Vegan Oatmeal Pancakes

I love pancakes. I can eat them any time of day.  There is something so comforting and satisfying about them.  I wish I could take credit for these pancakes, but alas, I cannot.  I got the recipe from Vegetarian Times 2013 issue, courtesy of Mary Shore. The recipe won first place in the Reader Recipe contest.  First place?  Really?  They sound oatmeally and gummy.  I had to try them to discover what qualifies as first place.   Well good golly, they're delicious!  Hearty without being gummy!  I cannot pin point what makes them taste so great, but they are da bomb.  I think turning the soy milk into "buttermilk" using apple cider vinegar is the culprit for these tasty cakes.   Give them a try.

*Tip: maple syrup is not friendly on the hips, so pour a couple of tablespoons on your plate as a "dip" instead of pouring a half of a cup over your pancakes.  And, I'm sure I don't have to mention not to use HFCS syrup, for crying out loud.

fluffy and delicious

Ingredients:

3/4 cup soymilk
2 tsp. apple cider vinegar
1 T. Organic pure maple syrup (plus more for dip)
2 tsp. canola oil
1/2 cup steel cut oats (I used original Quaker oats)
1/2 cup whole wheat flour (I used organic whole wheat pastry flour)
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt

Directions:

Combine soymilk, vinegar, maple syrup, and oil in a small bowl.  Add oats and let soak 10  minutes.  Stir together flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt in a separate mixing bowl.  Stir soymilk mixture into flour mixture.  Preheat large skillet or griddle over medium-high heat and lightly coat with oil.  Ladle 1/4 cup of batter for each pancake.  Cook 2-3 minutes on each side.  Makes 6-8 pancakes.  Two pancakes is 1 serving (196 cal.)  You know I ate more than two! 

Chick Pea Salad w/ Lemon Balsamic Dressing

When I think of this salad, I think: simple, fresh, healthy, crunch, sweet, savory.  With protein and veggies mixed in, you can't go wrong.   The marinated artichoke hearts give it an extra yummy flavor, and the flat leaf parsley and lemon freshen it up!  The dressing is the sweet/savory part with a garlic kick.  In a pinch, you can use a balsamic vinaigrette dressing and squeeze lemon over the top.  Just be careful to buy a dressing without high fructose corn syrup HFCS.  Read your labels!

click photo to enlarge

Ingredients:
1 small red bell pepper, diced
1 can organic chick peas (garbanzo beans)
handful of flat leaf parsley, washed and diced
1/2 cup organic shelled edemame
1/2 cup frozen corn, thawed
1-6.5 oz jar of marinated artichoke hearts

Dressing:
1 tsp. olive oil
2 tsp.  organic balsamic vinegar
1 tsp. Agave nectar
1-2 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 tsp. fine sea salt
1/2 lemon, squeezed (2-3 tablespoons)
pepper to taste

In a small bowl, whisk up dressing and set aside.  Drain and dice artichoke hearts.   Drain and rinse chick peas.  Add all salad ingredients to a medium bowl and toss with dressing.  Chill for 1 hour.  I don't know how many servings this is because I almost ate the whole thing in one sitting.  You can share; I'm just really really selfish.

Lunchtime Quicky

Colon cancer isn't invited to my party, so I eat a lot of fiber, including beans.  Beans provide protein as well.  I like some faux meat, but I don't eat it very often.  Here is a quick and easy sandwich you can make for lunch that is so satisfying and healthy, it will blow your socks off.

Think of it this way:

*Take away processed meat and use beans for protein.  You also get fiber, calcium, and iron, for the hat-trick.

*Take away the highly processed cheese (which has saturated fat and major pesticides) and use avocado for that creaminess you crave.  You also get vitamins, minerals, and potassium for the triple-crown.

Add some veggies for crunch--you must have crunch or your mouth won't like it.  I rarely eat pickles, but to this I add bread & butter pickles because my brain tells me to add some sweet to my savory.  By the way, all pickles are swimming in a load of HFCS.    I buy sweet pickles at Sprouts because they use sugar.   Sugar and HFCS are pretty close the way they are processed and the way your body metabolizes them.  Neither are healthy.  Nevertheless, I try to avoid HFCS at much as possible.

Ingredients:

1/4 cup of white Cannellini beans, rinsed and drained
1/2 avocado
Squeeze of lemon
I use Mrs. Dash, but you could use salt and pepper to taste, or garlic powder

Mash bean mixture with a fork and spread on 2 slices of toasted, whole-grain bread. 
Top with sliced tomatoes, Romaine, red onion, pickles, whatever you like.

Homemade Blueberry Pancakes

I love making these pancakes.  They are super fast and easy.  I like being able to control the salt and sugar as well.   I eat them for breakfast, lunch or a late night snack.  Very satisfying favorite in my house.  Like I said before, I try to eat blueberries as much as possible because of their antioxidant properties (ranked among the highest antioxidant activity on a per serving basis), Vitamin C, manganese, and fiber.

**Did you know whole wheat flour or whole wheat pastry flour is still refined and processed? It's not the same as eating "whole grains."  Still, I choose whole wheat flour over white flour because I'm not a fan of eating chemicals and bleach.  White flour is stripped of it's two most nutritious and fiber-rich parts of the grain: the outside bran layer and the germ.  Plus, white flour contains Alloxan, a diabetes-producing chemical that destroys cells in the pancreas.  Alloxan is toxic, no joke.  Google it.

Click photo to enlarge

Ingredients:

1 1/4 cups whole wheat pastry flour (or buckwheat flour)
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
1 1/4 cups unsweetened soy milk
2 Tablespoons of safflower or canola oil
2 Tablespoon pure maple syrup, plus more for topping
1 teaspoon of pure vanilla extract
1 cup of organic blueberries, rinsed in cold water

Whisk together the dry ingredients first, then add the wet.  Stir in blueberries last.  Pre-heat and oil your nonstick griddle or large frying pan as you normally would and cook pancakes.  Top with pure maple syrup (Not Log Cabin please! It's really HFCS, yuck).  Makes about 10 pancakes.  Yum-o!

Note: if you are cutting back on sugar/calories, top with a sprinkle of powdered sugar instead of syrup.

Agave Beware!

Several friends recently mentioned to me they use Agave Nectar as a natural sweetener.  It comes from the Blue Agave plant.  It is very sweet and delicious.  I use it sometimes too, but very sparingly.  I did some more digging on Agave and here's what I uncovered:  Although Agave is lower on the glycemic index scale, many brands of Agave Nectar are highly refined, containing almost 100 percent fructose, which is a higher percentage than that found in high fructose corn syrup! Ugh!  Fructose is a sweetener known to raise triglycerides, promote belly fat, and contribute to fatty liver, obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and high blood pressure. Another thing to note is that some distributors of Agave Nectar have been labeling HFCS as Agave Nectar.  What!?  Is that legal?  The FDA recommends looking for labels that say "hydrolyzed insulin syrup," which means it's real Agave.  I try to stick with Organic Brown Rice Syrup or Pure Maple Syrup as much as possible. 

A kind and heartfelt reminder on HFCS: