Week #5
Our Path to a Healthier Life
Hello! Thanks for checking back with us as we travel down this path for a healthier life!
This week, Kyle weighs 230 lbs!! OMG! That's ANOTHER 5 pounds gone - yahoo! This makes 23 pounds total since April 12! Kyle is looking and feeling so good! His clothes are falling off - literally! The last week of school each morning - I had to safety pin his clothes to stay on!!
This week's top pick
HEART HEALTHY RECIPE
for a plant-based diet is for breakfast and it's
PANCAKES
Here are the recipe for a Chocolate Pancakes along with a Healthy Fruit Sauce to use instead of a syrup! (Here's the link for the Banana-Flax Seed Pancakes - here!)
Chocolate Pancakes
I recently doubled the recipe and took these pancakes for the last day of school for our Faculty Retirement/Going Away Breakfast and received great reviews! Serve with a splash of maple syrup or the FRUIT syrup or top with fresh fruit - your choice. Enjoy!
** Here's a link to the other dish that I brought to the breakfast - a Breakfast Burrito Bake. Made it the night before and cooked it in the morning to take hot! It is so good!
** Here's a link to the other dish that I brought to the breakfast - a Breakfast Burrito Bake. Made it the night before and cooked it in the morning to take hot! It is so good!
1 1/4 Whole-wheat flour
2 Tbsp unsweetened Cocoa Powder
1 Tbsp Baking Powder
1 Tbsp Flaxseed; ground
1 Tbsp Mini Vegan Semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/4 tsp Sea Salt
1 cup Almond Milk; unsweetened
1 Tbsp Pure Maple Syrup
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
1 Tbsp Apple Cider Vinegar
1/4 cup Unsweetened Applesauce
Combine the dry ingredients (flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, flax, salt & chocolate chips) in a medium bowl. Whisk until fully combined. Then combine the wet ingredients (almond milk, maple syrup, vanilla, and vinegar) in a small bowl, and whisk well. This will create a vegan buttermilk for your pancakes.
Add the vegan buttermilk and the applesauce to the flour mixture, and stir until the batter is just combined. Let the batter stand for 10 minutes while it rises and thickens as the flaxseeds soak; it may nearly double in size.
Heat a nonstick skillet or electric skillet griddle over medium heat and mist with a tiny bit of nonstick spray. Scoop the batter into 3-inch rounds. Cook for 2 to 3 minutes or until the bubbles have burst in each of the pancakes and the tops start to appear dry. Flip the pancakes and cook for 1 to 2 minutes more. Yield: 12 pancakes.
Fruit Syrup
1 1/2 cups Fruit (blueberries, strawberries, raspberries...)
1/2 cup Orange juice or Apple Juice
Combine and bring to a boil for 4-5 minutes. Emulsify or blend hot mixture to a liquid. Serve over pancakes - refrigerate any leftovers.
A question we often receive from family & friends while following a plant-based diet is:
"Where do you find Heart Healthy recipes..."
AGAIN... Forks over Knives - they have an app for your cell phone, a website with a HUGE variety of recipes and even on YOUTUBE - Forks over Knives videos of step-by-step instructions in preparing and cooking these recipes. I do receive recipes via email also from Forks over Knives!
Pinterest (of course!) has a lot - most VEGAN based recipes can be altered to fit - if looking for something specific. Grabbed a new book this week - "Plant Strong" by Rip Esselstyn. He has 150 new recipes written here! Excited to try them all!
One of the most major comments that I receive from many of my friends are that they handle their diet with MODERATION. This phrase is a favorite of so many - "Moderation in all things".
We are finding out that this phrase may be doing more damage than anyone could possibly realize. Take CHOLESTEROL - that's the evil that I want out of my husband's body! MEAT... has cholesterol! I know, I live in TEXAS - WE EAT MEAT... I love a good steak or I used too! BUT, I'm learning that animal meat has cholesterol - animal products, eggs, milk and by-products - has cholesterol. So, if you eat meat or dairy - "in moderation"... it still can cause damage to you.
