Lifestyle

Sweet Potato Pancakes

~ laurensleankitchen ~ 4 Comments

sweet potato cakesAfter I made my Super Sweet Potato Skins for the Super Bowl, I was left with some extra sweet potato filling. I HATE wasting food, so I turned to the internet to figure out what the heck I could do with the extras.

I found this recipe for sweet potato pancakes, and I figured I would give it a shot. I am SO happy I decided to get adventurous!

What you need:

  • 1/2 cup sweet potato, microwaved until soft and mashed (However, I used about 1 1/2 cups of sweet potato that was leftover from my skins)
  • 2 eggs (you might be able to get away with 1-will try the next time I make these)
  • 1 tbsp almond meal
  • 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon (add only if you are not using extra from the skins recipe- this was already added)
  • 1/4 tsp baking soda
  • 1/4 tsp vanilla (same as the cinnamon)
  • coconut oil, for pan

Mix all the ingredients, except for the coconut oil, in a large bowl. Sweet potatoes should actually be counted as a carb, so I used my yellow 21DF container to measure the servings.

The first one I made was wayyyyy too big, so I cut it back to 1/2 a yellow container.

Heat a pan with a tablespoon of coconut oil, and then use the yellow container (or about 1/4 cup) to measure out your servings. This mix made about 12 pancakes.

The batter came out very runny, so I let the pancakes cook for a few minutes on each side trying to firm them up some. Cook these as you would a regular pancake.

They certainly did not come out like the pancakes in the photo from the original recipe (do they ever?), but they sure were a delicious treat. I did not have to serve them with any additional toppings. They were sweet enough to satisfy any craving!

I served the pancakes as a side to my open-faced Turkey and Portobello Mushroom Burgers (stay tuned for the recipe).

21DF peeps: 2 pancakes= 1 yellow

Deciding to get lean

~ laurensleankitchen ~ 2 Comments

Love yourself enoughPete and I got engaged on November 7, 2015. I knew right away that it would have to be game on for our wedding diet!

My entire life, I have yo-yoed with my weight. I would lose a few pounds, sustain for a bit, but the second I would allow myself to “cheat” I would gain back my weight, and then some.

I was tired of all of the ups and downs.

I knew the wedding “diet” would have to be something more than just an unsustainable fad. It would have to be a lifestyle change.

In the year prior to getting engaged, I ran 5 half marathons, and 1 full marathon. Running kept me on the “slim” side, but I was eating whatever I pleased because I knew I was burning so many calories. I was getting frustrated as to why I wasn’t seeing a bigger change (hmmmm, wonder why?).

Obviously, how I was feeding myself was not working. I needed to start from scratch. I needed to start all over and relearn the basics of portion control, and what foods I should be taking in on a daily basis.

I had seen some people posting about 21 Day Fix (21DF) on Facebook, and after some research on the program, I was sold. I ordered my program and was ready to go! 30 minutes a day of working out was nothing! Shoot, I ran a marathon in 6 hours and 20 minutes; working out for 30 minutes is CAKE!

Beachbody offers free coaches, and since I’m a sucker for anything free, I signed up.

Within a day I was connected with a wonderful coach named Julie.  I immediately joined her Facebook challenge group. A Beachbody Facebook challenge group is designed to help support others while they are completing various Beachbody programs, share success, share defeats, keep each other accountable, and share recipes.

I quickly realized that this wasn’t a diet, but it was a lifestyle change.

In pressing the “restart” button on my eating habits, I turned to Pinterest for some 21DF recipe help. Although I found some recipes, there was not a ton available that incorporated the ingredients and portions I was looking for. I found myself adjusting the recipes to fit what was going to suit my needs best.

I started making a few new recipes incorporating healthy ingredients with the right portion sizes. And, of course, I made sure that these meals would still be crave-worthy.

Not only do the recipes need to be healthy and crave-worthy, they need to be EASY. I’m a working lady, so meals during the week need to have few recipes, which in turn, do not have a lot of expensive ingredients.

So here we are.

While I am on my own journey to stay lean in the kitchen, and improve my physical condition, I hope that this blog will help others get creative with healthy foods and live a lean lifestyle.