Lemon Ricotta Pancakes and Blueberry Sauce

 I absolutely LOVE pancakes, and these pancakes are definitely some of the best I have ever had! Whoever started putting ricotta in pancakes was a genius, because it makes the pancakes even fluffier and the texture is more delicious! They are also so thick and I have found that they are easier to flip. The lemon flavor could not be more fun, especially in combination with the blueberry sauce!

I first discovered this recipe from the Two Peas and Their Pod food blog, and you can access the official recipe there! The only changes that I made was to use whole wheat flour instead of all-purpose flour in the pancakes and I did not include lemon zest. When making the sauce, I actually just put frozen blueberries and applesauce on the stovetop and stirred occasionally until it was all heated through! You could add sugar if you like, although I found that our sauce was perfectly sweet!

I hope you enjoy these for breakfast or any time of day! Happy weekend!

PGC Feast!

Happy weekend! One of the PGC challenges from about a week ago was rather difficult, but it challenged me and I actually won! We had to host a dinner party for a group of friends, and prepare a main course, side dish, dessert, and beverage that was entirely sustainable, fair-trade, or organic, and all of this for $2 a person. I ended up hosting my dinner party for 4 of my residents and I, and I made it breakfast themed! Our final total came to $9.96! And here is my entry...

Since my definition of sustainable food involved maintaining a nurturing relationship with the food from seed to what ends up on your plate, I looked for foods that were organic, harvested by workers who were paid a fair wage, and harvested locally to maximize freshness and minimize transportation costs and energy. When planning my menu, I wanted something that was all vegetarian, produce that was fresh and locally grown, and food that wasn’t going to be too expensive, especially with the price constraint of no more than $2.00 a person.

The shopping:

County Market:

Phil’s Farm Fresh Eggs: cage-free, antibiotic-free, grain-fed      

$2.74

Bob’s Red Mill Buttermilk Pancake and Waffle Whole Grain Mix made with organic flour      

$4.99 for the whole package (I used 1/3 of the package)

= $1.67

Organic Grape Tomatoes

$2.99 for the whole pack, we used 1/3

= $1.00

Target:

Archer Farms Organic Milk:

$3.79 for half gallon, we used half

= $1.90

Common Ground Food Co-op:

(I did not ask for a receipt, but the total came to $2.65)

Equal Exchange Chocolates (organic and fairly traded)

Locally grown, organic, and seasonal red pepper

Locally grown and organic potatoes

Total:

= $9.96

Cost per person (for 5 people)

= $1.99

In the campus community of Champaign-Urbana, County Market is a very popular grocery store, although not especially sustainable or unique. I also had to run errands at Target, so I picked up the organic milk while I was there. However, the Common Ground Food Co-op is where things get exciting!

This was my first time ever being in the co-op, and I loved it! Every produce label tells you where it was grown and who grew it. For example, the red pepper I bought was grown by the Moore Family Farm in Watseka, IL. It adds a real personal touch the food that we buy, and I really liked that the co-op provided this information.

This is a picture of Anna, who is an employee at the Common Ground Food Co-op in Urbana, IL. Her title on her nametag said “Change Maker”, and I liked that, since this co-op is making a difference in the Urbana community. She was very helpful and taught me a lot about the co-op. To become a member of the co-op, you pay a fee that supports the co-op and also technically makes you an “owner”, which gives you extra benefits that include potlucks, cooking classes, and voting on important matters within the co-op. The vibe of the co-op is really warm and laid back, with people working who are very happy with what they do!

The Meal:

Now for the fun part… the meal!

The theme was breakfast for dinner. After all, it’s too early to get maximum enjoyment out of scrumptious breakfast foods in the morning. I made all elements of the meal without recipes, but had made all of them before.

 Our main course was frittatas, made with the cage-free eggs, local and organic red pepper, and organic grape tomatoes, and a splash of organic milk. This recipe couldn’t be easier. I mixed 10 eggs with probably around ¼ cup of milk with the chopped up red pepper and grape tomatoes, and added some salt and pepper. I poured the egg mixture into a muffin tin and baked until they were fluffy and golden at the top.

The side dish was oven-roasted potatoes, which were locally grown. I cut up four small potatoes and mixed them with a little olive oil and seasoned them with salt and pepper. I put them on a baking sheet and baked them at 400 degrees Fahrenheit until they started to brown and were soft on the inside.

My “dessert” was chocolate chunk pancakes that were stuffed with chocolate chunks. The chocolate was definitely the star of the show! I purchased Equal Exchange Organic Milk Chocolate with a hint of hazelnut, and it was honestly the best chocolate I have ever had in my entire life. I cut up chunks to put inside the pancakes and made some chocolate shavings to put on top of the pancakes. I prepared one cup of Bob’s Red Mill Pancake mix using one of the two remaining eggs, a tablespoon of oil, and ¾ cups of water. I mixed these ingredients together, added the chocolate chunks, and cooked the pancakes!

We drank organic milk for our beverage.

I would say that our dinner party was a huge success. I must admit, when I first heard of the challenge, I thought it was going to be really tough to buy all organic/fair trade/locally grown foods for such a small budget. However, the whole thing was easier than I thought and was a lot of fun too! My friend Samar even said they were the best pancakes she ever had! I am so happy I went to the Common Ground Food Co-op for the first time! This was definitely my favorite challenge thus far… and the most delicious!

From left to right: Christian, Pavan, me, Heather, and Samar

These are some of my residents and we had a late night feast in the main lounge of our residence hall. I am the RA on a floor for environmental sustainability, so they were all excited when they heard about this challenge (and when I invited them to dinner!)

Green Challenge #2 Results and Microwave Pancakes

Hello again! This upcoming week I start the 30-day Project Green Challenge, and I am very excited for that journey!

This past week I collected my garbage (well, most of it) to see what I was throwing away and how much I was. During the week, I generated about one small garbage can worth of trash that weighed about 8 lbs. Most of it was food related, some food and lots of food packaging that is not recyclable. Some culprits were granola bar wrappers, yogurt containers (since we can only recycle plastics #1 and #2).  Unfortunately, I don't really have the option of composting at this point in my life, but I would love to in the future, and that would help with some of the food waste. A few of the other things include kleenex and dental floss. I am sort of happy since I threw away about one pound of garbage each day, which is much less than the national average of 4.4 lbs a day. However, I would like to cut this number down significantly, since at the rate of one pound of garbage per day, I will create 365 lbs per year, and 3,650 lbs by the time I am 30. Eww. That is a lot of garbage and lot to ask of Mother Nature.

In other news, I made pancakes for the first time in the microwave. They were surprisingly amazing and my room smelled like pancakes! :)  Basically, make pancake batter like you normally would, and then put it on a greased, microwave safe plate. Microwave for 90 seconds to 3 minutes, depending on the strength of your microwave and how big you make it. The pancakes were not as fluffy, but just as delicious as regular pancakes and much easier clean up! Perhaps this will be my new midnight snack!

Happy almost October!

Whole Wheat Crepes

After my host mom in Granada made me such delicious crepes, as soon as I returned to the US I knew I wanted to make some too! This recipe is definitely very easy, delicious, and healthy.  Well, depends on how much Nutella you use. :) Win win win!

This recipe made 8 crepes.

Ingredients:

• 1 egg
• 2 tablespoons melted butter
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1/4 cup water
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
• Nutella! (or whatever you wish to fill your crepes with)
• strawberries and bananas
• chocolate for drizzling

To begin, mix together the eggs, butter, milk, water, vanilla, sugar, and flour. Heat up some butter or oil on a pan on medium heat. Pour between 1/8 and 1/4 of a cup of batter into the center of the pan and pick up the pan and turn it to make a very thin layer that covers the bottom of the pan. Cook both sides until lightly browned.

Spread with Nutella and put the strawberries and banana down the center of the crepe. Fold edges over, and drizzle chocolate over the top.

Bon appétit! 

Microwaved Scrambled Eggs

By now, you may be aware that I love breakfast foods!  Eggs are one of my favorite foods, and I don't think you can ever go wrong eating them, for any meal of the day!  I have recently been into scrambled egg sandwiches, and love them with cheddar cheese and avocado!  Also, if you are in need of a healthy, quick snack or meal, you can make microwave scrambled eggs with cottage cheese!  The cottage cheese adds some lean protein, and makes the eggs fluffier.

Microwave Scrambled Eggs
1 egg
1 oz cottage cheese
any additional "toppings"

Simply grease your microwave safe bowl, cup, etc, and mix the two ingredients together.  Microwave for one minute, and then in 30 second increments until they have cooked through!  Enjoy!

Nutrition (per egg)
Calories: 95
Fat: 6 g
Sat. Fat: 2 g
Protein: 9 g

Delicious Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls (and nearly fat free!)

Cinnamon rolls are one of my favorite foods, especially during the winter!  The past few days my family and I enjoyed these amazing cinnamon rolls as part of our movie nights and they went over very well!  Also, it works great to double the dough recipe and put it in the fridge for another day!  While traditional cinnamon rolls are very high in fat and low in nutrients, a few tweaks in the recipe omitted nearly all of the fat, and almost all of the ingredients have nutritional value of some sort!  The all-star ingredients in the recipe are pumpkin puree and applesauce, which replace butter or oil completely and leave the cinnamon rolls super moist!  Also, the rolls are made with whole wheat flour for added fiber.

Pumpkin, Flax, and Walnut Granola

Granola is a perfect snack that goes well with so many foods, and is even wonderful by itself!  While store bought granola can be very delicious, sometimes it is overly processed and packed with fat and sugar.  Making homemade granola is very easy, and you can control exactly what you put into it!  This recipe is very healthy since nearly every ingredient has a health benefit of some sort!  And it is so YUMMY!!!

Hakuna Frittatas!

These mini frittatas are one of the easiest and most delicious recipes!  They are definitely real crowd pleasers, and upon having them, some of my friends changed the words of the song "Hakuna Matata" to Hakuna Frittata!

What exactly is a frittata?  I suppose if you are the type of person who reads food blogs, then you would know, but I have been surprised by the number of people I know who have no idea as to what a frittata is.  Well, a frittata is essentially a baked omelette.  The preparation is very similar, but instead of cooking it on the stove, you bake it in the oven.  This recipe is baked in a muffin pan and is a wonderful way to use up eggs.

Banana Cream Pie Smoothie

When life gives you very ripe bananas, make a smoothie!

Banana Cream Pie Smoothie
Makes about 2 cups of smoothie