Whole Wheat Blueberry Banana Oatmeal Pancakes

Okay okay okay, so there have been many a revelations since my last post. I am ashamed and thrilled at the same time to share them with you. When you cook as much as I do you tend to have a very firm grasp on grocery stores and their layouts and the way they price things and when they go on sale and which ones offer which produce and goodies, etc. etc. Well there are a few places I won't even let myself go into because I know I will want to spend all of my bill money in one fell swoop (Dean and Deluca, Whole Foods, and what I thought was off limits Trader Joes.)

Don't get me wrong I want to go into all of these stores and I know that they have things to offer that I would adore but I am under the impression that they are all going to be pricy because of the quality or what not.

If you are like me and you have believed Trader Joe's to be a bougie overpriced hipster paradise, let me help shatter that illusion and provide proof at that.

I went in there searching for an ingredient I thought that they would carry for a recipe from some hippie blog I had found that I wanted to try(turns out they didn't have nutritional yeast after all, shucks!)

Anyways I just needed that one ingredient and had planned on doing my real grocery shopping later at the stores near me. TJ's is about fifteen minutes away from me so when I walked in the door and started noticing prices I quickly turned my butt around and grabbed a cart and went to town! I bought whatever I wanted. Things that I have such a hard time finding in my go to grocery stores, arugula for example was not only sold there in a big bag but it was also half the price and double the quality of what is offered elsewhere AND it was organic. I'm not one to really care too much about organic versus not, I know that it is better for you and what not but when you are as much on a budget as me eating produce is eating produce.

I will say that I loved that about the store though it offers nearly all organic produce and farm raised free range protein options. They don't offer a lot of junk food which is great, not really any room for temptation. Basically imagine all the healthy parts of your standard super center and that is TJ's with cute handwritten labels and pricing on everything and a much more condensed version of the store so you can be in and out.


Anyways if you would like some visual proof of how great it is, here is my first every Trader Joe's haul.

                           

Lastly 

Just look at those prices!

Simply amazing. I highly encourage you all to head into your nearest Trader Joe's at your earliest convenience and fall into a deep grocery store love like I myself did.

Now onto the good stuff.

I've been as dedicated as ever to my healthy eating lifestyle and working out on a routine as much as the restaurant life will allow me. I have started prepping meals for work and waking up early to work out, a big thanks goes out to my friend Megan for that one, without her early morning phone calls getting my sorry butt out of bed everyday I doubt I would be as successful as I have been.

So with your days starting at 7 (okay sometimes 8) and not ending till usually 11-1 am breakfast has to be solid especially when at that early wake up you are running at least 3 miles and ending with weights. That'll surely leave a girl hungry. So today I offer you something I have been dreaming of. I couldn't get the thought of banana blueberry pancakes out of my head. I HAD to make them.

So off to Trader Joe's I went and with a few essential ingredients gathered later I went to work.

Here's what you will need.

Whole Wheat Blueberry Banana Oatmeal Pancakes 

Serves : 2

Cook/Prep Time: 5 minutes

3 egg whites

1/4 c. milk

1 banana, mashed ( I might bump this up to 1 and a half to 2 next time to make it taste extra bananay, yes I just made that a word)

3/4 c. blueberries

1/3 c. whole wheat flour

1/3 c. steel cut oats

1-2 dashes of vanilla extract

All you have to do is mix all of your ingredients together, the blueberries last because you just want to fold them in. 

Like so...

Then you want to take about 1/4 c. of the mixture at a time into your greased skillet and cook until done, be careful to cook on low and be patient that way you don't burn your pancakes and you can cook the batter all the way through.

Then voila you have these ready to eat babies!

I topped mine off with some extra fresh blueberries and they were FANTASTIC!

This is a super healthy recipe, VERY easy to whip up and high in protein and fiber thanks to the egg whites, oats, and whole wheat flour. 

The oats are totally optional but they are hardly noticeable and pack in an extra punch of fiber so why not right!

YUM!

Some other fun happenings in my life include the AMC Best Picture Showcase that I am currently in the middle of with my best friend. She turned me onto this a few years ago and ever since I have been hooked!

So what is it you ask? Well every year before the Oscars AMC does a Best Picture Showcase in which they show the Best Picture nominees either in a 24 hour showcase ( For the true crazies) or split between the two Saturdays prior to the Sunday Oscars. Its a great way to see all of the movies that are up for a lot of nominations and be able to justify your opinions on who should win what. Or if you don't really care its just a great way to see a bunch of good movies for cheap. Its like 60 bucks for all 9. Not a bad deal at all but you have to have the lazy stamina for it. The ability to sit in a theater for four and then five straight movies in one day.

Its not for everyone but Britt and I we are pros in this field and we can marathon watch with the best of them!

Its fun, they do trivia in between the movies for prizes and its overall just a blast to be surrounded by movie lovers like yourself.

Also I went to trivia with some other great friends this past week. I love playing games and I love being around people that want to play games, while trivia mostly taught me that I don't actually know as many useless facts as I thought I did, it was a fun free way to get out of the house for the night. (Also thanks to the happy hour appetizers I tried one of the best apps I've ever had that I deduced the recipe for in my head and will be recreating likely for the Oscar party this Sunday and then I will be sharing it with you!)

This is Angela she is one of the world's true beauties and we got this picture together after trivia.

Behind us is an ice skating rink that I will be revisiting soon for another fun outing!

Well that is what is new with me. As always happy eating and I hope you are inspired to go out and do some fun things with your friends, because it is just plain good for the soul!