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WIAW: Pancake Fails & Waffle Wins

Posted on February 12, 2014 by kissmybroccoli

Alternate title:

Sometimes I Surprise the HELL Out of Myself!

So after I failed to get a good nap in and struggled through my shift Sunday night/Monday morning, I came home, ate something, popped a B-dryl (yeah, we’re tight like that now), and at 8:30am, totally faceplanted.

And didn’t move an inch until my alarm buzzed at 6:30pm!!!

I know! 1. I never sleep that late and 2. I never sleep that LONG! It was a glorious thing and I took about 1.359 seconds to bask in that acknowledgment before my mind was forced into the present and realized I had ONE HOUR to get out of the house and make it to work on time! Cue hyper-Heather mode!

In 45 minutes, I was showered, dressed, partially-makeuped (hey, something had to get cut) and in the kitchen wildly searching for sustenance. All of a sudden, I can’t get the thought of scrambled eggs out of my head. Even though I’m all like, “Heather, you don’t have TIIIIIIIME to make scrambled eggs….But, but I really WAAAAANT scrambled eggs!” Yes, I whine/argue with myself…it happens…but the best part?

No matter what, I always WIN! 😉

Two whole eggs, half a banana, and a side of vegan pancake fail topped with BUTTER and strawberry jam (oh yeah, bastardized in the BEST way possible!). After I put this plate away in ohhhh about 2 minutes, I threw a bunch of random things in my bag, called it “lunch” and out the door I went! Then I pulled into work TEN MINUTES EARLY!
How in the…? Yeah, no clue!

So as it turned out my minute ~~man~~ eggs ~~was~~ were surprising satisfying because I didn’t get hungry again for something like SIX HOURS! When I did, I dug out my lunch box treasures and thought I’d arrange myself a little “snack plate” of sorts.

And surprised myself once again that THIS (plus a mug of my favorite coffee) was all I actually ended up eating…over THREE HOURS! A bowl of thawed from frozen lima beans, a spoonful of Caramel Apple Cashew Butter and only HALF of an apple!

Honestly, I had some down time and totally got sucked into the new book I’m reading so I kept “forgetting” that I hadn’t yet finished eating, but when I finally took my last bite, I was comfortable…full…satisfied. So I just went with it thinking I would have more to snack on later.

But I didn’t get hungry again until right before I left work. At this point, I figured I’d just wait until I got home, throw down a bowl of cereal with peanut flour and call it done, BUT it was cold as BALLS outside! Poor Elvira’s heat just couldn’t keep up! My fingers were still frozen when I walked into my house 20 minutes later…and that’s after riding the whole way with them shoved into the vents of the dashboard!

So yeah, cereal wasn’t looking all that appealing. I ~~wanted~~ NEEDED something hot. Oatmeal? Nah. More eggs? Nah. What did I WANT? Hmm, I’ve still got the other half of my apple…Oh, I know…I’ll make some waffles!

So that’s what I did…from SCRATCH, BABY!!! 😀

I just knew, knew, KNEW it wouldn’t work. As soon as the light cut off on the waffle maker, telling me it was time to open it up and face my failure, I wondered why the HELL I didn’t just grab the Kodiak mix out of the pantry. And then BAM!

Ain’t she gorrrrrrrrrrgeous?!

Recipe coming soon! 😀

I have to say, part of me was a little hesitant to put this post up today…I mean, What I Ate Wednesday? More like, That’s ALL I Ate Wednesday?! But you know what? That’s just the balance of life…sometimes you eat more…sometimes you eat less. I shouldn’t feel bad for my bird-sized appetite no more than another person should feel bad for eating a second helping at dinner.

At NO point during the day did I feel deprived. When my stomach growled, I ate. And when it was quiet, I didn’t. This is what works for me. If you have a recent history with ED and then yes, it’s hard to trust your body’s natural hunger cues, but I know that I have a healthy metabolism and I also know that I will probably more than make up for it once I hit Body Pump tomorrow. So yeah, I’m ok!

Now, before I ramble on anymore, how about hopping on over to Peas & Crayons and showing our hostess, Jenn, some love? Because no matter WHAT you ate (or how much), today is THE day to celebrate it!

Oh and I surprisingly drank 64 ounces of water without even trying! Woop!

When was the last time you SURPRISED yourself?

Posted in Intuitive Eating, What I Ate Wednesday | Tagged apples, bananas, cinnamon, coffee, eggs, Elvira, hospital, jam, nut butter, pancake fail, pancakes, waffles | 41 Comments

Caramel Apple Cashew Butter

Posted on February 10, 2014 by kissmybroccoli

Ok, so maybe this weekend wasn’t a TOTAL loss…

And maybe…just MAYBE, I ended up with something to soothe my soul after
The Great Vegan Pancake Meltdown of 2014.

There’s something to be said about comfort food.

When I was a kid, my mom used to make THE BEST car-mul apples from scratch. It’s been YEARS since I’ve had one, but I can still remember how it felt, standing beside her in the kitchen, eye-level to the countertop, watching her work, sucking back the saliva forming at the corners of my mouth while waiting…WAITING the twenty thousand years for them to set.

You know, give or take a day or so.

Eventually, the clouds would part, the angels would sing, and the sun would cast it’s heavenly light upon the no longer forbidden fruit. I would squeal with delight as I was bestowed my caramel confection, spinning it round and round on it’s spindle admiring its sugary sheen.

Then, I would finally FINALLY take that first bite…

I would struggle to find just the right angle…undoubtedly coming back with only a mouthful of caramel after the first few attempts…but I would conquer that snack on a stick. And when I had finished, I would look up to my mother and hope she could see my gratitude…under the layers of stickiness that streaked my face, dribbled down my shirt, and clung to a few strands of my hair.

If only food processors had been as popular as camcorders in the 90’s…perhaps my mom could have saved herself from having to wipe the entire house down with baby wipes. This Caramel Apple Cashew Butter is the quicker, ~~picker upper~~ snack of today and in less than twenty minutes you can have your ~~cake~~ caramel and eat it too…without having to take a bath afterwards! 😉

Caramel Apple Cashew Butter

By: Heather @ Kiss My Broccoli

Prep Time: 15-20 minutes

Cook Time: N/A

Keywords: food processor breakfast dip/spread snack

Ingredients (1 cup)

1 1/2 cups raw cashews
2 Tablespoons coconut oil
2 Tablespoons prepared caramel sauce
1/2 teaspoon apple pie spice

Instructions

1. Combine all ingredients in a food processor and blend until smooth.

Now break out the apples, graham crackers, bagels, or in the case of impending tears, just shove a spoonful of that comforting classic flavor right in your PIE hole! 😉

What was one of your favorite comfort food treats growing up?

CARmul or CARAmel?

Posted in Recipe, Snacks | Tagged apples, caramel, childhood, comfort food, food processor, nut butter | 50 Comments

The Vegan Pancake Vow

Posted on February 9, 2014 by kissmybroccoli

So I got this GREAT idea for a pancake recipe!

I was treadmilling at the gym Friday morning, AFTER a 5:30am Body Pump class…obviously holding true to it’s name ’cause I was feeling the PUMP…and the thought just POPPED into my mind! It was good…oh yeah, it was VERY good! I verbally (ok, literally) patted myself on the back, stopped my hamster wheel, and practically (ok, you got me…literally) skipped my way to the car!

On the way home, the pancake vision was getting brighter. I saw sprinkles…PINK sprinkles. I saw a clever Valentines Day title blaaaaaay-zing at the top of my post in all it’s PicMonkey glory. I saw people bowing at my feet and throwing me roses! 😆

I prepared myself. It’s been, what two months since I last made pancakes? I wanted, no I NEEDED it to be good. I had a snack. Then I threw on my headphones, pulled out my spatula (slash microphone) and set to work.

I mixed, I measured, I stirred, I flipped and…

The beauty of pancake procreation was witnessed!

I readied the props…proud of myself for the impulse buy I made at TJ Maxx a few days prior. I sorted out pink and white dots from a bottle of birthday sprinkles…because I will never learn to have enough forethought to plan ahead for food holidays. I even had the brilliant idea to craft some banana art!

Then I proceeded to take one hundred and thirty SEVEN pictures. Finally, an hour after this entire spoon to batter process began, it was time to taste my masterpiece. It was time to sink my teeth into some soft and fluffy…

Very Vanilla VEGAN Pancakes!

But something…something was just…OFF!

Of course I ate them anyway (because at this point, I was starving), but I didn’t loose hope…because tomorrow was another day! So yesterday morning, I tweaked a few things and thought, what the hell…let’s have a little more fun! There was no way in HELL I was sorting out more sprinkles, but I now think I deserve a degree in banana-crafts. This time I took one hundred and forty TWO pictures…five more, ya know, just in case! 😉

But something…something was still…OFF!

Of course I ate them anyway (because at this point, I was starving), but I didn’t lose hope…because I still had a full day ahead of me and with a snowstorm brewing outside, I didn’t have ~~any reason to freeze my ass off~~ anywhere else to go. Plus…

I was determined to make some damn VEGAN pancakes!

So a few hours later, I set to it. And after FOUR batches, I had FLAT, still FLAT, too SALTY, and wait, is that GREEN?! I was so disappointed. I got angry. I left the room. I came back. I left the room again. Then I cried. 😥

Last night, I gave it ONE LAST try, convinced that my lucky number seven would serve me well. So there I was, at 11pm, flipping ‘cakes. I tried another direction from the other batches. The batter turned out perfect. After flipping, I stepped back and marveled at the golden brown color. Once they were FINALLY done, I plated one, took a bite, and…

FAIL!

I’m done. That’s it. From this day, February 10, 2014, and on, I solemnly swear to never attempt another vegan pancake recipe! I’m sorry, I do like to try to accommodate all my readers out there but it just doesn’t seem like it’s worth the effort (slash waste of ingredients) when I myself am not vegan…and frankly, I’m done crying over
~~spilled milk~~ shitty pancakes!

So I have no VEGAN pancakes for you to share with your honey this Valentines Day (sorry, Davida, I tried), but hey, THESE should keep you busy for a while!

Vegan Pancake Roundup from www.kissmybroccoliblog.com