I’m still hardcore eatin’ clean and occasionally making recipes from Clean Eating Magazine.

Today I made these tasty Multi-grain pancakes with raspberries & ricotta sauce. They are a nice alternative to the boxed pre-made crap they sell in the grocery stores, but with a fancy topping.

Multi-grain pancakes with raspberries & ricotta sauce

Clean Eating, September/October 2010

Serves: 4. Hands-on time: 10 minutes. Total time: 20 minutes.

Nutrients per serving (about 4 pancakes, 1/4 cup raspberries, 1/4 cup ricotta sauce): Calories: 408, Total Fat: 6 g, Sat. Fat: 2 g, Monounsaturated Fat: 1 g, Polyunsaturated Fat: 1 g, Carbs: 70 g, Fiber 10 g, Sugars: 17 g, Protein: 23 g, Sodium: 350 mg, Cholesterol: 13 mg.

INGREDIENTS – PANCAKES

• 1 1/4 cup white whole-wheat flour
• 1/2 cup spelt flour
• 1/4 cup wheat germ
• 1/2 cup regular oatmeal, ground
• 1 tsp Sucanat
• 1/8 tsp sea salt
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 egg
• 1 egg white
• 1 cup low-fat buttermilk
• 1 cup unsweetened plain soy milk
• Olive oil cooking spray
• 1 cup raspberries

INGREDIENTS – RICOTTA SAUCE

• 1/2 cup nonfat plain Greek-style yogurt
• 1/2 cup low-fat ricotta cheese
• 2 tbsp pure maple syrup
• 1/8 tsp cinnamon, ground

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Prepare pancakes: In a medium bowl, mix both flours, wheat germ, oatmeal, Sucanat, salt, baking soda and baking powder. In a smaller bowl, whisk together egg and egg white, buttermilk and soy milk until foamy. Pour wet ingredients into dry and mix until well-blended; let sit for 5 minutes so flours have time to absorb liquid (mixture will thicken).

2. Prepare ricotta sauce: In a small bowl, combine yogurt, ricotta, maple syrup and cinnamon with a whisk until smooth and creamy.

3. Heat a griddle or large skillet over medium-high heat (about 350 F) and coat with cooking spray. Pour pancake batter onto griddle in large spoonfuls (4 inches in diameter). Cook until bubbles form around edges, about 3 minutes. Flip and cook for another 2 to 3 minutes.

4. To serve, stack pancakes evenly among plates, drizzle with 1/4 cup ricotta sauce and top with 1/4 cup raspberries. Serve immediately.

TIP: If you’d like a thinner sauce, simply add more water, 1 tbsp at a time.

FINAL THOUGHTS

I did not like the ricotta sauce. Instead, I ended up using sugar free syrup with the raspberries. The pancakes were very good, and a wonderful alternative to the usual junk out there.

If you are like me – dumb to the world of cooking (ha ha) – maybe these tips will help you:

• Ground oatmeal: At first wasn’t sure how to make “ground” oatmeal. I ended up just throwing the oatmeal in my mini food processor and it worked great.
• Sucanat: You can usually find Sucanat at your local whole foods store if you are unsure where to purchase it.
• Buttermilk: No, it’s not found in liquid form (at least not in my experience) but rather in a powder form. The back of the container gives you instructions on how to mix it for recipes that call for liquid buttermilk. (A real light bulb moment for this girl!)

Recently, I switched back to an iPhone from my Blackberry. There are many pluses and minuses between the two phone platforms which I won’t get into here, but one thing that stands out is iPhone’s ability for custom third party applications.

There are lots of free and pay for applications. Like most things in life, you usually get what you pay for in the App Store, especially if you compare reviews for the application you are interested in.

There are two applications I want to discuss today. (For the record, I am only endorsing these apps because I use them – I am not getting paid for plugging them. Just purely love them and want to share how much and why.)

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Livestrong.com’s Calorie Tracker App – $2.99
1103+ Ratings, 4 star average | Website
What it is: Calorie tracker, diet and fitness tracker. You can track calories, weight, foods and fitness calories burned. I use it every day!

I love this app. After coming from using the FitDay PC program on my computer, this is a huge step up. For one, there is a huge database of food items, thousands and thousands – and I very rarely have to enter in custom foods, unlike the FitDay PC program where I was ALWAYS entering in custom foods that was very time consuming.

Also, the Livestrong.com app syncs up to your device so that you can also use a web based version. Awesome! So if you are at work and only have the web on your work computer, you an login, track your foods and then later when you have your iPhone you can sync and see all of the same foods. (Blackberry users: It does appear they have an app for your Blackberry too.)

PumpOne.com’s FitnessBuilder App – $9.99 + Subscription if you opt to have more features
384+ Ratings, 4.5 star average | Website
What it is: FitnessBuilder is the most comprehensive fitness database in the world. It contains the largest library of exercise images & videos, the most challenging workouts across all disciplines, access to a live personal trainer and a complete set of every fitness tool, calculator and tracking feature available.

I am a tight wad. Seriously. Add to the fact that money is tight – spending the $9.99 on this app was difficult for me, but I’ve gotten to the point in the gym where I’m feeling stale and need some new ideas. After reading through pages and pages of awesome reviews, I thought what the hell. So I did it. Then the next day I purchased the additional $34.99 year subscription which adds on hundreds of more exercises and allows you to email a PDF of your workouts to yourself and others to share. Get this – the PDF actually has links to videos showing how the exercise is preformed. Awesomeness.

There are hundreds of different workouts that are already created for you. You also have the option of creating your own workouts using the exercises in the library. I love the free weights at the gym – that is my favorite thing to work with, so the first thing I did was create my own free weights exercises. Then I emailed the workout to myself. See my FitBuilder custom workout example.

The exercise library shows you images and details on how to perform the exercise, plus allows you to view a short video of someone performing the exercise. I also like the fact that the exercise names are clearly shown. (I’m such an idiot with regards to exercise names!)

Have you tried either of these apps or do you have favorites of your own?

Are you a peanut butter fan like me? I like peanut butter on apples and straight out of the jar.

I’ve often wondered what the difference between the natural peanut butters and regular peanut butters are. I’ve checked labels at the store and at first glance there really was no big glaring difference to me in the nutritional content. Why pay more for a product that simply has the same make up and may not taste as good?

I decided to look a little closer and do some research on varying types of peanut butters and here’s what I found. I stuck with Jif brand peanut butter because it’s my favorite and quite frankly there are LOTS of brands of peanut butter out there!

(You can click on the peanut butter name to view the actual nutrition information label.)

So, what information do I find the most relevant in this table of data?

When I’m looking at labels at the store, my eyes usually wander to several areas. Number one, the calories; then carbs and sugar; and also the sodium content (remember my post on “The Sodium & Potassium connection” back in February?) Notice the difference in sodium content between the Jif Omega-3 and the Simply Jif Creamy / Natural Jif Creamy peanut butters? That’s a big difference when you keep in mind the serving size is 2 tbsp.

One important factor I have been neglecting during my selection process lately is the number of ingredients the product contains. If I’m going to purchase a processed item, that has got to be just as important as any of the other numbers. Notice the difference between the Jif Omega-3 and the Natural Jif Creamy’s number of ingredients?

Let’s look at the ingredients side by side for both of these:

I don’t know about you, but it kind of grosses me out that in the Jif Omega-3 peanut butter it contains “anchovy, sardine oil and tilapia gelatin”. Yuck! Perhaps it would be a better idea to just have an Omega-3 supplement or eat some tilapia fish in one of your meals?

The only thing glaring at me in the Natural Jif Creamy version is the sugar and molasses – which is another fancy name for sugar.

After looking at all of this information, I’d have to say I would chose the Natural Jif Creamy or the Simply Jif peanut butter over any of the other choices based on the sodium content and the number of ingredients as the other numbers are pretty comparable.

Are you a peanut butter eater? What type are you eating and do you have any comments or insights on the above?

I’ve heard a lot about these Green Monster shakes on various blogs and the health benefits from drinking them. I finally decided to make one last night, and I must say I was pleasantly surprised! Enough so, that I made one this morning too.

If you haven’t already, check out this site that has some great ideas and recipes.

Why should you drink a Green Monster shake/smoothie?

• Tons of energy & glowing, clear skin are great side effects
• Gives you lots of fruit & vegetable servings
• They taste great and they are quick and easy

I tried the Pumpkin-Kale-Banana Green Monster recipe last night. Here’s my version of the recipe:

• organic kale (I cooked this in the microwave with water for 5 mins., then drained it. It ended up being approx. 3.0 oz cooked)
• 8 oz. skim milk
• 1 small organic banana (I weighed it in and it was about 2.8 oz)
• 1/4 c organic canned pumpkin
• ice

The color is really beautiful, isn’t it? I absolutely love it. It’s not sweet tasting or anything, but it tastes GOOD. I’ve never had kale (or spinach) before in my life… I’m glad I decided to try this and it may become the norm for my mornings.

Here’s the nutrition information based on my specific recipe above. Not bad, huh?

Have you ever tried a Green Monster smoothie? Any good recipes you’d like to share?

Last night, we got away from the kids for a few hours and went to what I hope will be an annual tradition: “V-Day”. V stands for venison of course! Do you know what venison is? It’s deer meat.

Here I am with my husband having some pre-meal drinks. All in moderation, of course. :)

I had mostly a hate/hate relationship with venison – ever since my early college days in Ohio. My room mate’s boyfriend at the time was from northern Michigan and he would bring venison down to college for us to eat. College times were tough and the venison was FREE.

Think of Forrest Gump and all the ways you could have shrimp… We had venison and spaghetti, venison and eggs, venison steak, venison and this, venison and that, and it was always so dry and over cooked. The thought of venison repulsed me and made me physically ill – even fifteen years later. I wouldn’t touch the stuff.

Enter in our friend Michael who is an avid hunter. After hearing my story about venison, he was convinced he would turn me on to it if it were the last thing he did. So began the V-Day celebration!

Michael roasted this 18 lb slab of venison for 6-8 hours on the grill. It had been soaking in a lovely marinade as well.

Here’s Michael carving it to perfection. Notice my Clean Eating Magazine Apple Drop Biscuits on the table?

The venison reminded me of a nice slab of roast beef. Moist, and just TASTY. It was a wonderful surprise considering my past experiences with venison. It just goes to show that the preparation and cooking can make or break a meat.

Some benefits of venison:

• High in protein and iron, yet low in saturated fats.
• Good source of vitamins: vitamin B12, riboflavin, niacin, vitamin B6
• Wild venison is of course free range, grass fed & free of hormones or antibiotics

Have you ever tried venison before? Fan or not?