Berry Delicious Gluten-Free Oat Flour Waffles with Maple, Cinnamon, Banana, and Blueberry Syrup

I guess this month is my breakfast and brunch month. To commemorate my breakfast/brunch addiction I have continued my adventure by making WAFFLES or WOWffles because WOW (insert cheesy statement here).

You need a waffle maker or you can make your own (I do not know how, sorry). Many years ago my boyfriend, Paul, received a house-warming gift that has brought joy to our lives. One of his engineering friends, a kid at heart, won a bunch of tickets at Dave and Busters and instead of cashing for the big stuffed Yoda animal, he chooses a waffle maker. This selfless man gifted this beautiful waffle maker and since then I have become a lover of waffles.

Here is the recipe adapted by Girl Makes Food

Recipe for BERRY Delicious Gluten-Free Oat Flour Waffles with Maple, Cinnamon, Banana, and Blueberry Syrup

First turn on to heat your waffle maker, it may take 5 minutes.

  2 cups Rolled Oats (throw it in the food processor until it looks like flour) ~ 30 seconds - 1 minute

  1 cup of milk (I used almond milk)

  4 Large Strawberries (diced or chopped)

  2 tablespoons Pure Maple Syrup

  1/2 teaspoon salt

  1 tablespoon of Baking Powder

  2 eggs (I used egg whites)

  2 tablespoons of Coconut Oil (or oil of choice)

Directions for Waffles:

Mix/whisk all the waffle ingredients EXCEPT the strawberries together until it is close to uniform. Fold in the strawberries. Add waffle batter onto the waffle maker (depending on the kind of maker you have, the cook time may be different). 

Syrup

Heat a non-stick pan on med-low heat and gradually heat all the ingredients. Allow the blueberries to soften to release its delicious juices. After you are done heating the syrup just pour however much you like over the waffles. 

  1 tablespoon butter or a butter alternative 

  3/4 - 1 cup Blueberries

  1 Banana

  1/8-1/4 cup Maple Syrup (you can control how much you would like, I added more as I went on to accommodate the waffle load)

  1 teaspoon of Cinnamon (or more if you love cinnamon like I do!)

How do you fight a nasty pancake addiction? Make healthier pancakes! Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Pancakes

My breakfast downfall has always been pancakes. Ever since I moved to San Diego, I have become addicted to breakfast/brunch and there are many amazing brunch places here. Self-control is difficult when you have delicious fluffy pancakes that is the size of your face sitting in front of you. So, to curb my pancake addiction I have continued my journey finding healthier pancakes.

I bought a huge bag of rolled oats from Trader Joe's to make overnight oats...to fit into the overnight oats crowd. I decided to be less cool and turn those oats into pancakes. So, I found this delicious recipe.

Recipe adapted by Beauty That Moves

First, you need a griddle or a skillet that you can comfortably flip your pancakes on. 

Ingredients

2 cups rolled oats

1 1/4 cups milk (nut or raw dairy)

1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon (or more if you want

1 tablespoons pure maple syrup

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 teaspoons baking powder or baking soda

1 egg (I used egg whites because I did not have an egg)

Coconut oil for coating the griddle 

Directions

Place all ingredients, except egg and cooking oil in a blender and blend until smooth. Add egg and blend a few seconds more.

Let batter stand for 10 minutes or longer to thicken batter/or you can throw it in the fridge for 5 minutes. I just threw mine in the fridge to speed up the process. You can pour milk into the batter if it becomes too thick. 

Heat oil on the pan

Pour batter about 1/4-1/2 cup into the pan and cook for 1.5-2.5 minutes on each side. 

Flour-less, GF, Healthy Swedish Pancakes!

So, I have a tendency to impulse buy ingredients from the "What's New" section at Trader Joe's and I have trouble integrating it into my everyday meals. It is a pretty bad habit...finally I have decided to sprinkle a little creativity with the ingredients I buy.

Anyways, lets get to the recipe. I woke up this morning craving pancakes. I opened the cabinet and I saw cashew meal glaring at me, "Use me, now!". I rubbed away the guilt from my eyes and grabbed the cashew meal. I used the cashew meal to make pancakes that turned out it looks like Swedish pancakes, hence the name "Flour-less Swedish Pancakes".  In my opinion they are healthy :) but it is up to interpretation. I am not a health expert!

What are Swedish pancakes? I would describe it as wide in diameter thin, delicate and tasty. Ja!

Recipe for Flour-less Swedish Pancakes 
Recipe adapted/inspired by Wellness Mama
Makes 4 large and thin pancakes 

• 1.5 cups Cashew Meal
• 3 eggs *I used 1 egg with yolk and 2 egg whites*
• 1 cup of milk of your choice or water *I used almond milk*
• Coconut oil to grease the pan
• Optional: spice of choice (cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla, fruits or other flavors), flax seed/chia seeds or other fancy nutritional additives. *I added 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla and 1/2 cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips*
• Pure maple syrup
• Optional: Sliced fruits *I used fresh strawberries to top my pancakes*

Instructions

• Heat a non-stick griddle or large round pan on medium heat
• Combine the flour, eggs, milk and optional ingredient of choice in a medium bowl with a electric mixer (or manually by hand, blender etc.) until you get a desired consistency. *My batter was thin and milky looking, which will result in thinner pancakes*
• Add a little bit of coconut oil to coat the pan then add about 1/2 cup of pancake batter onto the pan. *I really didn't measure it out, it looked like 1/2 cup.*
• Cook pancake on each side for 30 seconds-1 minute *Longer if you like it darker. You can always poke the spatula gently under the pancake to see if it is cooked. Use your own judgment*
  
  Voila!

Kale...the Super Hero, the Super Food...the Colon Cleanser!

What is sexier than kale? Nothing is sexier than kale. You may challenge this notion

Here is my personal recipe for a refreshing kale salad with a citrusy mandarin dressing (borrowed). I bought all the salad ingredients from Trader Joe's. I will be honest I did not quite measure out everything, so everything is an estimate. I do not like to add a lot to my salads but you can add whatever extra stuff you want, it is up to you. I forgot to take pictures because everyone was so hungry we just went ahead and ate. Plus, I am still getting use to this blogging thing :).

Simple Kale Salad Recipe (4 servings): I bought all the items from Trader Joe's. Just toss all these ingredients in a bowl and add as much dressing you desire. I just lightly coated the salad and it was perfect.

• 1 package of Organic Tuscan Kale (or regular kale) *I buy from Trader Joe's
• 3 oz of Low Fat Feta Cheese, crumbled on top
• 1-2 cups of Sugar Plum Tomatoes halved (the bigger ones)
• 4 oz of Pomegranate seeds (ready-to-go from TJ's)
• 1/4 cup of chopped pecans

Mandarin salad dressing from sparkpeople.com: Just whisk all the ingredients together in a bowl then voila! 2 T = 119 calories 

• 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
• 1/4 cup orange juice
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 1 T poppy seeds
• 1 T Dijon mustard
• Salt to taste

Enjoy! 

I promise the next recipe will have more pictures. I do realize this is not a mandarin salad but the dressing just tasted yummy on the kale salad. 

Why do I love hummus?

Salut! 

So, I think it is time for me to start a blog. Now is a perfect time as I sit unemployed and confused out of my mind about my post-college life. Please excuse my grammar. I am not a writer nor a native english speaker even though my native language has deteriorated severely over the past few years. Anyways, why am I blogging now?

 I am starting this blog to track my success and failures (its inevitable) to keep me on track as I work my way towards gradual weight loss. I do NOT have a number to give you because that would not be a indicator of good health (in my opinion). My goal is to achieve an overall sense of well-being or connecting the mind, body and soul (mostly the mind and body). In other words, not to shower myself with negative comments after eating a not-so-healthy meal. It just makes it worse. Instead, I want to learn to appreciate good healthy food but more important, to love myself and my intestines (they get all the shit, really!). I have a overeating problem that some of you can relate to. It does not mean I (we) lack self-discipline or I (we are) am not capable of self-control. It is not that simple. Some people deal with stress, anxiety or even depression by binge eating. It could also be the other way around, where the person loses their appetite for similar reasons. You cannot always be happy and you cannot always be sad. Nonetheless, I want to raise more self-awareness (inside and out), be active and eat healthy. Why does this matter? Here is why it matters to me. 

I am by "medical standards" overweight, not f** (fat, I will only use this once), but overweight. I am 23, no 24 (Feb 12, happy birthday to me!). That is not the issue. I suffered from depression and still to this day I struggle to stay positive and happy. My go-to-task when I felt down was to eat, eat and eat. It became a vicious cycle and I needed to stop. I really like this message from an amazing and inspiring Yoga teacher, Alyssa: it is perfectly human to experience and accept the sad, it gives us balance with the happy. In other words, you do not have to be constantly joyful, ecstatic and positive to be labeled as happy. We are human! We are suppose to feel and experience every emotion..unless you are a sociopath, that is another issue! Okay so now to the technical health related stuff. 

So...

I got lovely genes, the type that makes you look slim but causes long-term health issues that deteriorate your quality of life. Type 2 diabetes, high cholesterol, hypothyroidism, stroke, kidney disease, addiction, anxiety, depression and maybe more I do not know about. This is a brief list of conditions that run in my family. Lets take the most common type for millions of Americans, type two diabetes. 

Here are some general facts about Type 2 diabetes that we should all know about:

1. Type 2 means your blood glucose is higher than normal a.k.a. hyperglycemia
2. Type 2 is the most common type of diabetes, 90-95% of those with diabetes. 
3. The body stops producing sufficient insulin (the glucose carriers) or the cells ignore it completely making it difficult for glucose to be broken down into energy. Cells can starve for energy.
•  *insulin carries the sugar from your blood to the cells to be broke down into energy for the rest of the body. This is why diabetics have constant high blood sugar levels even after fasting*
4. Long-term: Leads to poor eye sight, kidney disease, foot problems from the nerves, stroke and heart disease. 
• Vision: high blood glucose can damage the tiny blood vessels in your eyes. This can be prevented by keeping blood glucose and blood pressure in the target range. 
• Kidney disease: Kidneys get rid of waste. Type 2 damages the tiny blood vessels in your kidneys leading to blocked and leaky vessels. The result is that your body is unable to filter out waste. Prevention: regulation of blood glucose and blood pressure. 
• Foot problems: High blood glucose damages the nerves and blood vessels in the legs and feet. As a result, sores, cuts and blister take longer to heal. 
• Heart disease: Diabetes changes the substances in the blood, causing openings in the blood vessels or narrowing until it becomes clogged up. The result is blockage or major slowing of blood flow to the whole body! *heart attacks occur when a vital blood vessel leading to the heart becomes blocked*
• Stroke "Brain attack": Caused when a blood vessel leading to or in the brain becomes clogged.
5. Common demographics that are diagnosed with diabetes: Type 2 is common in African Americans, Latinos, Native Americans, and Asian Americans/Pacific Islander and the older population. *One reason is due to the staple diet of each demographic* 
6. In general, who gets diabetes: family history of diabetes, being overweight, and living a sedentary (not-so-active) lifestyle. 

Source: Diabetes.org, American Diabetes Association 

Interactive video on diabetes summarizes type 2 beautifully: "Type 2 Lou" http://web.diabetes.org/link/link_for_life/main.html?loc=facts-about-type2

*Positive note*: Type 2 diabetes can be prevented! 

What will I be blogging about? Health issues I find interesting, health recipes that are delicious, yoga and spirituality and more!

I love hummus because it is delicious, that is why! It is simple.