I actually forgot that it was Fat Tuesday.  When I lived in Oak Park, every year I would stop by a bakery and pick up paczki’s for the office.  You literally had to order them in advance that’s how good they were – if you just walked in and tried to get some, you were out of luck.

In 2009, I even tried to make my own!  I am sure I wrote about this before, but many years ago we had local counsel ship us a King Cake at one of the law firms I was working at.  I had no idea what it was, but being over 200 pounds, turns out I liked cake!  I took a piece and went to my desk and started eating it.

About the third bite in, I bit down on something and I spit out a tiny plastic baby.  My first thought?  The baker had her kids in the bakery the day that cake was made, and the kid decided to throw it into the batter and the Mom didn’t notice!  It wasn’t until someone said “who got the baby?!”  that I realized it was supposed to bring good luck to the person who got it.

Yesterday, one of the attorneys brought in a king cake.  It smelled amazing, but koo-dohz to me, I didn’t have even a crumb of it!  For litigation reasons, the baby is no longer buried in the cake, it just sits on top.

I made the best fricken pancakes yesterday if I do say so myself.  My breakfast boss LOVES all things sweet, so I decided to make Chobani’s Perfect Pancakes.  I subbed in a 6 ounce container of the blueberry Chobani vs. the vanilla, which made them extra blueberry. 

Perfect Pancakes

• makes 4 servings, 3 pancakes each
• 240 calories, 3 fat, 41 carbs, 1 fiber, 11 protein and 630 mg sodium

Ingredients:

• ½ c Chobani Vanilla Greek Yogurt (I used blueberry)
• 1½ c all-purpose flour
• 1½ t baking powder
• ¼ t baking soda
• ½ t salt
• 1 large egg, lightly beaten
• ¾ c whole milk  (I used 3/4 cup unsweetened almond milk
• 3/4 cup fresh blueberries

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. Cook until edges set and bubbles appear on surface, about 2 minutes. Flip to brown other side.

The other thing I do is I let my batter sit for at least 15 minutes to let the baking powder do it’s magic – you’ll get fluffier pancakes.  I had 1/4 cup of sugar free pancake syrup over the top, with two slices of ham off the bone.

I also don’t put my blueberries in until I put the batter in the pan, that way your batter doesn’t get all blue.

Light, fluffy, not overly sweet.  You’ll notice there isn’t even any sugar in the batter!  My boss LOVED these, and I think these will be in regular rotation.

Knowing my breakfast was going to be pretty high in carbs, I took half the amount of insulin so that my numbers would be in the low 200s before working out.  Imagine my surprise when I checked it at noon, and I was a perfect 123!  Fudge.  So I ate a 120 calorie bag of individual pretzels.  Checked 20 minutes later, I was only up to 149.  I then drank a 10 ounce orange juice and that did the trick – 20 minutes after that I was at 219.   Damn diabetes though.

I ended up swimming for 30 minutes.  It really helped my sore muscles from that 100 workout I did on Monday.  There was a senior citizen in the lane next to me.  I can’t say she was actually swimming, more like floating.  Until she got to the shallower end and she would do a handstand each time!  Maybe reliving her youth?  Seemed a bit odd to me.

By the time I got back to the office it was nearly 2:00.  I ended up having 1.25 cups of leftover shrimp fried rice, and since I had to eat the pretzels and orange juice before my workout, ditched the egg roll.  My other boss loved the egg rolls – she had two!

I ended up making meatloaf for dinner – it’s one of Tony’s favorites, and a leftover he’ll actually eat as a sandwich.  I didn’t put enough ketchup on for his taste, but I followed this recipe – except I used Italian bread crumbs instead of the crackers, and I mixed 2 parts ketchup with 1 part balsamic vinegar for the top.  And my store sells a meatloaf “mix” which is one part ground pork, one part ground veal and one part ground beef.

Guess what?  I loved it – I ate everything on my plate.  Raise your hands if you look cooked carrots!  Tony’s not a fan, he can only eat them raw, but I love them tossed in just a tiny bit of butter and salt and pepper.

Of course, after that picture was taken above, I did the Biz thing and doused it with Buffalo Tabasco. Ah, much better!

Tony brought the mail in earlier and as I was putting dinner together, he said “did you see this came in the mail?”  It was a card from our vet.  We opened it and saw this.

On the inside it said:

…Grieve not, nor speak of me with tears, but laugh and talk of me as if I were beside you . . . I loved you so – ‘twas Heaven here with you.”

We cried right there a bit.  And then our vet hand wrote:

I wish to express my sincere sympathy over the loss of your pet, Ed.

I am not sure we’ll ever be ready for another dog, but we definitely would use this vet again.

But let’s end this post on a high note, shall we?  I HAVE TODAY OFF FROM WORK!

Hannah has been working so much, 35 hours a week, PLUS going to school full time.  I haven’t seen here in nearly a month!  I told her to let me know the next day she has off and we’d get together.  As luck would have it, my Mom will be in Forest Park bowling, my sister works in Oak Park so we are meeting at my sisters office, going to lunch at Flat Top Grill, and then going thrift shopping and who knows what else. 

I can’t wait!  And its already 43 degrees and sunny – I know lots of walking will happen, as that most likely will be my exercise for the day.

Make it a great day!