Hey Everyone

I just had some delicious pancakes a la Caitlin and her pancake eating ways.

Buckwheat Oat Pancakes

• 1/2 C Buckwheat Flour
• 1/2 C Oats
• 1/2 t baking powder
• 1 egg
• 2 t vanilla
• 1 squirt agave 
• 1/2 mashed banana

Simple mix it all up in a bowl and go for it!

I ate three with Bethany’s Preserves. Nom nom. They were good, but buckwheat flour does have a very strong taste. I originally wanted to use no sweetener at all, and if I had more bananas I probably could have avoided the agave. Now I am psyching myself up to to go to the gym. I haven’t run since Sunday. I think I am saving it for my training that will start soon. Plus I just ate three pancakes and who can run after that?

Friday Night Dinner with the Bloggers

Let me back up to Friday night when I had dinner with some lovely New York bloggers and one blogger boyfriend.  Liz (Veggie Girl) was in town and of course I wanted to meet her. She picked Candle 79 as the spot for our dinner, which I was excited to try.

There were 14 of us (me, Sarah, Caroline, Liz (aka VeggieGirl), Katie, Ari,  Danielle, Amelia, Katharine, Diana, Olga, Deidre, Marina and Amie), but I was a lazy blogger and didn’t take many pictures. Check out their blogs for forthcoming recaps.

I chose the Moroccan Spiced Chickpea Cake, described as  easonal vegetables, red pepper-coconut curry, apricot-date chutney, toasted almonds

I could not get a decent shot without the flash, and even this is extremely poor quality.

I thought it was delicious, especially the on top apricot-date chutney. The outside of the “burger” was crispy and this inside was soft (almost like a very moist meatloaf). I tried to go slowly, but I ate the whole thing. At first, I was still hungry, but after dinner I walked about 15 blocks up to my friend’s house and actually got really full along the way. I was glad because I would have been said if I was still hungry after such a delicious dinner. Thank you bloggies for coming to the dinner! It was fun to meet or see you again and I hope we can do it again soon.

At my friend’s house we watched the Housewives of NJ reunions. So scandalous. I wish I knew what Danielle supposedly did to make Caroline cry like that!

Well, it’s not raining here today and I should get a start on my day. Summer Enrichment classes start on Monday and I honestly haven’t prepared much! Summit planning and birthday celebrations took precedence this week.  I must do that today and tomorrow.

Good morning everyone! First, I did in fact, do that yoga last night. It was a short and sweet 30 minute session from Yoga Download. I’ve never gotten off my butt to do some yoga and then regretted it later. Nope.

Second, I am currently subbing in the 4th Grade today, ironically the same grade and same school as the job I am waiting to hear about. Anyway, I got the call last night so I assembled a breakfast to take on the go. I have to be at work at 8 and I am not used to eating at 7:00 right now. Anyway, here is what I grabbed. 

• Cheater’s Green Juice
• Plain Greek Yogurt
• Almond Butter (to put in the Greek Yogurt)

Reader Question

In response to my reference to beating the bitter juices out of my eggplant last night, Katherine said, “I’ve never heard of beating an eggplant before roasting. Tell me more!!”

The seeds in eggplant are bitter, so before cooking them it’s a good idea to do something to remove this bitterness (I don’t mind it, but Mark does). Some people salt the eggplant before cooking it, but my mom did something else, so I do that too. I talked about my eggplant beating process way back in January in this post.  Here is more from my mom:

“Eggplant can be very bitter!  It’s better to by long thinner ones (less seeds)  than fat ones because the seeds make it bitter.  Put a paper towel down on a cutting board and pound the slices. The paper towel absorbs the bitterness but you have to keep changing the paper towels. You can see it working because the towel turns brown.  Also, but I don’t know how true this is, the long eggplant are males and the round are females and that’s why the round has more seeds.”

More on Processed Foods

I wanted to mention that yesterday while at the gym I listened to the KFI Jillian Michaels podcast from 6/1/09.  Around minute 18 she answers a caller’s question about processed foods. The caller was confused about what processed foods to avoid and Jillian gives her explanation for what are good v. bad processed foods. Not surprisingly, her explanation was quite similar to my own. Yay for The Cleaner Life Month. Anyway, it might be worth checking out if you want to hear more about processed foods, specifically, what to avoid and what to embrace.

Is there a processed food you avoid at all costs or are you more of an everything in moderation kind of person?

I am a mix of the two. I try not to categorize anything as good or bad, and therefore, am open to enjoying almost any treat occasionally. One thing I always avoid, however, is hydrogenated oils/trans fats. Recently I found myself letting “occasionally” turn into “frequently,” and that’s one reason why I started The Cleaner Life Month. Too many chemicals for my liking.