Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Pancakes in a Toaster ... (a.k.a Pancake Toast ) ... delish!

So I modified my pancake recipe a tad, and added a banana and a few walnuts and they were SO good! We used a banana-walnut pancake as a base for sliced strawberries and honey as dessert last night, and it was yummy! My guy needed extra sweet - so he drizzled a little 100% maple syrup over his, but I was fine with it as it was.

Interesting thing about adding that banana - it made the batter like REGULAR pancake batter! Weird, huh? And it added moisture, so we had to lower the temp and cook them a little longer to get them cooked in the middle as the banana makes the outside golden a LOT faster. But very yummy!

A batch on my pancakes makes anywhere from 6-12 pancakes (depending on size you want) - so since I only used one for dessert,I had a few left over. Soooo I threw the into a bag and took them to work for breakfast.

They aren't bad cold, in fact they are pretty good cold! But I wanted a little warmth - so threw them into a traditional toaster (where the slots are in the top and they pop up when done) and it worked REALLY well as "pancake toast"!!

Very yummy, and though a schooch dry - nothing a few chugs of water couldn't address!

But nice to know that they keep well and can easily be made in advance for breakfast on the run! Yay me! :)

Friday, May 20, 2011

Lost another 6.4 pounds!

w00t!

The scale tells me that today I lost another 6.4 pounds! Making for a total of 41 pounds lost and that have REMAINED off!

Granted I could have a faster loss rate if I stuck to an uber strict paleo diet ... but the reality is - maintaining is a skill that is needed as much - if not more - than the skill to lose. I have NEVER maintained a weight - it has ALWAYS crept up ... so though I'm not as thin as I'd hoped to be I'm certainly not as fat as I was or would be had I not changed what I eat.

I'm just soooo happy to see that my weight is as steadily creeping DOWN as it had always been stealthily creeping up for the past 25 years.

Granted - I am big enough that 40 pounds isn't enough to have a real visual effect. I was 460 pounds when I started (I'm rounding up - true weight was 459.6 lol) and today I am 419 even!

My clothes ARE looser though, and I myself noticed small tell-tale signs of slimming ... but no one besides me would ever see it. LOL. I'm just thrilled that I've lost 40 pounds!

And it feels so good to know it will never come back and that I finally figured out WHY I kept gaining and why I hurt so badly all the time and why my energy was non-existent and I was always so fatigued.

I will be SOOO excited when I get below 400! Seems a thousand times more like a potential possibility now than it ever did before. hee hee! :)

Saturday, May 7, 2011

Alyssa's Perfect Paleo Pancakes

Well I have finally succeeded!

Pancakes on the weekend with my sweetie - was long one of my MOST LOVED moments in life ... when we'd laugh and just enjoy hanging out with each other and and eat the yummiest breakfast together and relish being UNbusy.

Losing pancakes on the weekend when we started eating a more paleo diet (we aren't strict about it, or 100% paleo 100% of the time, but we do have golden rules that we really just do not cross 99% of the time) was one of the sucky things we had to give up and leave behind and was just plain SAD all around.

I have tried all the other pancake recipes out there by now I think - and none of them matched what *I* wanted in a pancake.

The closest we got was a recipe using coconut flour. But - being that I am a super-smeller and super-taster and a texture freak ... there is an inherent issue with using coconut flour for me.

That being - I can taste the underlying coconut taste in everything I use it in. Which isn't ALWAYS bad ... but ... it IS bad when you don't WANT that taste at all! The second issue (which in all honesty, really ought to be the first issue because it vastly outstrips the taste issue when it comes to why I didn't find the result fully satisfying my inner need for pancakes of old) is that whenever you use coconut flour, there is an inescapable graininess or grittiness that comes with that product. You can't get away from it - it's just a part and parcel of what ground up coconut will wind up being, it's just the nature of that particular beast.

And sadly (oh very sadly indeed as when I discovered this flour I was sure - SURE! - that my answers had been answered lol) that grainy, gritty effect is underneath whatever it is used to make. (The good news is that it works really well for some things - like breading shrimp to be deep-fried! TOTALLY rules for that!) And in a bread or baked good, or ... in this case ... pancakes, for me it is the kiss of death.

Because I just can't get past it. Once I notice it, I cannot UNnotice it and it will take over the food until I can't enjoy it on any level - that's all I will taste.

So coconut flour pancakes - though seemed okay on many levels - just was not okay on the flavour and texture levels. Which if you know me at all you know my texture snobiness will rule the day hands down. LOL.

So the search was on, yet again, for the ever elusive ideal paleo pancake recipe.

In the end - I had to create it myself. And I daresay ... it's jolly FREAKING good!

It passes all of MY personal tests and I flipping adore them! They are insanely simple to make, utterly paleo, and look and taste and have the right texture - of the real thing!

It all boiled down (as one might suspect) to what ingredients you use. These are flax pancakes. I know, I know, most flax pancakes are ... well ... utter crap in my book. LOL! Turns out though, it matters what flax you are using (duh Mrs. Smarty) and the only flax that I had used up to this point, was the commonly found Bob's Red Mill ground flax.

Bob's Red Mill ground flax SUCKS for making any kind of bread. It seriously does. It's texture is ALL wrong. It's too slippery as they apparently grind it and leave the hulls on or maybe don't grind it enough - I'm not really sure. But the KEY to this - is using the right kind of ground flax - I cannot stress that enough!


I use this flax - it is WAY better than Bob's red Mill flax! It's from Flax USA (they make all sorts of really great products BTW!) and it is the Organic Golden Flax cold milled golden flax seed. I discovered it while roaming the Costco isles one day and saw how fine it was ground through the little window and how VASTLY different as a product it was from Bobs Red Mill flax ... and then saw they recommended it for SMOOTHIES - so I *knew* it had to be very finely ground.

There was even a pancake recipe on the back - but it wasn't paleo and called for flour ... but I just had to try it for baking. and thought it might be IDEAL for pancakes and that it couldn't hurt to try. BTW it was I think like $10 bucks for the bag at Costco.


As you can see from the image on the right ... this flax is VERY different, MUCH finer, much more like an actual flour.

Here is the link to it's product page on the Flax USA website if you are interested in learning more about this product - I absolutely have fallen heads over heels in love with it myself! :)


http://flaxusa.com/products.php?page=organic


It lasts for like 22 months on the shelf I believe, which is a nice shelf life and it even comes with a little plastic scoop, which I thought was a nice unexpected extra. I love little details like that! :)

So without further ado ... the recipe itself:

Alyssa's Perfect Paleo Pancakes Recipe



1 cup ground flax seeds
2 teaspoons baking powder
4 eggs
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
dash of salt
(optional)
Cinnamon to taste
(optional)
Blueberries, fruit, etc.
(optional)

they ROCK with fruit or nuts in them!

Mix ingredients together - the batter will VERY VERY firm. That's okay! Make sure flax is mixed in thoroughly.



Then drop/drip/splat (it will never pour in a billion years LOL) the batter onto a hot nonstick griddle. Kinda of swirl the batter out into a pancake medallion shape ... it will not really flatten on it's own. It will puff up and rise though, and it will turn golden like pancakes do.



Tip: when adding in fruit - do NOT add them into the batter!  Especially berries!

Instead, put the batter on the griddle, and then put the berries into the actual pancakes while they are on the griddle to best preserve the berries - or they will just turn into mush when you mix the batter.

Once one side is golden, flip it and press the pancake down to help flatten it and spread it a little wider out - don't worry it will puff up some more! They will cook a little faster than regular panckes (I consider that to be a bonus! ;) LOL!)

One both sides are golden, take off and serve while warm. They cool quickly! So eat em fast or throw them in the nuke'r and nuke them for a few seconds to warm them up!




We use 100% maple syrup with nothing else added - and it's delicious! The result is a very nutty tasting and dense pancake but with a surprising pancake-like texture and fluffier than you'd expect! Very appealing and satisfying!

Below is the final result - right before gobble them into oblivion. heehee!




You could easily use this as a fruit dessert base - like for strawberry shortcake or something like that - maybe add in a dollop of honey or a few chopped up dates for extra sweetening power if using it for a dessert.

If you try this recipe please let me know how you like it! I'm betting that you will fall as deeply in love with these pancakes as me and my fella have!

Saturday, March 12, 2011

Baking Love

I have had a life-long love affair with bread and anything with dough.

I'm on a mission to find ways to bring back some of our beloved breads and things traditionally made with wheat or grains and finding ways to have that food experience - but with paleo ingredients. Or - in some cases - mostly paleo ingredients.

I look at it this way - even if I add in some honey .... or gods forbid, actual sugar! ... it's still better than the way I HAD been eating, and a LITTLE - every once in a great while ... will not hurt or kill me.

So sometimes, my recipes might have a wee bit of sugar - but I try very hard to find alternatives. Like dates, or applesauce (and I'm thinking of using actual fresh stevia leaves), or honey .... things that aren't refined and can be found in the real unprocessed world.

People are always suggesting artificial sweeteners to me. well, I *will* at least TRY them - but the reality is ... I have a super tongue and a super nose and I *can* in fact taste and smell them for the most part - in whatever they are used in. I'm one of those people that ... once I can taste it ... I can't entirely LOSE it.

This means living with me is a PITA. LOL! :P

EVERYTHING simply HAS to be covered and sealed - period. I can taste freezer and refrigerator taste no matter how slight it is. Yes, this means when we used tons of butter - each stick had to be sealed into a Ziploc bag, because folks, fridge taste DOES get into even boxed and wrapped butter! No kidding. And I'm SO sensitive, that I can taste it even if it is used to cook with. In fact - it will ruin a dish for me completely. My honey has tried to sneak such things in on me only to find that he'd have to eat it ALL - because *I* can taste fridge taste throughout every bite and it overpowers everything for me.

I've left restaurants because of this issue - luckily that has only happened to me twice. But it's sad because it means they aren't really wrapping their food up right if the taste is sneaking into everything in the walk-in. And yes, it gets on veggies too - even ones that aren't cut! - if it is REALLY bad. I will never eat at a certain Hometown Buffet ever again because literally - every single thing I tried - even  basic LETTUCE had this horrid taste running through it. I even asked for a refund, because I couldn't eat anything and he asked why and I had to tell him. Obviously he didn't believe me, but what else could I do but just go eat somewhere else? lol.

Anyways - all I'm trying to say is that ... my tongue is picky. LOL. And it hates artificial sweetener aftertaste and that smell most of them seem to have. Ad I just do not TRUST fake sweeteners! I do not think that they are GOOD for you - and flat out - if compared to plain sugar as in how bad I think they are for the body ... I think sugar is way safer and better hands down. The thing is, if you eat a paleo lifestyle, or mostly paleo - you don't NEED sweet stuff very often or even really want it that much. And when you do - mellowly sweet is often "just right".

So yeah. Not into agave or splenda, truvia, any of that stuff.

I do have some exceptions - like my Raspberry Ice Crystal Light - that stuff ROCKS!! I cannot taste the sweetener at ALL! NO aftertaste - not one little bit! And it's not grainy at all and the color - OMG, it's just an awesome drink and it's the ONLY one I like. LOL. All I usually drink is water and juice once in a while, and then every so often my cherished Raspberry Ice.

But yeah. So anyways besides being a super-smeller and super-taster, I'm a texture freak.Breads and baked goods are more than taste and smell, their texture is something that is 100% what makes it what it is. Pizzas should be able to be firm enough to hold toppings, but bend, and be able to be doughy or crisp. Muffins MUST crumble! Muffins simply HAVE to have crumbs! There is no two ways about it! Same for cakes - there should be a crumble effect! Different breads and baked goods have different textures and without those elements - one will NEVER truly be satisfied with a substitute.

So my mission is to create or modify recipes until *I* am satisfied with it .... it must pass my need for proper taste, texture, and smell AND accomplish the same things that it's grain based cousins do!

I know it's possible! LOL!

Monday, August 23, 2010

WoooHOOOO!!!

So I weighed myself after a month and I lost NINE pounds!!!!!

I am soooooooooo JAZZED!

That makes a total of 32 pounds so far and that's with falling off the wagon and not exercising really at *all*!

WOW. I can't believe I've lost 32 pounds!

EATING PALEO ROCKS!!!

Monday, August 16, 2010

Mmmm dinner!

OKay so we are eating this a LOT  ... steak and veggies!

 And neither of us seem to have ANY sign of getting sick of it LOL!

Tonight I scored a BIG OL' steak that I got for ... wait for it ... 36 CENTS! Man, I LOVE it when they put the wrong price on things! (and yes, this was most definitely a boo-boo on pricing, it was fresh and a gorgeous slab of beef).

The LAST time I scored something like that - was I got one of those little honey glazed hams for 27 cents - also a pricing mistake, and I to this day - check ALL the stupid prices on any meat I'm thinking to buy, just to see if I might score another deal.

Sooo I was rewarded YET again!

So word to the wise - oh ye readers out there ... check EVERY piece of meat that they have put out for selection - and along with checking the weight, the date, and the color and freshness of the meat  while looking for the best one you can afford - check the price as well. You never know what you might find! :)

Sunday, August 15, 2010

Amazing Difference!

So Saturday, we walked in the full hot sun and me in black (of course, like a dolt), for hours up in Columbia State Park.

I actually stood and walked for over an HOUR. Okay I know, this is such not a big deal to regular folk, but for ME ... this is an astonishing improvement! ESPECIALLY since I haven't been strictly eating paleo.

Then again, I really never *fully* fell off the wagon, but I've added in non paleo foods here and there about every other day or so and sometimes for a few days in a row here and there.

Nonetheless, the mere fact that I could stand and walk without additional siupport is a wonder. Now, I *am* sore still a little, but I attribute that to the wheat products. I'm 100% sure that had we NOT eaten ANY wheat products that evening we'd have been fully perfectly NOT sore.

But I seem to desire to have this message repeated to me through pain since I keep trying to add in wheat stuff here and there like a dork.

But still, I am SOOOOOOOOOO proud of my fat ass. LOL! and hey - that got in a huge chunk of exercise, I cannot wait to weigh myself this week rofl.