My Big Fat Greek V-Day
Happy Valentine’s Day to you all!
Fun fact: My boyfriend is a Valentine’s Day baby. Seeing as I would be back in Cincinnati today and he would be in Columbus, we celebrated his birthday/Valentine’s Day on Saturday night. The boyfriend requested that I make him dinner– and he wanted it to be vegetarian! (I’m rubbing off on him ;-)) I made him a Greek feast, unfortunately I forgot my camera so I didn’t get a chance to snap a pic of the spread. I did it up right though, with a trio of hummus, marinated olives and mushrooms, pita bread, raw veggies, homemade tzatziki sauce and this:
The perfect centerpiece for our vegetarian meal. I’ve tried Fantastic World Foods sloppy joe mix before and it was delicious, so I figured the falafel would be a good choice as well. I love all Mediterranean food but I have never tried falafel before–so this was my first experience. They were super easy to prepare–all you have to do is add water to the packaged mix. The directions read to fry the falafel but I stay away from fried foods if I can, so I chose the broiling option. They turned out really tasty, the only change I would make would be to coat them in olive oil before broiling next time so that they would crisp up a bit more on the outside. I used a 1 TBSP measure to portion out the mix and roll into balls, it made about 24 of them, so we had leftovers!
I enjoyed some of it in my lunch today…
Falafel, greek yogurt and spinach in 1/2 a pita. I enjoyed the other 1/2 of pita, a lonely falafel and carrots with more greek yogurt and hummus.
The Birthday/Valentine’s Day dinner wasn’t the only thing I found myself cooking this weekend. Since I’m stuck in a dorm room with nothing but a microwave all week long, I’ve been taking advantage of the oven and stove at my parents’ house on the weekends. On Sunday morning, I abandoned my favorite breakfast cake in lieu of the most delicious protein pancakes ever— just sayin’.
Coco-nana Protein Pancakes
Ingredients:
- 1/4 c. of your favorite pancake mix (I used Hodgson Mill’s buckwheat pancake mix.)
- 1/2 scoop vanilla protein powder (I used my Plant Fusion protein– the texture would be different with whey protein but it would still taste good I’m sure!)
- 1/2 TSP baking powder
- 1/4 TSP cinnamon
- 1 TBSP flaxseed meal
- 1 TBSP unsweetened, flaked coconut
- 1/2 banana, mashed
- 1 TSP agave
- 1/3 c. almond milk (plus more)
To Make:
- Combine first 6 ingredients in a small bowl.
- In a separate bowl, mash banana and add agave and almond milk.
- Add dry ingredients to the banana mixture and stir. I ended up adding about an additional 1/3 cup milk in order to get the consistency of the batter right. Start out with 1/3 cup and add more in small amounts as needed– it will vary with different protein powders.
- Spray a pan with non-stick spray and put it over medium heat. Once the pan is hot add about 1/3 of the batter.
- The cakes do not rise like normal pancakes, because of the banana they take on a consistency like that of a latke. Cook until nicely brown and slightly caramelized, then flip and do the same on the other side.
- Repeat with the rest of the batter.
I topped mine with an additional TBSP of coconut and a TSP of agave.
These cakes are so dense…yum.
I hope everyone is having a lovely Valentine’s Day. Since I’m a loner tonight, I’m going to get down with some cardio lovin’ at Turbo Kick!
Chic Fitness 