Happy Valentine’s Day from Big Body!

To celebrate Valentine’s Day Roman and I had banana pancakes with macademia nuts and coconut with smoothies and french press coffee. I used a recipe from my Heidi Swanson Vegetarian 1.0 cookbook and made a couple alterations. The pancakes were delicious!

Our smoothies had fresh strawberries, fresh squeezed orange juice, coconut pineapple ice cream and raspberry yogurt. Roman got me an immersion blender for my birthday and lets just say, I’ll be making a lot of smoothies. Hopefully as good as the one this morning.

Banana-Macademia Pancakes:

In a large bowl, combine: 2 cups whole wheat flour, 1 t. baking powder, 1/2 t. baking soda, 1/3 cup sugar, pinch of salt, 1 t. nutmeg

To the dry ingredients, add: 2 cups buttermilk, 2 large eggs slightly beaten, 2 T. unsalted butter melted, 1 big handful of sweetened shredded coconut, 1 big handful of macadamia nuts, crushed, 3 ripe bananas

Stir all the ingredients together until they are just combined. It’s okay if the batter is a bit lumpy. Don’t overmix.

Heat a skillet or pan to medium-hot and brush with a little bit of butter. Pour 1/2 cup batter onto the pan and cook until the pancake bottom is a deep golden color, flip and repeat. Top with maple syrup, chocolate pieces and strawberries.

Toppings aren’t necessary, the pancakes would be great with just syrup or butter, but indulgence was necessary for Valentine’s Day.

LUNCH for Lunch

My lunches at work have consisted of three ingredients as of late: whole grain bread, peanut butter and jelly. While PB&J remains one of my favorite sandwiches, sometimes it is good to get out of the office pantry and meet a friend for lunch outside of the office.

LUNCH just opened up on Main Street in Culver City and they were offering Sony employees a 10% discount, so my friend and I decided to try it out. It was a great one to try, and I'll definitely go back. On my next visit, I'll have to find out if they will make their meaty sandwiches sans meat, but for my innagural visit: grilled cheese.

I went with the additional tomato and brie variety for $1 but normally you get cheddar melted on white sourdough with a side of fruit, vegetables or chips for $7. Pretty darn good. I satisfied my craving for sweets after my sandwich with three of their cookies. I got peanut butter, double chocolate and chocolate chip. The cookies were just how I like them...crisp on the outside and soft and chewy on the inside.

The waitstaff was friendly, the atmosphere comfortable and my friend and I wolfed down our sandwiches in no time.

I'll be having PB&J all next week, but look forward to my next visit to LUNCH.