of food, but now it’s things I want to make, as opposed to thinks I want to eat. That said, I am conscious to not over eat certain things. I always want to eat 3 pieces of cake and 4 slices of pizza, but I stop myself because I can always have more later when I’m hungry if I still want it. So while I can have everything, that doesn’t mean stuff my face to the point of feeling ill. I’m definitely guilty of doing that at times, but I’m trying to keep it under wraps.

In retrospect, I’m still glad I tried Paleo for a few weeks (despite how miserable it was). I still think if you haven’t found what works for you, you should definitely give it a try, because it could be amazing for you.

I just found that lots of vegetables with some grain and protein is the best strategy for me. No labels, just real food. Overall, I try to eat well 70-80 percent of the time. That helps keep me happy and healthy.

The other 20-30 percent of the time involves things like this…

Oh wait, that was only true when I lived in Italy. Now it looks more like this…

Because Bacon = ‘Merika!

I’m sure I’ll spend the rest of my life trying to eat less of that stuff, but I guess that’s the lifelong struggle of a sugar addict?

Have you figured out what works for you? Do you love paleo? Is a vegetarian or vegan diet what keeps you happy or healthy? Are you still figuring it out? Tell me where you’re at!

30 Day Paleo Challenge: Ending Early

March 18, 2013September 19, 201335 Comments

So I started the 30 Day Paleo Challenge 14 days ago.

Unfortunately, I’m cutting it off at the half way point.

I feel guilty for not committing to the full challenge, but then I remembered this is just a blog. It’s not my job. I don’t get paid to do this. My life doesn’t depend on it. It’s for fun. This challenge became more than not fun and everyone around me noticed.

My boss asked if I was depressed. My mom asked why I kept it up if I wasn’t getting positive results. My poor boyfriend. I don’t even know what he was thinking.

Ultimately, my blog is not a diet blog. It’s a food blog.

I love food. Cooking and sharing what I make is just fun, so I want to keep it that way.

But all that said, I wanted to share my thoughts on my two week attempt at Paleo:

1. Paleo is just NOT for me.

I think everyone’s body and metabolism is different and you need to find what works for you. I was hungry all the time, unsatisfied, cranky and I had strange bowel issues (that I’ve NEVER had before) that I never talked about because that seemed like TMI. If you haven’t found what works for you yet, then Paleo’s worth a try. Even if you have found what works for you, sometimes trying something new (like Paleo) is a good reminder of that.

2. Paleo was just too much meat for me.

When I say meat, I mean any animal protein (including chicken and fish, not just beef and pork). I used to be vegetarian. Even though I’m not anymore, I’m used to eating beans 3-4 times a week. Honestly, I felt disgusting eating as much meat as I did during these past few days. This is definitely not an environmentally-friendly diet. I’m ready to eat beans.

3. There are some things I’ll keep.

I don’t think I’ll go back to putting milk in my coffee, and honestly I really enjoyed the paleo pancake and green smoothie breakfast. I’ll probably keep that up instead of yogurt. I felt great in the mornings after eating that, and I would stay full for a good while. So there’s a plus!

4. I didn’t lose weight, and that’s ok.

I think I didn’t lose weight because it wasn’t that drastically different from my previous diet, and I don’t have that much weight to lose. I’m used to packing my lunch and cooking from scratch. So that wasn’t that big a change. The biggest change was the elimination of beans and tortillas (I don’t even buy bread or cereal). I think if I wanted to have the drastic results that other people talk about on paleo, I would have had to eliminated fruit and nuts. That means basically only eating meat and vegetables. That’s limiting WAYYY too much.

5. I need to make dinner.

I used to just sort of snack for dinner, and that made me want sweets. I realized that when I eat a full meal for dinner, I don’t want dessert as much. Lesson learned: cook dinner, sit down and eat it!

6. I can go without sugar for a week, no problem.

I did it for 2 weeks just now. I passed up cake at a wedding, didn’t eat chocolate chips, eliminated all added sugars, and I didn’t die! I originally wanted to give this a try because I thought I ate too much sugar. I think it’s totally feasible (and healthy) for me to stick to once a week treats. I just proved to myself that I can do it for longer than a week. I just need to stick to it. Saying NO isn’t that hard.

7. I know my body.

As someone who has maintained a 50lb weight loss (fluctuated 10-15lbs over the years but managed to keep it off), I know what works for me. Having everything in moderation keeps my happy, healthy and satisfied. It encourages me to exercise more and not overeat. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with eating bread, cheese, wine, cake, cookies. You just shouldn’t be eating it everyday. But like I said, that’s me and my body. Paleo might work great for others.

8. I’d rather not binge.

Last night, I had 4 and a half pieces of pizza, about 3 pieces of cake, and a bunch of flat bread with eggplant dip. More than I need to eat in a day, and while I was happy to eat carbohydrates again, I didn’t feel good eating that much. I can’t remember the last time I had a binge like that. I’d finally kept it under control and gotten by by practicing moderation. Feeling deprived makes me binge. If I had a totally normal relationship with food, then cutting out food groups probably would be fine. But let’s be honest, I don’t. But that’s just me and my issues.

Overall, Paleo was a good experiment, but it just wasn’t for me. I know what works for me.

I remember the first day I started a diet, over 10 years ago (funny the things we remember, right?), we had guests over that night. My mom made something delicious that was totally NOT diet-friendly. She said not to worry. Have dinner with everyone and continue the diet tomorrow.

That’s the best advice I ever got.

This weekend, my mom gave me a large pieces of cake that she brought from Guatemala. My aunt in Guatemala made it. I don’t know how she does it, but I swear it’s the best cake on Earth. I cut the large piece is half, put each piece in a ziploc bag and stuck them in the freezer.

The pieces are waiting for me for that moment when I really want it and it’ll taste best, not just when it’s there.

Cake in the freezer. That’s what works for me.

Thanks for following me on my Paleo experiment. It’s been fun (or something).

Now, back to normal blogging?

UPDATE: In case you’re curious… here’s an update on Life After the Paleo Challenge…

30 Day Paleo Challenge: Day 13. It’s Just Food.

March 16, 2013March 16, 20134 Comments

This morning, I woke up and did a St. Patrick’s Day themed 5k with some friends.

It was nice, relaxed and fun. At the end of the race, they passed out a bunch of snacks. I’m not really sure what I was thinking but I grabbed a Kind bar, a Think Thin bar and a Gnu bar (all mini sample sizes), along with an apple and banana. Those bars are totally NOT paleo. But I figured I’d hold on to them for after the challenge.

So I came home after the race and had the usual green smoothie and paleo pancake breakfast. That was all good and fine. It was a cloudy day and I had no plans, so I curled up in my pajamas and watched Girls.

Around 1pm, I got hungry. I looked in the fridge and there was a paleo meal waiting for me.

Left over pork chops and cauliflower and sweet potato fries.

I totally did NOT want to eat that. I also didn’t want to leave the house to get a salad. So instead, I ate the Kind bar, ThinkThin and Gnu samples. Then I had a spoonful of peanut butter with jelly.

Paleo Fail.

For a while, I felt bad about it. But then I remembered. It’s just food. It’s NOT a big deal. Some sample bars aren’t going to kill me. Neither will some peanut butter and jelly.

For the sake of all female-kind, let’s remember, it’s just food. No matter what our relationship to it is, it’s just food. Eating the “wrong” thing shouldn’t make me feel bad.

So I’m over it. I messed up. Last night, I also had a few bites of Pad Thai. Then I had a massive stomach ache. Karma? No.

It’s just food.

I probably ate the Paleo-friendly coconut soup too fast. That’s it.

Now I’m going to the mall to distract myself…

Do you feel guilty after a diet mess up? Should we? Thoughts?

Foodologie

A Blog about Balancing Health with a Constant Desire to Eat Cake

Tag: Eating