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I recently tried the Krusteaz Buttermilk Protein Pancake Mix. I had the idea to use bananas and peanut butter to make the cakes even more delicious. It was a bold idea, and it paid off!
I opted to go the protein rich route and added 3/4 cup of milk and one egg to the mix.
For the bananas, I sliced two bananas and sautéed them with 4 tablespoons of butter and 2 tablespoons of brown sugar.
After the bananas were caramelized, I cooked the pancakes and assembled a stack.
Kids love pancakes. Grown-ups do, too. I’ve been loving making pancakes with Park City Kodiak Power Cakes Flapjack and Waffle Mix to sneak some protein into an otherwise decadent breakfast. This Buttermilk flavor is my favorite, and you can mix it with water, with water and eggs, or milk and eggs. Each version has a different amount of protein per serving. For this batch, I used water and eggs.
On this occasion, I made these flapjacks three different ways: one with no fruit (for the three year old), one with bananas (for the nine year old), and one with bananas and blueberries.
The youngest flapjack fan requested no fruit in her pancakes. I mixed up the batter with water and eggs, making the protein content rise to 17g per serving. The kiddos love a pyramid stack, so I made the cakes larger for the base and smaller as it rose. Pancake stack number one was a big success with a little girl.
The nine year old wanted bananas in her pancakes, but no blueberries. I added some more of the batter to the measuring cup and added some sliced bananas. Using the measuring cup helps to pour the batter into the pan with more control. These golden cakes did not last long.
For my breakfast, I mixed in blueberries and bananas and then showered the stack with the remaining fruit. I can’t wait to do this again.
It’s also the month when we celebrate love. Valentine’s Day is just around the corner, and the chocolatiers and florists are ready. I’m devoting my blog this month to the topic of love, but lacking a romantic partner I’ll be focusing on some other areas of the emotion of attraction. The love of melted hot cheese, tomato sauce, and crispy crust for one.
I’m going to be reviewing some of the great pizza pies you can find in Santa Cruz County and I began my search at the Pizza My Heart location in Aptos, called Pizza 1. Located at 253 Center Ave in Aptos, Pizza 1 is just a few blocks from the famous Seacliff stairs, where I like to do some training. To prepare for this pizza review, I did 33 laps of the stairs with my fully loaded camera bag on my back.
Pizza is not traditionally known as a health food. However, when you burn 2,000 calories you don’t have to worry as much about your calories or macros. Your body wants and needs sugars and the complex carbohydrates in pizza crust will do just fine.
There are 8 slices in a 12″ pie, and each slice has:
140 calories
5g of fat (3g saturated fat)
15mg cholesterol
400mg sodium
18g total carbohydrates
6 grams of proteing
If you eat the entire pizza, as I did, that adds up to 1,120 calories, 40g of fat, 144g of carbs, and 48g of protein. If I hadn’t worked out hard by doing sets of stairs, that would have been a bad dietary decision. As it was, my body burned that fuel almost immediately. The rest of my day was energetic and I went for another hike for the golden hour at sunset.
The experience of eating a whole pie to myself was good. It wasn’t filling and every bite was delicious. The crust was crispy, the tomato sauce delicious, and the cheese gave me that satisfaction I was desiring. Pizza My Heart knows what they are doing, and this pizza was a solid 9.3 out of 10.
Valentine’s Day is quickly approaching as evidenced by the candy displays in our stores. My daughter and I play a game where we guess each other’s favorites, and candy or sweet treats are always on the list. Since Christmas, Lindor Truffles have been her favorite. So, on a recent trip to Target we saw some new seasonal Lindt Lindor Truffles and we were inspired to make a cookie featuring them.
They were Strawberry and Cream truffles, so we started brainstorming possible cookies that could house such an audacious topping. We settled on oatmeal cookies with fresh strawberries. Our thinking was that the oatmeal cookie would be solid and hearty enough to balance out the sweetness of the truffle, and the fresh strawberries would add some nice tang. Boy were we right.
2 sticks of Clover Sweet Cream Salted butter
1 1/2 cups of C&H Dark Brown Sugar
1/2 cup of C&H Granulated Sugar
1 teaspoon of McCormick Pure Vanilla Extract
2 cups of Bob’s Red Mill Whole Wheat Flour
1 teaspoon of Arm & Hammer Baking Soda
1 teaspoon of Morton Iodized Salt
4 cups of Bob’s Red Mill Rolled Oats
2 cups of chopped fresh strawberries
1/2 Lindor Strawberries and Cream truffle per cookie
Brown the 2 sticks of butter and add to a large mixing bowl.
Add the sugars and mix until evenly incorporated.
Add the eggs and vanilla. We recommend cracking the eggs into a separate bowl to avoid eggshells in your dough. Mix eggs into dough until creamy.
Mix dry ingredients separately.
Add the flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon mixture to the dough and mix until incorporated.
Add 4 cups of rolled oats.
Add 2 cups of chopped fresh strawberries.
Preheat oven to 350.
Roll dough into cookie-sized balls and place on parchment lined baking sheet.
Bake for 8-10 minutes or until golden brown.
After the cookies cool for a bit, add one half Lindor truffle to center of cookies.
