Some Healthy Recipes
During the month of January I've been posting some healthy recipes over on my Woburn Patch food column Thoughtful Eats. If you are looking for some healthy meal and dessert ideas, check these recipes out!
Chocolate Chip Pancakes
I've been making all sorts of pancakes and waffles lately for my weekly homemade Sunday Brunch but I had yet to make basic Chocolate Chip Pancakes. We get delicious Chocolate Chip Pancakes from the local deli/restaurant but for me they are far too heavy on the flour. This results in cakey pancakes that fill you up before you get to the second pancake in your stack of three. I wanted to make lighter, fluffier pancakes that were moist and sweet and a bit sour. I reduced the amount of flour a bit, kept the sugar light and added more buttermilk for a kick. The result? Perfection, indeed. Use your favorite chocolate chips for this recipe. Mine are the Ghirardelli Semi-Sweet Chocolate in the vaccuum-sealed bags. They are nice and fresh tasting and are the perfect size for these pancakes.
Ingredients:
1-3/4 cup of flour
1 tbsp of baking soda
2 tbsp of sugar
2 eggs
2 cups of buttermilk
2 eggs
1 tsp of vanilla
chocolate chips
butter for greasing the griddle
Makes 6 large pancakes or 8 medium ones.
Mix the flour, baking soda and sugar in a large bowl. Then add the eggs, buttermilk and vanilla and mix until most of the lumps are smoothed out. Heat up a griddle and grease with some butter. Add pancake batter ( a cup or so at a time) to the griddle and sprinkle some chocolate chips over the top. When the pancake starts to bubble after a few minutes of cooking, flip it over with a spatula and cook for another couple of minutes. Repeat until all the batter is used up. Serve with maple syrup and some sliced bananas.
New Year's Eve Photos
Carlos and I went to Sea Dog Brewing Co. (see my review of the pub here) for New Year's Eve dinner. We were starving and showed up way too early for the festivities. Oh well. We looked very festive in our Happy New Year crowns.
I had a Sea Dog burger with a fried egg on top and a side of onion rings. I asked for the burger to be well-done so they brought it back charred beyond recognition instead. Oh well. I love eating burgers with fried eggs on top, part of my Portuguese heritage and my love of steak with fried eggs. However, this burger had too much bread and a bad burger patty to make it worth my while. The onion rings were as delicious as last time!
Carlos had a pork chop with peas and potatoes. I had a few bites and it was delicious. I hope Sea Dog will expand their menu. Their Woburn location has a very limited one and pickings were slim.
We finished off the meal with carrot cake. This was so sublime!
Even the raspberries were good!
nom nom nom
I had some sort of grape martini which was absolutely divine!
Carlos and I spent the rest of the evening at home, watching TV and drinking Peach-Raspberry Sparkling Sangria. It was a great way to ring in the New Years. Hope you all had a good holiday!
A Hero Sandwich in Honor of a True Hero
The town has been all abuzz with the recent tragic news of the killing of Officer Jack Maguire. Maguire was responding to a call of an armed robbery at a local Kohl's when we blocked the criminals from escaping to their getaway car and was shot down in the process. Maguire sacrificed his life so Woburn could be safe. For that we will be eternally grateful.
I really wanted to do something to honor him so I developed a simple Hero Sandwich recipe.
