More Pancakes and Wings

I just have to say thank you to everyone who’s been cheering me on with my Insanity challenge – either by comments on the blog, facebook, emails and Instagram.  You guys are one of the reasons that I keep pushing myself, and I appreciate it more than you’ll ever know.

I decided to try another version of Chobani pancakes.  This time with soy vnilla milk and flax seeds.  I have no idea how long flax seeds last, but I’ve had this container for about a year – it sometimes gets shoved in the back of my pantry and I forget about it.

I used mango flavored yogurt, but I really think you could use any flavor of Chobani, because the mango wasn’t too pronounced, but my boss declared these pancakes as her favorite so far.  #winning!

Chobani Flax Seed Almond Pancakes

• makes 8 – each serving is 2 pancakes
• 294 calories, 6.4 fat, 225 sodium, 44 carbs, 2.6 fiber and 14 protein

Ingredients:

• 1 cup flour
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 tablespoon flax seeds
• 1/2 cup soy vanilla milk
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup liquid egg whites
• 1 container of Chobani, whatever flavor you choose

I am all about using one bowl, so I mixed the dry ingredients together, then just dumped the wet ingredients on top and stirred, just until combined.  You know my secret to good pancakes is to leave the batter sit for 15 minutes to let the baking powder do its magic – nice, fluffy pancakes every time.

Just cook over medium/low heat for about 3-4 minutes per side.  I topped ours with 1/2 a banana, 1/2 a cup of blueberries and 1/4 cup of sugar free pancake syrup.  And I Pam fried up a couple pieces of deli ham on the side.

This isn’t quite in focus, but these I think are going to be my go to pancakes.

Guess what?  I didn’t work out at lunch yesterday!  My co-worker and I decided to go out to lunch so we hit up a small diner not far from our office called the Canteen. 

You guys know what they have here that is amazeballs??  A reuben sandwich. It’s fresh corned beef on grilled dark rye bread.  My mouth waters just thinking about it!  But I ended up getting a grilled chicken breast with avocado and pepper jack cheese – told them to hold the bread and I had a cup of avgolemono soup. It’s a Greek lemon soup that is so good, although the last time I had it, it was more broth based, but it was still tasty – I ate about 1/2 a cup.  I think I am going to try this recipe at home though.

It was nice and relaxing.  So much so I told my other co-worker that we need to go out to eat next week too.

I remembered to defrost the chicken wings that I forgot to the night before.  I don’t subscribe to it anymore because I can basically find every recipe online, but Food Network magazine had a pull out for 50 things to do with chicken wings.

I love chicken wings because they are usually inexpensive.  I got a package of 12 drumettes (sp?) for $4.29.  Tony prefers mostly butter and a splash of Frank’s hot wing sauce.  A little hot wing sauce goes a long way for him.  And while you guys know I love all things buffalo, a recipe for Vietnamese cilantro lime wings stopped me in my tracks.

I scaled this recipe down for one, I reduced the amount of butter dramatically – the original recipe called for 6 tablespoons of butter for 2 servings!

This has so much flavor going on, the smell of the garlic/cilantro after I chopped this mixture up in the mini chopper was heaven.

Vietnamese Chicken Wings (adapted from Food Network)

• 1 serving, including 2 tablespoons reduced fat ranch for dipping, and carrots and celery sticks
• 538 calories, 34 fat, 28 carbs, 2.2 fiber and 28 protein

Ingredients:

• 6 chicken drummets – 3 skinny and 3 fat (hope you know what I am talking about!)
• 1/4 cup of cilantro
• 2 cloves garlic
• 2 tablespoons lime juice (juice of one lime for me)
• 1 tablespoon fish sauce
• 1/3 of a jalapeno
• 1 tablespoon melted butter
• 1/8 cup of flour
• salt and pepper

Mix the salt and pepper with the flour in a ziploc bag.  I used our deep fryer and set the temp to 350.  Toss the wings in the flour mixture and let it sit in the bag while the fryer gets to temp.

In a mini chopper, add the cilantro, garlic, lime jice, fish sauce, jalapeno and butter and pulse until chopped.  Place that mixture in a large bowl.  Fry the wings – this took about 9 minutes.  Drain the wings over the fryer, then immediately put them in the cilantro garlic mixture, tossing to coat.

These were incredible.  There was a slight crunch to the skin because of the flour, the lime/fish sauce/cilantro combo was amazing, and just enough kick from the jalapeno.  When I showed my plate to Tony I think he threw up in his mouth a little bit!

So last night was Day 11 of Insanity.  My friend Lara asked me on Instagram “how many days are there??!!”  Well, the answer to that is 60!  Six days on, one rest day and begin again.

I am proud to say that I did much better last night than a week ago.  I was able to do the jump squats, while not faster every round, I did them the whole time.  Just one word of caution.  I wouldn’t suggest eating those garlicy wings above and then doing Insanity an hour later.   Let’s just say I was burping and farting the whole time I was working out.  Luckily I work out in the back family room so I only offended myself.

Stats for the Day:

• 40 minutes Day 11 Insanity – cardio performance (tonight is cardio abs for the first time!)
• 1704 calories (includes my night time almonds)
• 93 fat, 132 carbs, 20 fiber and 95 protein
• 32% of calories from carbs, 49% from fat and 19% from protein

Happy Friday!  Two of my bosses are off today, but so is one of the secretaries, so I’ll still have a busy day.  It’s only 53 degrees this morning, but if it warms up I may swim outside if the pool is warmer – we’ll see!

Any Father’s Day plans out there?  Even though we have no kids at home, I am making Tony biscuits and gravy for breakfast on Sunday. 

Make it a great day!