Banana Granola Pancakes & Three Bean Chili

Thanks for all your comments yesterday after I “came clean” about my over eating over the weekend.  It’s nice to know that I am not alone, but it also helped me be more conscious of my eating yesterday.

Helen pointed out that just because I didn’t get on the scale, doesn’t mean that I didn’t overeat.  So on my “do over” post on February 11 I weighed in at:

Today’s weight:

I swear to you I would have thought I’d gained three pounds in that amount of time, so imagine my surprise that I actually lost .8!  It’s just stupid mind games with the number I thought was going to be on the scale, but I guess I have to say that my exercise made my overeating a wash – I just can’t keep letting the food wash away my hard work at the gym. 

I made another batch of Perfect Pancakes from Chobani, except this time I made banana granola pancakes using the new banana Chobani flavor – so good!

Banana Granola Pancakes

• makes 12 pancakes – each cake: 95 calories, 1.2 fat, 17.4 carbs, 212 mg sodium, .9 fiber and 3.6 protein

Ingredients:

• 1 6 oz. container of banana Chobani
• 1½ c all-purpose flour
• 1½ t baking powder
• ¼ t baking soda
• ½ t salt
• 1 large egg, lightly beaten
• ¾ cup unsweetened almond milk
• 1 medium banana, sliced thin
• 1/4 cup granola

Step 1

In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In a small bowl, whisk together egg, Chobani and milk.

Step 2

Add yogurt mixture to flour mixture and use a wooden spoon to combine lightly.

Step 3

Heat a nonstick skilled over medium heat. Lightly coat with cooking spray and pour about ¼ c of batter onto pan for each pancake.  Sprinkle 1 teaspoon of granola over the pancake, then press in 3-4 slices of banana.  Cook until edges set and bubbles appear on surface, about 2 minutes. Flip to brown other side.

The best part is since the bananas are on the surface and not actually “in” the batter, they caramelize – these were a BIG winner with my boss.

These were so filling too – I couldn’t even eat the third pancake.  I ate these around 9:00 a.m., and I didn’t end up eating lunch until almost 2!

I ended up swimming yesterday for 30 minutes.  There was a cute 4 year old girl in the lane next to me.  She was actually a pretty good swimmer, and when I told her that she said “you swim pretty good too!”  So cute.

I was going through my freezer and realized I had about a pound of ground pork I needed to use up.  I decided to make a chili, using up some canned beans I had in the pantry.

Three Bean Chili

• makes 8 servings, 1.25 cups each – 278 calories, 12 fat, 580 mg. sodium, 24 carbs, 6.7 fiber and 17 protein

Ingredients:

• 1 pound ground pork
• 3 cloves garlic
• 3 tablespoons chipotle sauce
• 1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and shredded
• 1 15 oz. can kidney beans
• 1 15 oz. can black beans
• 1 15 oz. can small white beans
• 32 ounce can of crushed tomato
• 1 10 oz. can of tomatoes with green chiles
• 1 tablespoon Mexican oregano
• 2 tablespoons chili powder
• 1 teaspoon chipotle powder
• 1 cup of salsa verde

In a large stock pot, brown the pork and drain off any fat.  Drain all the beans.  Add everything to the pot and simmer for 30 minutes.

I meant to buy Chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, but got this instead – I really like the spicy kick this adds to the chili.

I ended up making me and my boss an “accessory” plate to go with the chili – cilantro, a little bit of cheese, tortilla chips, slice jalapenos and sliced limes. I of course added a bit of buffalo Tabasco to mine.

This was really good – I liked the extra vinegary kick of the green salsa to this too.

Dinner was one of my guilty pleasures – cube steak.  I’ve always loved it and it’s a super economical cut of meat.  I just salt and pepper it, dust it with a little flour and pan fry it in a little butter and olive oil.  On the side I made spinach twice baked potatoes.  Well, mine had spinach in it!

I topped it with another cheese Tony got me for Valentine’s day:

I ate about 3/4 of this plate before being completely stuffed.  It’s sad but Tony and I are still not used to not putting our plates on the ground to give Eddie our leftovers.

And guess what?  I took Andrea’s advice and told myself after I cleaned the kitchen:

The Kitchen is Closed!

And it worked – I didn’t eat anything else after dinner.  Koo-dohz!

Off to make some more banana granola pancakes for breakfast and heat up my car.  Right now its 7 degrees, but with the windchill, its –8.  I am definitely wearing a coat again today!

Make it a great day!