Banana Pecan Whole Wheat Pancakes

Shocking, I know, but I did not have any type of breakfast taco yesterday.  While going through Pennies & Pancakes site last week, I printed out her recipe for her favorite whole wheat pancakes.  I typically am not a huge fan of whole wheat pancakes, because they taste too dense to me.  But when I was cleaning out my pantry – oh my gosh!  I forgot to show you the before and after of my pantry!

Here’s the deal.  I have a daughter who is a neat freak – long time readers know this.  In fact, I recognized her love of cleaning at an early age.  When she was about 7 I had a woman meet Hannah at the school bus and bring her home and stay with her until I got home.  It was so nice not having to go pick her up at a day care center.  I would ask her to call me when she got home, and I’d say something like “well, all I have to do is mop the kitchen floor and clean the bathroom and then we’ll have fun time!”  Well, I knew full well that by the time I got home she would have mopped the kitchen floor and cleaned the bathroom!  The babysitter would tell me “I’ve never known a child who likes to clean so much!”

Well, Hannah has been gone for over a year and a half.  I am not sure I fully appreciated her cleaning skills as much as when she wasn’t here anymore.  I tend to never put anything back in the same place twice.  I figure I’ll remember where I put something, but that rarely happens.  It drives Tony nuts!  So I finally looked at my pantry and realized I needed to get my act in gear.

Tony actually built this pantry for me because our storage space was limited.  Well, you’ll be happy to know that it now looks like this!

I even have labels on things!!  And it’s been over a week and it still looks good.  So back to the pancakes, I found in the way back when I was cleaning it out a bag of whole wheat pastry flour I bought in bulk from Whole Foods.  Probably because it was .99 a pound and I’d figure out how to use it.  Um, it might have been bought back in early December!  So I ended up using 1 cup of whole wheat pastry flour and 1 cup of white flour, and I loved the texture of these pancakes.

Banana Pecan Whole Wheat Pancakes

makes 10 pancakes – each one:  183 calories, 5.9 fat, 28 carbs, 3.0 fiber and 4.6 protein

Ingredients:

• 1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
• 1 cup white flour
• 2 tablespoons of baking powder
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups unsweetened almond milk (she used regular milk)
• 2 teaspoons of vanilla
• I left out:  2 tablespoons of canola oil and the 2 tablespoons of vinegar – um, not sure what the vinegar would have added but it made me nervous so I left it out
• 2 bananas, sliced
• 3 ounces of chopped toasted pecans

Mix everything together (except the banana and pecans) in a large bowl, just whisking until combined and not too lumpy.  Let the batter sit 15 minutes to let the baking powder do its magic.  Once you pour the batter in the pan, top each pancake with some sliced banana and pecans and once you see the bubbles on the top of the pancake, flip.  I love having the bananas like this because on the flip they start to brown and caramelize.

I had 2 ounces of deli roast beef on the side for more protein.  I loved these pancakes, but I have to tell you – without my protein packed breakfast, I was starting to get hungry around 11:30!

My Mom met me at my office at 12:30 and we headed out for lunch.  The Assembly is known for its amazing burgers.  But my Mom said the best burger she’s ever had is in Richmond, Virginia at a place called Burger Bach.  They use New Zealand beef in their burgers.  So the bar was set a little high.  Stephanie, have you been there before??

I ended up getting the bacon and mozzarella char burger with sweet potato fries.  I cut the burger in half, ate half, and then took another bite of the second half and couldn’t eat another bite.  The sweet potato fries sucked ass though. They were not very crispy, but in retrospect, that was probably a good thing – if they were stellar I would have eaten them all!

My Mom got the bionic burger – with . . . .GRILLED ONIONS!  They were everywhere!

She really liked the burger, but the burger at Burger Bach is still #1.  The we were off to Goodwill.  Tony always jokes that people pee in these clothes, die in them and then their families donate them to Goodwill.  He always tells me not to buy any more khaki pants (I haven’t in years!) but I still like to give him shit and sent him this photo:

Mom and I goofed around in between looking for good finds:

And then she found this.  Charlie and Jennifer, pretty sure she’ll hang this up in her bathroom so everyone can see it when they visit.  You’ll just have to get over the fact that I am Mom’s favorite.

I found a dress that I bought.  It’s a size 10 and doesn’t fit me – but this is going to be my inspiration to get my ass to the gym (that apparently didn’t happen much this week!).  It’s an Ann Taylor dress, it was $6.99 cents.  One of the things on my bucket list for 2014?  Wear a dress out in public!

The Dominick’s store by her is going to become a Mariano’s next year.  So we made a pit stop there so she could check it out.  Um, no trip would be complete without the $1 snack size of gelato!  I got the hazelnut and it was amazeballs.  Um, maybe I’ll have to leave the gelato off the menu on my next trip if I want to fit into that dress.

Before I knew it, it was time to head to the restaurant.  It was great seeing you Mom – have fun in Key West with Aunt Martha!

The weather, of course, was shitty again.  Blowing snow, cold, but we had a decent crowd.   The only bad thing was I was sat a table at 9:30 and they were the last to leave, so I didn’t get home until 12:30.  Not too bad I guess!  I made $165 dollars, and after tipping out, walked with $145.  Better than a poke in the eye.

I ended up having a slice of pizza and a cup of creamy tortilla soup for my “dinner.”   I put this picture on Facebook and Instagram – this is the Forknado Potato – a spiralized potato that’s flash fried and served with a choice of seasonings or sauces – this one is the Vesuvio sauce.

The Website is up too!  Zeal for Food.  We are having our grand opening the weekend of February 21 – and I think the Chef said we are close to a sell out for reservations that weekend.  And tonight I think we have 200 covers on the books.  I much prefer being busy!

Stats for the Day:

• 1631 calories, 61 fat, 163 carbs, 77 protein and 15 fiber
• 43% from carbs, 36% from fat and 20% protein
• no exercise

A couple things I am going to switch up in my schedule next week. 

• Prepare the night before.  Last week I only downloaded my pics for the blog.  Next week, I will need to take the extra 20-30 minutes to write the blog for the next day and pack my food so I can get to the gym in the morning.
• Get to the gym a minimum of 4 times next week – Monday through Thursday.   I have to get my hour of cardio/strength in before work, otherwise blood sugar issues, work, etc. gets in the way
• Ditch the wine during the week.

So that’s the plan.  I doubt I lost any weight this week, but hopefully I maintained – WI on Monday. 

Alright, time to get my grocery list together and then Tony and I are going to get some Chinese food for lunch.  Have a wonderful weekend and stay warm!