If nothing else….Squash Pancakes!

Oh my gosh, seriously guys – if you do one thing only with your life, do this – make the recipe that is coming up later!! To. Die. For.

But first – the morning!

I thought yesterday was productive? NOTHING compared to today, OH NO!

I set my alarm early again, rolled out of bed, ate 9g of chocolate-y goodness sent from Jessica (cheers my dears, it was lovely!):

Then dragged myself into the living room to do Jillian’s Shred part III.

After that, I did a quick recall test of the work I’d been doing yesterday, whilst I tried to develop an appetite for breakfast.

Breakfast itself – a Green Monster of course, since I replenished my spinach stash In the mix: 1 cup cereal, 1/2 cup milk, 1/2cup yogurt, 2 biiig spinach handfuls, 1 tbsp cocoa powder, 1 banana. Topped with almonds, dates, cranberries, grated cacoa, walnuts and jam – and the welcome return of TREE BARK! [Fru-grains folks, just Fru-Grains]:

SO GOOD. And so beautiful, I think I mainly eat it for the colour. I’m shallow like that

Then I gave myself a deal: 1hour work, 10mins break of exercise DVD fun! So that’s what I did I spent the morning revising, but incorporated another 35mins of DVDs into it all (total for the day – 1hr), to keep my sanity. It worked a treat!!

So, lunch, amaze. I wasn’t really sure what to cook, but I was feeling in need of a pick-me-up after a long harrrrddd work session this morning. Something sweet was on the cards….so, I made:

Butternut Squash Pancakes!

[Yes, if you’re in the US, just use canned pumpkin, everyone probably does it and it’s not unusual; but for me, this was!]

I’ don’t like regular pancakes very much at all (both times after I’ve had them in recent months, my blood sugar has gone up and down like a rocket, and left me feeling very crumby ) but these ones were a big exception!

I started by baking some squash chunks for about 40minutes, til they were really soft, then I left them to cool, so I didn’t burn myself when I peeled off the skin later. When peeled and cooled, I mashed them with a fork, then added 20g of ground barley flakes (I just dunked them in the food process for a second, so they turned into flour basically), cinnamon and a pinch of salt:

Mix mix mix, then I stirred in 2 eggs and mixed til it was thoroughly combined (The WHOLE eggs, not the whites – you know most of the nutrients and ALL of the flavour is in the yolk? USE THE YOLK PEOPLE!!) :

Now in theory, you should probably take spoonfuls of the batter and cook them in little batches. I however, did not. I just plonked the whole load in:

Oops….that does not for easy flipping make! Here’s what happened when I tried to flip:

Yeah, it didn’t work.

In the end, I just rolled with it – Butternut Squash Pancakes are actually meant to look like that, didn’t you know?

Anyways, I cooked them over a med-low heat for about 15mins til they were starting to brown. I probably should have done them longer, but I ran out of patience

Here they are, in all their glory – inside the house:

And outside the house (I took my chicken on its’ first trip outside – I like free range hens):

NOT THE END THOUGH! No, they needed a topping! Sooo I chopped up a (very soft) apple with some strawberries, and fried it with date syrup, cinnamon and apple sauce, til the mix was all gooey and gross looking, then I served it on top of the pancakes:

A.M.A.Z.I.N.G. Seriously, these were SO good!! Light and fluffy and flavourful and DELICIOUS!!! Highly, highly recommended. I want to eat these again and again..they’d make an amazing breakfast too. Hooray!

I also had some pineapple cubes with jam and cinnamon:

And four tiny mini almond cookies for dessert (they were mega small, hence the 4):

All natural, no junk cookies of course! I also had 1/4 cup of Quinoa O’s, as I felt 20g barley flakes wasn’t quite enough carb I ate about 4 O’s, then decided (as I was alone), it was Ugly Challenge Time: Can I fit ALL of the O’s in my mouth at once??? Answer: Yes. I just looked like a hamster whilst doing it But hey, that’s what you do when you’re alone, right? You eat food the UGLY WAY!!

OH, and I tried some of this tea, in my spanking new £2 mug:

After my successful tea tasting last week, I thought I might like it. Alas, I was wrong. The drain was happy though!

After lunch, I was on a fruity-sugary-post-amazing-meal high, so I cracked on with work for another hour before driving to get my sister from the train station (she is home for the weekend).

The afternoon continued on as it normally does, until I got to tuck into World’s Best Muffin Snack – a hot parsnip apple date spice muffin (see my recipe section!) spread with chocolate peanut butter with a hot chocolate:

It literally does not come better than that.

Dinner was pretty dull – by the time the evening rolls round, my brain is just too frazzled to think of anything imaginative! So it was just soy sauce/garlic/cinnamon/agave baked tofu, with durum wheat, onion squash, aubergine, parsnip and garlic:

All my favourites, rolled into one

Dessert – you know what it’ll be

I have one word to describe how I’m feeling now though – exhausted! OH, revision is tiring…I can’t wait for my planned 2hr excursion bright and early tomorrow – 2hrs to think about nothing…..it’ll be BLISS!

What are everyone else’s weekend plans? Anything exciting? Oh, and what do you do to relax? I feel I need some technique or activity that I can do in the evening to help me wind down (I’m having major trouble sleeping, my head is just spinning), that isn’t a bath (I hate baths). Any ideas?