This time around, though, I am loving my almond butter. Maranatha brand, for the win!

I do wish, though, that I had a greater variety of butters available to me locally. I don’t often order foods online without being completely convinced, without any doubt, that I’m going to love what I get, and since I had that bad experience, I’m a bit wary; I’d much rather get a small jar to sample, then move on to larger amounts, but that’s not as cost-effective when it comes to mail order. Enthusiastic endorsements from other folks – real people, not paid ads – go a long way toward making me feel more confident.

“Free” also works wonders.

Clare, then, is speaking my language! Maybe she’s speaking yours, too? She’s hosting a giveaway for a nut butter company that’s…well, hey! Looks like I could actually get their products in person without driving too far! Maybe if I win, and the sample hooks me, I’ll be making a few extra car trips a month…

Anyway, go comment, but if you click through to there from here and you win, I want to hear your opinion, too!

I don’t know why it didn’t occur to me that pancakes can be like oatmeal. I know quite well how to top a bowl of oats and create a huge variety of concoctions, from pumpkin pie to peanut butter and jelly. But pancakes (ooh, and probably waffles, too!) can be just as versatile, in much the same way! The only crucial key is making sure you keep the right balance between wet and dry ingredients, and the sky’s the limit!

So I took out our trusty copy of The Joy of Cooking and found the base pancake recipe…

Dry ingredients: 1.5 cups flour, 3 tablespoons sugar, 1.75 tablespoons baking powder, 1 teaspoon salt.
Wet ingredients: 1.5 cups milk (I used skim), 3 tablespoons melted butter, 2 eggs, 0.5 teaspoon vanilla.

So far, so good. Keeping in mind the idea of “mix your own,” I separated the sifted-together dry ingredients into three separate bowls (Eric wasn’t home tonight, so this was just to be for me and my kids). Then I added equal amounts of the mixed-together liquids to each bowl.

At this point, after stirring wet into dry, Gabe’s bowl was ready to go, since he didn’t want anything in his actual pancakes. Sam wanted chopped bananas and dates, so I added those to his bowl and let them rest in the liquids while I cooked Gabe’s pancakes (Joy suggested that step). After the fruit had rested in the milk for a bit, I stirred his and cooked them.

My bowl was more interesting. To my bowl, I added: 1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder, 1 tablespoon Kahlua, a splash of extra vanilla, and, after stirring the rest, two tablespoons of part-skim ricotta cheese. I wanted the ricotta to stay mostly unmixed, so that I could mimic the separate cheese layer in a dish of tiramisu.

Then I cooked.

They look like chocolate pancakes, and they’re delicious. But the best part…

See that hunk of ricotta? Soft, creamy BLISS.

So! Go forth and make your own pancakes! The world is your oyster! I’m glad I started with these. (Oh, and – yeah, one-third of the recipe from Joy is quite the caloric hit. It made six good-sized pancakes. You probably don’t need all six…but I won’t tell on you if you don’t tell on me!)

Per tiramisu pancake (plain and banana-date pancakes are different!) – Fat: 3g; Carbohydrates: 14g; Calories: 96; Protein: 3g.

The base: bulgur. What a nice little grain! It can be used interchangeably with couscous, but it’s got so much more going for it: B vitamins, iron, lots of fiber. Fewer calories and less fat than brown rice, and over four times the folate! What’s not to love? Oh, yeah, and then there’s the fact that cooking it really just entails adding hot water (an equal amount to the dry bulgur being prepared; I used a cup of each) and letting it stand for thirty minutes or so. (I added some vegan bouillon to my hot water.)

The veggies: in this case, chopped zucchini, carrots, fennel, and garlic, all sautéed in a tablespoon of olive oil and seasoned with salt and pepper. Also present are a handful of sun-dried tomatoes, a can of artichoke hearts, and a can of kidney beans (rinsed). After sautéing the first vegetables, I combined them all and set them to chill in the fridge alongside the soaked bulgur.

The sauce: for this, we can thank Emily, who fired the shot heard ’round the food-blogging world. I may be a Johnny-Come-Lately to the party, but I’m glad I showed up in time to hit the refreshment table! For my ABU, I combined half a cup of chunky almond butter with a full cup of unsweetened vanilla Almond Breeze. I didn’t add any sweetener, since I felt that the vanilla in the almond milk was just enough sweetness to match the vegetables in the rest of the dish.

I made all the parts earlier this afternoon, so by the time I came back to them, everything was nice and cold in the refrigerator. I layered them into my bowl, took a bite…and melted. Or reconstituted, perhaps; this is a perfect meal for a warm summer day, or perhaps merely one where you’ve managed to work up a sweat with cleaning in preparation for a parental visit!

Serves 6. Per serving – Fat: 14g; Carbohydrates: 46g; Calories: 364; Protein: 15g.

Well, the violin went back to the store today (long story there), and I knew that I might not have another chance soon, so I crossed my fingers, took both my kids’ hands firmly in mine, and crossed the street to check it out.

We wound up with this assortment:

I’m really happy with our little initial collection, from the few tastes I’ve had, but…well, what with Sam’s excited jumping and discussion of the sweets, and Gabe’s refusal to stand still, and my subsequent inability to take in the heavy accent of the woman behind the counter, I’m at a loss to know exactly what we got. I know the orange things on the right are either Jalebi or Jaangiri, but I don’t know that there’s a way to differentiate between the two visually (they’re variations of each other with subtly different ingredients). As for the others, I have no real idea, despite my Googling.

Anybody want to help me out?

Well, eventually. Sadly, the next competition (Challenge: Booze!) falls on the first night of Sam’s Bible school. Oh, well; July will come. I don’t know how innovative a baker I can be, compared to some of these guys, though; seriously, I am now dying to try the Jalapeno Popper cupcakes!

Go here to enter! They look absolutely adorable.

For those who are new, I’m Carrie, and I write over at Earthmovers and Sandcastles. In the past couple of years, I’ve gone from being a morbidly obese sedentary woman to a marathoner with a strong focus on nutrition and physical fitness – and on finding ways, naturally, to use the former to fuel the latter. I’ve begun paying a lot of attention to what’s going into my mouth and into my system. My goal is to eat healthfully, and since this is my life and not “a diet,” I want to find lots of ways to make this something that not only can I sustain, but that I want to sustain!

Eric, my husband, is a natural cook; I am not. He’s comfortable improvising in the kitchen; my “projects” are often on the crude side of things (”Why can’t I sub this pepper for that one? They’re both green!”)…but I’m learning, and I’m having fun, and I’ve even made a few things that I’m eager to share and show off. Here’s my little “Brag Book,” then!

(I also often post pictures of the culinary creations Eric develops, and I usually get swamped with demands for “recipe, please!” I hope he’ll come along with me here to Happy Little Stove and share the finer points.)