The Best Part Of February
Or for the more religious of you, Happy Shrove Tuesday!
Or for those who live in New Orleans, Happy Mardi Gras!
Or for those who enjoy a literal translation of the above
two French words, Happy Fat Tuesday! Yes that is what Mardi Gras actually means
and yes I was super happy when I heard this, almost as happy as I get when I
watch the Youtube clip of a manatee squashing his face on the wall of his
aquarium tank.
Regardless of which way you view today as – a religious
celebration or otherwise, I hope you all have a bloody good time with whoever
you choose to spend it with. I’m afraid that I‘m probably one of those people
who falls into the category of using ‘being involuntarily christened at six
weeks old’ as an excuse to whip up stacks upon stacks of yummy pancakes before
eating them in the most unholy way possible. Well it’s rude not to you know,
today is the day that precedes Lent where Practising Christians will fast for
around forty days until Easter – although in this day and age most people just
give up one thing e.g. swearing, chocolate or cigarettes.
This did get me thinking on what I wanted to give up for
Lent this year or rather if I was actually going to participate this year and
stick to a commitment. We’re meant to give up something that we either
consume/use/do daily with the idea being that we are challenged both physically
and mentally and tested through the strength of our devotion to our faith. I
prefer to look at Lent as more of a personal challenge to prove to yourself
that you can achieve more than you think you can. We always set our limits so much
closer than to where they really are – I think we do this because setting big
goals leads to high expectation and hopes, hope requires an aspect of
innocence, Innocence makes us vulnerable and that vulnerability either makes
failing too painful or the fear of failing altogether too overwhelming. Hence
we don’t push beyond our safety barriers.
Or if like me you get tempted by a tinned sausage after three
days of vegetarianism than maybe it’s just a lack of the most basic level of
will power. Literal brain failure. Speaking of vegetarianism, I was contemplating
giving up meat this year for Lent as although I don’t eat it all the time or
crave it per say, I do think it would be challenging. I would also like to
redeem my eleven year old self from failing to not say no to what can only be
described a processed sludge in a plastic coating.
The only issue is
that my Grandparents wouldn’t really be able to cope with the volume of
meat-free cooking (Nan does about 80% of the dinners you see and both are
fairly keen on the red stuff). Unfortunately, whilst I’m living under their roof I’m not
sure I would able to alter my diet in a drastic way as to not make their lives
a lot more confusing. I want to challenge myself, not my 70-something year old
family members. Hmmmmmmm, I’ll have to ponder the matter further, at least I
still have today left to figure it out ;)
Ok time for a recipe – I know that today is officially Fat Tuesday
but I decided that this evening in the bungalow is actually going to be Protein
Tuesday! Well protein and carbs, I’m definitely more of a carb guy. I loves me
some carbs!
God, I’m so Hufflepuff.
The pancake batter recipe below contains around 18-20g of
protein per serving whilst still being full of good complex carbohydrates and relatively
low in fat. They're super easy to make, don’t require any protein powder and come
out wonderfully light and fluffy like kittens in a hat box. You can add
whatever additional flavours you like to this batter base such as cinnamon,
raisins, blueberries, bananas etc although tonight I think I’m going to go with
chocolate chips. Ok, so I know that ups the fat content by quite a bit but…
…It’s what Jesus would have wanted.
Bye! X
Fluffy Protein Packed Pancakes
Serves 1
Ingredients:
1/3 cup oats
1 egg
¼ cup quark or low fat cottage cheese (can sub Greek yoghurt
here as well)
½ tsp vanilla extract
1 ½ tsp baking powder
Sweetener to taste – I used a pinch of stevia extract, its
bloody strong!
Extras – whatever you like (just not the cat)
Instructions:
Blend all the ingredients in a blender until a smooth and
creamy batter forms.
Spray a non-stick skillet or frying pan with cooking spray,
olive oil, coconut oil or even butter if you fancy and place over a medium-low
heat. Once the pan is hot, dollop in a few spoonfuls of the batter and cook for
a minute or two.
Once the edges have firmed up a bit and bubbles start to
appear throughout the upper surface of the pancake go ahead and flip it before
allowing to cook for another minute or so. Remove, stack up and enjoy!
Note: Per serving you can either make about three small
pancakes, two medium pancakes or one great biggun. Truth be told, I often
double the recipe because I always need more pancakes. In terms of extra
add-ins, banana is a great way to add lots of natural sweetness, tossing some blueberries
into the blender makes the batter look like melted Barney and adding peanut butter
makes for pancakes that put my heart all in a flutter.
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