Pancake Sunday 7.31

Whole Wheat Cherry Vanilla Bean

Pancakes

with

Vanilla Bean Glaze

These were really delicious pancakes! Once again (for the 3rd time in a row) I got the recipe from How Sweet It Is. It's a pretty fabulous blog if you haven't taken the time to check it out. I had guests/family come today to enjoy a Pancake Sunday brunch, my Mom and her BF. They are regular Pancake Sunday guests, but this was their first time to our new home! I hope they enjoyed their pancakes!

My helper this morning, Spider-Man

MMMMM, vanilla bean

I needed to double the recipe since I had guests, so, I just doubled all of the ingredients without thinking. Well, I should have known better than to do that because sometimes liquids don't need to be doubled. I doubled the wet ingredients in their own bowl when I should have added them straight to the dry ingredients a little bit at a time until I had the desired consistency. The result was watery batter and flat (not fluffy) pancakes...that tasted good.

Oops! Runny batter

Mmmmm, vanilla bean glaze!

Thawed frozen cherries

I decided to thicken up the thawed frozen cherries to layer between the pancakes. So, I sprinkled them with cornstarch and microwaved them until they were the desired consistency. I also added some cinnamon, they were scrumptious!

Nom Nom, Bacon

My lovely Mom looking very pleased with her pancakes!

Showing me her cherry stained face

If you like cherries, I know some of you don't ;), then try these pancakes! If you don't like cherries make them anyway, without the cherries! The vanilla bean glaze was soo good, it tasted just like cupcake frosting. Nobody can resist cupcake frosting. Nobody!

There's...

...a jiggle in my wiggle.

I've finally decided the time has come to do something about it. I'm pretty darn lazy and I don't like doing more than I have to to get the results that I desire, so I've decided to start...running.

blech.

I hate running, but I hate the way I feel in my body (after having 2 kids and gaining and losing over 100lbs combined) more. Running is a fast and easy exercise that will tackle all the things I'm looking for in my "getting healthy" journey.

My husband asked me what my weight loss goal was and I had to tell him, it's not about losing weight. I don't need or want to lose weight, I just want to burn the fat that's hanging around in the places I don't want it hanging around, and gain stamina. I just want to feel healthy.

So, there you have it. 

It's gonna be hard but I think baby steps is the key. My first goal is to be able to run a mile loop near us without stopping. Small goal but it's achievable with just the right amount of difficulty with the changes in elevation.

Look at me ready for my first run...I did NOT look like this afterwards

If any of my followers or lurkers have Nike+ I have an account too, we can follow each other! Woot!

I'm also on a lookout for a widget to share my miles ran with you all but it's proving to be a difficult thing to find. I will find a way to update you and share my miles with or without a widget!

Brand Spankin' New Friday Blog Hop!

Everybody loves discovering a new fantastic blog to read and also knowing that people out in cyberspace are enjoying their blog. 

My FIRL (friend in real life) Mama Dani  over at 

Mama Dani's Musings

has decided to create a Friday Blog Hop to help everyone find someone new!

 So help her out and link to her blog hop, discover some great blogs, and make some new friends while you're at it!

I Owe You All A Post!

I've decided I need to post about something other than pancakes!

We've been loving life down here so far but it's been quite overwhelming trying to fit in a whole bunch of activities into a small amount of time.
Travis works 60+ hours a week so I've been trying to make sure the girls are able to do things with him, well, I've been going about it all wrong.
I've mucked up all of our schedules and really have been wasting more time than I should be.
So now I've been slowly trying to get our schedules in order and figuring out which activities are important for me and the girls and which ones are important for him and the girls.
As much as I want to be able to go grocery shopping with him, I realize it is something that I am able to do without him, besides he just stands around waiting for me to tell him what to do next.
Another place he is not necessarily needed is the library, that's always been a momma and girls thing for us, not sure why I expected him to start joining in now.
He's not needed to be home for me to start cooking or cleaning or schooling or shopping or even exploring the area, yet I've been waiting for him to come home before I start doing those things and it's stressing him out and frustrating me that we don't have the time to do it.
I've had to step back and realize this for myself.
Now that I have, I can start being productive again.
Since I've found that running on a (LOOSE) schedule helps me function best I've decided to implement a blog schedule to help me post regularly throughout the week.
I happened to be goofing off on Pinterest and came across the perfect schedule!

Monday will fulfill my artsy side and help me to start posting regularly on the Dilly-Dali Art blog, Tuesday is a great library time for us since we used to go on Tuesdays anyway, I already wanted to add a cooking post (besides pancakes) and already have a draft waiting, I'm going to switch it up and make it What's Cooking (with the kids) Wednesday since I love having the girls in the kitchen with me, Thursday will be something new for us but being thoughtful is definitely a quality I want my girls to have, and somewhere fun on Fridays sounds like, well...fun, and it will help me to post more reviews for my 'Parks and Rec' tab.

Now I'm not sure how to end this post soooo...

THE END.

Pancake Sunday 7.24

Whole Wheat Brown Sugar Banana Bread

Pancakes

with

Vanilla Maple Glaze

These were so good.

Do you remember my last pancake post about Cake Batter Pancakes? I found the recipe on a food blog called How Sweet It Is, this is another recipe from her, she has a couple other pancake recipes I will be trying as well. 

I found myself searching the internet the other day for pancake blogs just to see what was out there as far as pancake enthusiasts. I found a few about pancake design but not many as far as different tastes. Either way, it got me thinking, 

Damn I'm lazy, I should just come up with my own recipes!

But honestly, there are so many recipes out there I want to try that I don't need to create my own recipes, so until I run out of other people's recipes to make, I won't be coming up with my own...unless there is a flavor I really must have in pancake form.

ANYWHO

On to the pancakes, I got to try a new ingredient today. Nothing special, unless you're a baker, then it's kinda fancy...whole wheat pastry flour. We use regular whole wheat flour regularly for recipes but the pastry flour was quite different. It's stone ground so it was pretty coarse which gave the pancakes a wonderful heartiness. These pancakes would be perfect during the fall and winter, they were so thick and filling, a couple probably would have satisfied my husband (if he was a pancake fan). 

Whole wheat pastry flour

My helper for the morning, tasting spices

Dry ingredients

The little helper, helping eat the ingredients

Smashed bananas, I left them quite chunky

Milk and vanilla

After milk and vanilla added, still a bit dry

After adding bananas, still too thick to pour

After adding a bit of butter, the batter was perfect

Why yes, this is powdered sugar and maple syrup

These pancakes didn't bubble much, so you have to watch the edges

The recipe makes 12 (1/4 cup batter) nice, thick, yummy pancakes! I really enjoyed the texture of the pastry flour as opposed to regular flour, so I will definitely be switching it out in other recipes I try in the future. The pancakes weren't too sweet, and they weren't too bread-y so it didn't seem like you were eating a slice of banana bread. It's the perfect combination between banana bread and pancakes! Give these pancakes a try!!

DO IT!!!!!! 

(PS Walnuts would be bangin' in these!)

Greensboro Arboretum

On Sunday (after pancakes) we decided to go for a drive to where ever we may end up. We happened to actually end up at the arboretum, completely by accident! We decided to stop and check it out. The awesome thing about the arboretum is that its completely free, in fact all of the gardens in Greensboro are free and open to the public thanks to the Greensboro Beautiful project. I can't wait to check out the other gardens (botanical, bog, and the soon to be gateway gardens) I'm sure they are all equally as beautiful as the arboretum.

The arboretum is about a 20 minute drive from us

The arboretum features 17 acres of beautiful gardens!

The view when you first walk in

The view of where I was just standing, the building houses the restroom

Lovely gazebo

View of the entrance and restroom building

Chasing butterflies

Since we live in the foothills, there are huge pieces of granite sticking out everywhere

The only picture of the giant wind chimes..and it's blurry

Rose garden

Alexis learned the hard way, you shouldn't grab rose bushes

Butterfly garden

Cool butterfly bridge

To Charlotte, the playground was the light at the end of the tunnel

The arboretum was wonderful, the path was nice and even, easy to walk on. The gardens were all in bloom, the grass was manicured. I never once felt like I was hiking through the jungle to get anywhere. The bathrooms were clean and air conditioned. At the entrance they had little bags for cleaning up after doggies. 

It was nice to be able to take the paved path to the other side of the arboretum and then take the Woodland Trail back to our car, the shade was nice since it was a bit hot after that walk. The only gripe I have, is that the bathroom at the other side of the arboretum was a bit far from the entrance (and playground) but there was a baseball field over there so I understand why they placed it next to the field, other than that it was pretty much perfect!

If you live in or are visiting the Triad area, you should definitely check Greensboro Arboretum out.