{fish, pancakes and sweet potatoes}

I haven't been doing a darn bit of fabulous cooking lately. We have been crazy busy so I have been grabbing some protein here, a handful of nuts there, probably too much fruit and not enough vegetables. Oh, well, still mostly stuff a caveman might eat right? Well, I doubt cavemen ate leftover chicken curry or fancied up hamburger patties snatched out of a container in the fridge on a dead run out the door with a gym bag, cooler, purse, travel mug of tea (which is so stinkin' unsatisfying) and a water bottle. Like I said, it has been crazy. On the way to K's wrestling tournament this morning I frantically ate scrambled eggs, a diced up plum, sliced bell peppers and a handful of nuts while stopped at stoplights on my way out-of-town. Yes, again, crazy. So today I tried a couple new recipes, not entrees, while Tony worked on dinner. A little over a year I posted a recipe that we found for Lemon Chicken on Cauliflower Mash. It was oh-so-incredibly yummy! We have since used it with tilapia and found it equally as delicious. So that is what we had tonight. Lemon Tilapia with a salad topped with avocado and balsamic and olive oil dressing. I was stuffed, but I think it was because of the grazing I did on the Almond Pumpkin Pancakes that I very happily discovered on the wonderful blog The Clothes Make the Girl. I'm not supposed to "Paleo" any bad habit foods on the Whole 30, but today I didn't care. :)After reading the ingredients I figured it could be worse. I'm not replacing flour with a Paleo friendly flour, I wasn't replacing sugar with a Paleo friendly sweet substance and every ingredient was an ingredient I would eat alone. Why not be efficient with my time and throw them all together. Hey, I'm a busy girl. I do what I can to make life easier...or yummier! I think I was just tired of chopping veggies for an entire evening and was itchin' to do something that resembled baking. I guess it is better than the chocolate chip cookies I wanted to make. :) I'm okay with using this recipe and will probably make it again. I might cut back on the almond butter a little bit to cut back on some fats when eating these mostly alone, but that is about it. I made them pretty small. One batch made about nine. Here is the original recipe for Maple Almond Pumpkin Pancakes and here is my barely modified version. The modification in mine is just Almond instead of Maple Almond. I told you I wasn't very creative in the kitchen! :)

Almond Pumpkin Pancakes

Ingredients:
1 egg
2 egg whites
1/2 cup canned pumpkin
3 oz. almond butter
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp vanilla
1/8 tsp nutmeg
coconut oil for cooking

Directions:
Put all the ingredients in a large bowl and beat until smooth. Set the bowl aside for a few minutes so the flavors can meld.

Heat a non-stick skillet (I drug out my cast iron tortilla pan. Not sure if it is necessarily called a tortilla pan, but that is what I call it because that is what my mom used hers for.) until it's good and hot. Add coconut oil and swivel to coat the pan. Drop the batter in 1/4 cup servings into the pan.


When bubbles begin to appear and the edges are set, flip and cook the other side. They cook pretty fast so pay attention. Don't walk away and tend to something else and come back to overcooked, dry pancakes. This is pretty much what I do every time I make pancakes so I'm starting to think this is how pancakes are supposed to be! lol Kind of like the burnt garlic toast that I used to consistently make. Don't worry! I don't make garlic toast at all anymore!



The second thing I made tonight was Sweet Potato Fries. Yum! I remembered there being a sweet potato recipe in my family's third collection of favorite recipes that I had printed about five year ago. So I dug out said cookbook, found the recipe and then realized that I submitted the recipe. lol After reading the recipe I did remember making them and wondered why I hadn't made them in so long. They are delicious!


Sweet Potato Fries


4 sweet potatoes, cut into large French fries
2 t. Italian seasoning
1/2 t. lemon pepper
1 pinch salt and pepper, to taste
2 T. olive oil

Preheat the over to 400 degrees. Combine the seasonings and olive oil in a good-sized bowl; add sweet potatoes and toss to coat. Arrange fries on a baking sheet in a single layer. Bake for 35-45 minutes, turning once, or until fries are crispy on the outside.

So that was our night of cooking. Nothing really fancy and probably a bit of something I shouldn't have. I'm hoping to stock up on some food for the week tomorrow and try a couple new recipes. I might make a couple roasts to cut up for easy protein, as well. And, of course, there is the tri-weekly trip to the grocery store for produce. I'm thinking some kale chips are on the "try-it-out" menu. Yum!

I little bit of a gym update. Yesterday I squatted with weight for the first time since surgery!!! The workout was 20 heavy back squats and 5 HSPUs, 5 rounds. As our coach was going around giving everybody their weight he pointed to me and said we are trying something different today. He waved me over to the 20# weight vest and said we are going to see how this feels. He gingerly slipped it over my head and set it on my shoulders and had me adjust it to where it felt "comfortable" We didn't strap it down and I stood still and waited. No extra discomfort in my chest. So I was going to get to squat with 20#! For the HSPU portion I substituted a front raise, out to the sides in a "T" position, down to my sides, back up to a "T" and then back in front of me. That whole sequence was one rep and I used 1# hand weights for those. After my first round I just kept hold of the 1# weights during the squat so I actually squatted a whole 22# and it felt AMAZING!! I was so excited to just get to move some weight. It was a big day in the gym for me. I guess that is my first step back to my 235# back squat. A great way to start my sixth week post-surgery! It was a good day! Yay me! :)