I hope your Friday night was as nice as mine was!
Anna, an incoming first year in my genetic counseling program, and I went out to dinner to spend some time getting to know each other. We have talked a bunch on Facebook, mostly revolving around our mutual love of cooking and baking. We are totally going to have cooking dates. It’s going to be awesome. However, tonight we let someone else do the cooking! The place we went was having a 2 for $30 deal that we jumped on. First course: pretzel sticks with Havarti dill sauce and beer cheese.
The pretzels had the best combo of crispy, flaky outsides and tender, chewy insides. The salt put them over the top too but, as you already know, I truly appreciate saltiness just about always. In terms of sauces: the Havarti dill was my favorite though I think Anna felt the opposite, liking the beer cheese more. They were both good though we felt that there should have been a third, maybe a nacho cheese or a spicy mustard. For entrées we split two: the five cheese pizza and the black bean veggie burger with onion marmalade, roasted peppers, goat cheese, sprouts, tomatoes, and a chipotle mayo served on dark rye bread. We had the oven fried fingerling potatoes on the side.
Sorry I spaced on a picture of the pizza but it looked pretty equivalent to any cheese pizza you’ve ever seen with a pleasantly light and crispy crust. I ate half the burger and some of the fingerling potatoes while Anna tested the pizza and then we switched plates. We both agreed that the black bean burger was the run away plate. The burger had chunky bits of beans and corn and the goat cheese with the onion marmalade was a beyond delicious combination. Plus, the rye bread gave the sandwich a different character than a regular old bun. Also, that honking pickle was pretty perfect. Finally, those fingerling potatoes might have honestly been better than fries. I loved them.
Dessert came later…and I mean much later. We ordered, flourless chocolate cake for Anna and chocolate cheesecake with raspberry topping for me, and then maybe what felt like 25 minutes later the plates finally showed up at our table.
I would venture to say they were worth the wait. Mine was light and Anna’s was pretty dense. She didn’t realize it was supposed to be flourless when she ordered it and when she dug in she aptly named in a huge piece of fudge on a plate, or a slab of ganache, you take your pick.
After dinner I drove us both back to my apartment and we exchanged books and checks. Anna didn’t want to buy all of the books for her freshman year and, given how much I have used them since my first semester, I didn’t blame her. We decided she could rent them from me for about 20% of the purchase price. It actually worked out perfectly because when I made from renting the books actually paid for my Embryology book. Perfection I must say! Plus, Anna saved a boatload. I love how savvy you get about buying/loaning/renting textbooks the more years you spend in school.
Anna ducked out a bit later to get herself home and I plopped myself on the couch to watch some Olympics and clean out my DVR. Pretty sure I finally crashed in bed around midnight with the idea that I would sleep in and boy did I. All the way until 9am. That’s right, a full three hours more than I normally get during the weekdays. Greatness. I got up only after spending a good deal of time reading The New Rules of Lifting For Women (NROLFW). So far I’m digging the book. I figure I’ll take in and assimilate the whole book and then get started on the program. I’m actually looking forward to it.
When I did drag myself out of my comfy covers, I got my heart rate up with a full body, six tabata, 25 minute workout that I found while surfing around last night. Boy, it kicked my booty. I was tired after I finished the sixth tabata, which was the second tabata focusing on abs. Despite being pooped I was eager to try something I had read in NROLFW. They talk about doing cardio intervals first followed by a five minute full rest to allow your body to flood your system with triglycerides followed by an endurance cardio session. So I did my tabatas, sat on the floor for five minutes, and then did 30 minutes on the elliptical while reading more NROLFW. IN the end I scored a great calorie burn and I felt kind of excited at the thought that supposedly a lot of my endurance cardio session was burning the fat that has been released into my bloodstream during the short rest. At least that’s the theory of it all.
I trekked back to my apartment and set to making some refueling protein-flax-chia pancakes (check out the recipe at the bottom of the post!). I made the batter before I went to do my elliptical session and then added in water and baking powder right before hitting the griddle. The result was a huge plate of soft, chewy pancakes topped with flax peanut butter and syrup.
What a great way to finish off a both lazy and active morning. I was a happy camper. Now I’m off to hang out with some great friends, talk about the health stuff that’s happening in my world, and attend a wonderful house-warming party for Bekah (on my former second years). Probably means I should go and make my onion dip to bring along huh??
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Protein-Flax-Chia Pancakes
A DNA and Dessert original recipe.
These chewy pancakes have 16g of protein and 11g of fiber, and that’s before toppings! They take a bit of forethought to allow the chia seeds and flax to puff up but their chewy texture is hearty and totally worth it. They make a great post-workout breakfast. The recipe makes roughly six “silver” dollar pancakes and I eat the whole plateful. =D
P.S. This recipe is linked to Weekend Potluck!
Ingredients:
2 leveled tbsp protein powder
1 leveled tbsp of flax seed
1/2 tbsp chia seeds
1/3 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup milk
4 drops liquid stevia
Pinch of salt
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3 tbsp water
1 tsp baking powder
How to:
1. Combine all the ingredients above the dash. Let sit in the fridge for at least thirty minutes.
2. When ready to cook, take out the batter. It should be stiff, don’t panic. Work in the water and then add in the baking powder.
3. Drop batter by large spoonfuls and wait for the batter to bubble up before flipping.
4. Top with your favorite things.
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By the way, something worth mentioning, it has been a full year since my accident. Today is the anniversary. It’s incredible how far I’ve come. I still can’t believe that I fought a semi (not of my own choice of course) and won. Thank you Lord.
Questions: What is your favorite pancake recipe?
Do you do longer/harder workouts on the weekend because you have more time?
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