But if you remember, I have this thing with pancakes – I can’t just stop at a good recipe. I have this overwhelming urge to change things. So, change I did.

And came up with a zucchini pancake recipe I’m proud of.

(My camera ran out of batteries right here, and I had to charge it and let my pancakes get cold while I impatiently waited until it held enough of a charge to take a couple more pictures)

Ingredients (makes 5-6 pancakes)

• 1/4 c all purpose flour
• 1/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour
• 1 t baking powder
• 1/4 t baking soda
• 1/4 t salt
• 2 T ground flax + 7 T water (this is your egg)
• 2 T coconut oil
• 2 T stevia (sugar will work fine!)
• 1/4 c water
• 1 c grated zucchini

Combine all flax and water and set aside.

Combine the dry ingredients. Combine the wet ingredients (including the flax egg). Add the wet to the dry and fold in the zucchini. Cook in a hot pan (or griddle) for 3-4 minutes on each side.

Oh, you see some chocolate smeared on the plate? Yeah, I added chocolate chips to the last pancake.

Check out my guest post (on why I’m not a vegan) at Eden Eats Everything!

Also, did you vote today?

Staying in your pajamas past 10 o’clock, drinking coffee and making a batch of pancakes is pretty close to heaven in my opinion.

I made my vegan pancakes recipe, but instead of sugar – I pulled out my stevia baking blend.

Sugar-free-July doesn’t have anything on me.

Adrienne sat with me like a big girl while I ate breakfast. She will be two months old tomorrow…where the heck did the last two months go??!

Told you I was still in my pajamas.

Delicious! Adrienne loved them too…

Juuuust kidding. Take a look at that adorable potbelly – my girl needs no pancakes.

Happy Sunday!

Secondly, for the last 8ish months, I haven’t noticed an increase in my appetite, but that all changed this weekend. I’m requiring a lot of fuel to get me through the day. Starting with…

Breakfast

A massive bowl of frosted mini wheats. And after I finished this bowl, I had more.

Snack Drawer

The plastic bag has a brownie and almonds – the rest is fairly self explanatory.

Lunch

I’ve been craving tuna – which apparently you aren’t supposed to have much of while preggo. I figured once in a while was okay – and indulged at Sprouts yesterday.

So dang good.

Dinner

I made a big dish of chicken enchiladas for Mr. Meeker.

And some pancakes (leftover) with bananas, granola, blueberries, and yogurt for me.

Mmm, lick.

In the 3^rd grade world…

We had a power outage at school for the last hour of the day. Luckily, we have windows in our classroom – but the hallways, and more importantly, the bathrooms were pitched into darkness.

One of my students was in the restroom when the lights when out, and after he came back to regale the class with his adventure, I had 20 hands shoot up in the air claiming that they needed to take “emergency bathroom trips” – I tried to keep the chaos to a minimum, but in the end, I gave up. You’ve got to choose your battles, right?

It was a morning for comfort food. In the form of cake.

Well, pancakes.

I have a healthy vegan, gluten-free version of these pancakes – but this morning I went the traditional route. Sometimes life calls for milk, butter, and eggs.

And after the sink is clear of dishes – I plan to make brownies. Lots of them.

Here’s to comfort food.

drizzled in peanut butter and agave

These are seriously the best pancakes ever. Especially alongside some chocolate milk…

I’m five years old.

Now we’ve got a crockpot full of potatoes baking away, and a to-do list to tackle.

We’ve got a nice little Saturday planned…

Growing little Baby Cakes is taking a lot of energy, and week particularly drained me. So my parents’ house was the perfect place to relax and be waited on hand and foot. I got there around 7pm last night, and my Daddy had cooked up a spectacular dinner.

Roasted veggies on top of rice with fruit salad on the side

I slept for a good 10 hours, and then dragged myself out of bed to eat more (I feel a little like a hibernating bear). While I was waking-up/sitting on the couch chatting with my mom – my dad brought us a little grapefruit appetizer to start with.

Then he came out with the full breakfast about twenty minutes later…

Blackberry pancakes and scrambled eggies.

I think I might have to make this a regular weekend getaway.

I woke up yesterday morning with a hankering for pancakes. However, my belly doesn’t really like anything with gluten or dairy in it (I still eat it sometimes…but it’s never really worth it), so I set about to make a gluten-free vegan version of my old favorites.

I was surprisingly delighted with the result.

They were especially delicious topped with almond butter and agave.

Gluten-Free Vegan Pancakes

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups gluten free all-purpose flour (I use Bob’s)
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/8 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
• 2 tbs. chia seeds
• 6 tbs. water
• 1 1/4 cups soy milk
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 3 tablespoons butter substitute (I use Earth Balance), melted

Directions

1. First, add the chia seeds to the 6 tbs. water and let set until they turn into a gel (this will be your “egg”)
2. Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and nutmeg – set aside
3. In a separate bowl, combine milk, vanilla, melted butter, and the chia “egg”
4. Add the wet to the dry and stir until just combined
5. Pour the batter onto a hot griddle/pan by ¼ cup, let cook for 1-2 minutes and flip.

**These cook quickly so be careful to watch them**

I ate half a batch (about 4-5 cakes) yesterday morning, and froze the rest for today (and ate them about an hour ago for some Punky-walking fuel). I dare say that they are better than the original – which I have been making for years.

The evidence?

A plate licked clean.

I’ve never been wild about pizza. So I like to replace it with cake. Think I’m kidding? Just wait.

I started this morning with an early speed workout:

The wind was INSANE, and it slowed me down considerably. I am really ready for springtime to be over. Afterwards, I decided that I wanted to walk to work, which meant that I only had 30 minutes to stretch, shower, eat breakfast and get out the door. For breakfast, I chose a pancake.

Cake #1: Oatmeal + Protein

¼ cup oats, ¼ cup ww flour, 1 scoop protein powder, stevia, cinnamon

It was large and in charge. Because I was in such a rush, I actually held the pancake and my coffee in my hands while I walked sprinted to work. It was quite the sight. I ate the pancake while at my desk, smothered in crunchy peanut butter.

I took a cake hiatus at lunch and had leftover taco salad.

Lettuce, black beans, salsa, chicken, crumbled tortilla chips

After work, I hoofed it home and made some spinach/blackberry protein ice cream. Ice cream goes well with cake.

½ cup frozen spinach, ¾ cup frozen blackberries, 1 scoop protein powder, splash of water – into the food processor for a few minutes and topped with chopped almonds

I went to the grocery store after this snack, and then came home for…

Cake #2, 3, 4, and 5: Red Velvet Pancakes

Mine weren’t as attractive as the Queen of Sweet’s, but they were dang tasty. I topped mine with greek yogurt and a few chocolate chips.

In the 3^rd grade world…

Remember when it was fun to sharpen your pencils down to little nubs?

It drives me crazy when my kids do this because we are ALWAYS running out of pencils; which makes the classroom come to a halt. This is proof that they are all just being eaten by the pencil sharpener.

I know the pancake girl would agree. I like to make a big batch of pancakes on Saturday or Sunday, eat a few, and then freeze the rest. Then when breakfast options are low (as they are now) – I just have to pop a couple of frozen pancakes into the toaster! Nothing could be easier. I topped these with walnut butter, cinnamon and agave. With these yummy cakes feeling wonderful in my belly, I’m off to the new gas station that just opened by my school because they are giving away FREE COFFEE for the entire month of March. Happy Tuesday to me!

I started the day by making pancakes for my husband.

I also nibbled on a couple while I was making the batch – but never got around to having a plate for myself.

Then I did an hour of yoga, took Punky for a nice walk, and went to the grocery store.

After yoga, I drank this to help my gumby-like muscles

This was a sample from Mix 1 – and again – I loved it. So far, I’ve really been a fan of these smoothies. Convenient and tasty – and the stats aren’t too shabby. This was mix berry, and it tasted like raspberries – yum, yum.

After grocery shopping, I was really hungry, so I came home to whip up a delightful lunch. First, I assembled a quesadilla.

Cheddar, avocado, black beans

Into a hot pan for about 2 minutes on each side, or until cheese is melty

Then, some Kale Chips!

One head of kale, washed, drizzled with 1 tbs. of evoo and sprinkled with salt – baked at 375* for 12 minutes

I dipped the quesadilla in equal parts salsa and plain yogurt.

Then I made a batch of HEAB’s oaties

Oh Lordy, why did it take me so long to find this recipe!! I could have eaten all the batter myself. I made mine with chunky peanut butter, walnuts, and chocolate chips. I die.

After my fare share of oatie sampling (and laundry folding) – I made myself a fruit snack.

Grapes and two cuties.

For dinner, I’m making tuna melt pita sandwiches.

And since I pretty much solidified my status of “cat lady” yesterday – I thought I would go ahead and unabashedly share this picture of my other cat, Bagheera (Baggy for short, because he’s so fat) sleeping on the couch.

Makes me feel all squishy.