Can anyone find canned pumpkin this time of year??  I wanted to make pumpkin pancakes for breakfast, but I couldn’t find it anywhere – maybe its a seasonal thing??  So I went seasonal and made blueberry pancakes!  I didn’t have any whole wheat flour, so I subbed in one cup of this flour:

I bought this flour when I made Clean Eating’s Mac N Cheese (which is a reminder that I need to make that again – so good!)

Blueberry Pancakes Recipe (printer friendly version here)

Makes 6 servings (2 pancakes each: 218 calories, 2.6 fat, 41.6 carbs, 2.1 fiber and 7.5 protein)

Be sure to let the batter sit 15 minutes to let the baking powder do its thing – you’ll be rewarded with fluffy pancakes every time!

Ingredients

1 cup flour
1 cup garbanzo bean flour (or whole wheat)
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon salt
12 ounces milk
6 ounce blueberries
1 large egg
1/4 cup water

Directions

  1. Mix dry ingredients in one bowl. Mix wet ingredients in another. Combine and stir just until combined. Add blueberries and stir to combine.
  2. Cook in a non-stick skillet using 1/3 cup measure for each pancake.
  3. Makes 6 servings: 2 pancakes each.
see how good the batter looks after 15 minutes?

I decided to add some protein and schmeared 1 tablespoon of this peanut butter between my two pancakes.

I loved the combination of the sweet blueberries with the spicy peanut butter!

Breakfast comes in at 348 calories, 56 carbs, 11.5 protein, 10.7 fat and 4.1 fiber.

Since I had a half day of work – the first thing I did was go to the bank to get Hannah $100 worth of Euros.  She’ll be able to use her debit card in Germany, but I wanted her to have some cash too – it doesn’t even look like real money!

By the time I got home it was 1:30 so I heated up some taco meat and made two tostadas.

466 calories, 42 carbs, 23 protein, 14 fat and 1 fiber

Then Hannah was all packed!  Who am I kidding, she was fully packed at 9:00 a.m. yesterday morning!  She used a cute suitcase tag my Mom gave her for graduation.

I walked her in and waited until the group started to get together.  She’s a big girl, I didn’t need to wait to watch her go through customs, so after fifteen minutes we said our goodbyes – not without one more picture from me!  I call this one “Mom, seriously – a picture with my luggage??!!

Tony drove us to the airport and circled around – traffic around O’Hare sucks ass – the traffic on 90 was insane – luckily Tony knows the back roads otherwise we would have been screwed!  Once home I got a text from her at 7:30 saying she was on the plane, and when I went to track the flight, it actually left at 8:15, getting into Frankfurt at 11:15 a.m. in the morning, or around 4:00 a.m. our time – she’s going to be tired!

Then it was time . . .for dinner.  I won’t lie it felt like we were senior citizens getting to a restaurant at 5:15 – like we were going for the early bird special!

The outside of the restaurant is so plain - you'd never know what delicious food was inside!

But good restaurants don’t need fancy decor when word of mouth is what keeps a restaurant around!

Tony took his father to this restaurant when he was in town a few weeks ago – after they read my blog yesterday, my MIL said “Carl wants you to take a picture of the ceiling!”  Each “tile” of the ceiling is painted a different scenery!

The restaurant was really dark, so this picture of the antipasto appetizer was taken once I got home and had some natural light – have you ever had pickled cauliflower?  It was so good!

Each entree comes with soup or salad – I asked what the soups were and almost startled the server when I was so excited they had tomato basil soup!  I am definitely going to recreate this soup with our fresh basil!

I ate half of this, but I seriously could have licked the bowl!

I loved reading all your suggestions yesterday on what you would order.  One dish stopped me in my tracks, and I didn’t even see it when I looked at the menu!  Spinach stuffed handmade gnocchi with a creamy vodka tomato sauce.

Holy shit this was amazing!!!!!

19 delicious pillows of goodness!

This picture does this dish absolutely no justice.  I have never had gnocchi so tender and fluffy.  I couldn’t stop eating!!

So I didn’t stop eating!

To tell you I was full after this dinner would be an understatement.  I seriously don’t remember the last time I felt that full . . . but you know what?  Totally worth it!  I had two small glasses of wine with dinner and estimate it to be: 1,030 calories, 145 carbs, 23 protein, 16.5 fat and 8.5 fiber.  Thanks for a great night out Tony!

And if you live in the Chicago area, or have a lay over at O’Hare, you will not be disappointed with this food!   Here is Basilico’s website.

The old me would say “fuck it” and continue to eat like a pig for three weeks!  Not this time.  It was one dinner, it was delicious, and today is a new day! 😀

Stats for Day 10 of 101

  • 1,844 calories, 242 carbs, 57 protein, 41 fat and 12.6 fiber
  • 24% of calories from fat, 12% from protein, 51.5% from carbs
  • my blood sugar this morning:  112! 😀
  • 20 minute AM yoga

So I am getting out of dodge too!  My dear great Aunt and Godmother is turning 80 years old!  I am off to Hilton Head, SC for a long weekend.  I’ll have Hannah’s laptop, but I’ll be leaving the house super early tomorrow morning, so my posts over the weekend will be sporadic depending on internet availability.

That doesn’t mean you can’t tell me how the second week went for all the 101 Days of Summer Challengers!  Email me at bdl319@gmail.com.