Throw Out the Bisquick
If you are anything like me, this year was a turning point for your kitchen cupboards. After watching Dr. Oz wax on about the harmful effects of eating things your grandmother wouldn’t recognize, you too immediately tossed anything out of your kitchen that had more than 5 ingredients, contained things that you couldn’t pronounce, or had even a trace of trans-fat. This exercise, while necessary, certainly posed a challenge for people like myself who until recently never knew what to do without mono- and diglycerides, high fructose corn syrup, and everyone’s favorite, Polysorbate 60.
Into the trash went the Chips Ahoy, the Pringles, the Ritz crackers. Things were going okay until my husband saw me toss a giant Costco sized bag of trans-fat laden pancake and waffle mix into the trash. Then he went into panic mode. Lets just say he’s not quite on the bus of eating healthy just yet. He will be eventually but right now he’s sort of running behind the bus. Unfortunately I am not slowing down so I’m not sure if he’ll ever catch up.
Anyway, I had to come up with a solution for his Sunday pancake breakfasts. After scouring the internet and trying several recipes I took the best of each and I feel like I hit the jackpot with this one. Even my husband grudgingly admitted that my homemade version was a very close second to his beloved Krusteaz. I consider it an honor.
Maya requested hers with blueberries and chocolate chips:
Maya
My husband went the more traditional route with bananas, powdered sugar, and a few chocolate chips thrown on by myself for a better photo:
Ali
Yes he ate more than one pancake. And he took the chocolate chips off. I think they were making him nervous. Dessert at breakfast? Apparently I was completely messing up the natural order of things.
Makes 6 Pancakes
3/4 cups flour
1 3/4 t baking powder
1/2 t salt
2 t sugar
3/4 cup milk
1 egg
2 T canola oil
Mix all the dry and wet ingredients separately. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ones. Stir just until mixed. Spray a pan with cooking spray and keep it at medium heat. Drop the batter into the warmed pan 1/4 cup at a time. Top with any and all ingredients you can think of. With the exception of anything that contains unpronounceable ingredients and yes I know that eliminates most everything. But thats the way the trans-fat free cookie crumbles.
The Best Yoga Pants Ever
For years I have been searching for some super comfortable, versatile work out/yoga pants that can also double as a decent pair of black casual pants. You know, the pants I’m talking about. And believe me when I say that I have looked high and low for these pants – Lucy, Lululemon, Gap Body, Nike, Addidas, Athleta, Juicy, you name it, I’ve tried it.
I really wanted to love Lululemon’s pants because I do love their store and own quite a few of their tops and jackets. Unfortunately their pants just don’t fit me well. Too high on the waist, to baggy around the thighs. And I am somehow in the middle of the “short” and “tall” lengths which is odd since I am 5’8″ and the national average height for women is something like 5’4″ I think. Very confusing.
So the other day I took the plunge and printed out one of the email offers I received from Lucy (take note Lucy that 1-2 emails per week instead of daily is sufficient). They had an offer I couldn’t refuse – $15 off their new Hatha Power Pant. They basically guaranteed that it was the pant I’d been looking for all my life. With my husband out of town and a long weekend of single-handedly entertaining a 4 year old ahead of me, I grabbed Maya and battled the 405 traffic to try these pants on. And lo and behold, the time I spent in Saturday afternoon gridlock was actually worth it.
Picture from Lucy.com
These pants are nothing short of fabulous. They have the best fit – sleek through the leg and a wide opening so they break over your shoes properly. There is nothing worse than when your hems get stuck in your shoes, right? While the pants don’t have regular pockets they do have a small front pocket that will fit an iPod or even half of my iPhone fairly securely. This is very convenient.
I’ve worn these pants constantly since buying them – all the way too and from Toronto last week. They folded super small and didn’t crease! I can even pair them with a nice sweater and get away with wearing them to work. (Okay, who am I kidding? I could roll out of bed and go to work in my pajamas and the entirely male office wouldn’t even bat an eyelash).
The only con to these pants are the $88 price tag. But I do believe that you have to pay for quality and I think these pants are worth it, especially with the $15 discount. Sign up for Lucy’s emails, yes the deluge is a pain but the discounts are worth it.
I have just written numerous paragraphs on a pair of yoga pants – a feat I have never accomplished before – but that should only confirm that these pants are worth it. Get thyself to Lucy and give try them out – I promise you’ll love them too.
Welcome…
What better way to start a new blog off than to write a post about food?
One of my favorite things in the world to do is have afternoon tea and I recently did so in Paris (which is of course one of my favorite cities in the world). We sat at the famous Laduree’s outdoor section on the Champs – Elysees and had macaroons and tea. I did experience some sticker shock as the place is expensive, but what in Europe isn’t? Basically if you sit at any outdoor cafe you can expect to spend about $10 on a coffee, or even just a Perrier with a slice of lemon! (I guess the Costco crates of sparkling water are not readily available in Paris). In any case I was sitting on the Champs – Elysees and that is worth every penny.
A photo of the outside of the Laduree. I am not an architectural buff by any means but I was really taken by the details and scrollwork.
Trying to keep my Amex bill to a minimum I ordered an Earl Grey and two of their famous macaroons. While macaroons here in the United States are coconut confections with a crumbly texture, the Laduree macaroons were more like soft sandwich cookies. I ordered the chocolate macaroons and they were light and had a really nice fluffy textures when biting into them. The sweetness balanced the tea well.
I SO wanted to purchase the beautiful china to take home with me and I braved the long lines inside the restaurant to take a look. Lets just say that until I can sell a kidney I will have to enjoy the tea cups by looking at the millions of pictures I took. (I did take those two sugar packets as a consolation prize though).
While I'm not going to win Mother/Wife of the Year Award anytime soon, I haven't killed anyone yet or shot myself in the head. And that, my friends, is how I calculate success these days. 
FANCY THAT FANCY THIS 