Pancakes & Pasta

I randomly came across the above image today and thought I’d share. There’s so much truth to that statement. After all, being healthy and physically, mentally, and spiritually balanced is at the core of finding happiness in your life, right?

As my title suggests, I have 2 recipes to share with you today. I’ll get down to breakfast first.

Yum, I’m a huge pancake lover. As with everything I make, I try to create pancake recipes that are both healthy and delicious. This one hits the spot and makes the perfect portion size for breakfast (ok, I might have eaten it for lunch yesterday!).

Banana Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Pancakes

Serves 1.

Ingredients:

1/4 cup all natural whole wheat flour

1/2 banana, mashed 

1/4 cup Quaker old-fashioned oats, dry

1/2 cup Blue Diamond unsweetened almond milk (or, as always, regular milk can be used)

1 TSP (organic) brown sugar

A dash of salt

1 TBSP chocolate chips (I used Ghiradelli semi-sweet)

Warm a skillet over medium heat. Coat with non-stick spray.

Combine all ingredients except chocolate chips in a medium bowl. Mix well.

Pour batter onto pan, making 3 pancakes. Put chocolate chips on each cake.

Cook on each side until lightly brown. Top with butter, syrup, jelly, or whatever your heart desires. I love them plain or with a tiny bit of light butter.

Nutrition Stats: 330 calories, 10 g fat, 10 g protein, 65 g carbs

Mmmmm, pasta. My dinner last night is what I think of as the everything-but-the-kitchen-sink dish. When I throw this meal together, I use every and any veggie I have in my kitchen that’s about to go bad soon. Yesterday, this included cherry tomatoes, zucchini, red bell pepper and spinach. I use a bit of olive oil to add some flavor and healthy fats to the mix.

Pasta Primavera

Serves 1.

2 oz of multigrain angel hair pasta (I used Barilla Plus)

1/2 zucchini

1/2 red bell pepper

7 cherry tomatoes (random amount, I know!) 

Handful of raw spinach

A few fresh basil leaves

1/2 TBSP olive oil

2 TBSP white cooking wine (I used Holland House)

1/2 oz Romano cheese, optional (I used Il Giardino)

Salt & pepper to taste. I love using mixed up salt in this recipe.

Boil water in a medium pot on high heat, then cook pasta according to directions.

While you’re waiting for the water to boil and pasta to cook, chop up all veggies into bite sized pieces.

Warm cooking wine in a skillet on medium heat. Add all veggies except basil and spinach to the pan, then sauteed until softened, around 5 minutes or so. Stir the veggies, then add the spinach and basil and cook just until spinach is wilted. Remove from heat.

When pasta is done cooking and drained, return it to the pot. Pour veggies onto the pasta. Add olive oil and any seasonings in, then mix it up. Put pasta in a bowl, then grate the cheese on top.

Facts: 390 calories, 12 g fat, 17 g protein, 53 g carbs

Blog Changes

Just a quick note to let you  know that I’m in the process of figuring out how to increase the functionality of my blog. I’m very new to all of this and am trying to figure out just what I’m doing! I want to add a ‘print recipe’ button so anyone can easily print a recipe out without the rest of the post, but for now, I’ve created a ‘print & PDF this’ button. This way, you can delete unwanted text & images, and keep whatever text you want to print out. It’ll have to do for the moment, but there will be bigger and better changes to come very soon!

On a final note… 

There were 2 milestone birthdays in my family this week. Yesterday my grandpa turned 80! And happy birthday to my baby brother Danny!! He turned 21 today and I’m sure he’s out celebrating like the crazy college kid that he is. Love you both!