I am a passionate person, I like a lot of things and I like them a lot. I get really excited about a lot of things from science and technology to cooking and sewing. When I have passion for something, I enjoy talking about it and sharing it with other people. I can ramble for hours about my college research on salamanders, or what in my experience makes the best scones, or how to style a wig that looks straight out of a cartoon. In living as a passionate person, I have discovered something about the general population.
Some people are ashamed to be passionate about things. Or more accurately, people are ashamed to show how passionate they are about some things for fear of seeming boring or strange. I get it, I have been given condescending looks or told "Ugh, are you obsessed with x?" and it sucks because I was just getting excited over something I like. These things left me kind of deflated and feeling like maybe I shouldn't like things so much, or at least not show it.
When I first went to college, I realized I had a bit of a habit for apologizing every time I got "too excited" and saying things like "This must be really boring to you." But the people I chose to surrounds myself with, those who are just as passionate as I am, albeit about different things, told me something that I really value. Never apologize for liking something. And the more I though about it, the more I realized that they were right. I hadn't done anything wrong, what was I apologizing for? I didn't accidentally close a door on someone or arrive late to an event, I just talked about how much I loved raising rabbits. I was observing proper social decorum and not talking over anyone, and the other person was listening. I had committed no offense, yet I was apologizing and worrying that the other person was only feigning interest. What a waste of time and energy!
Now, there is a place for proper social decorum and communicating your passion in the proper context and in a way that engages the other person, but whatever you are passionate about, get it through your head: you are allowed to be passionate about it. Some passions may seem cooler than others, but in talking with other passionate people I have found that it really doesn't matter. If you are getting excited telling me about your collection of baseball jerseys from the 1980's, darn it that's interesting even though I don't share your passion in the least. Please tell me about it, and do so with feeling. I don't know if everyone is like this, but someone simply being excited about something makes me want to listen when they talk about it. So yeah, that's my soap box for the week. Passion, man. Show it, own it, appreciate it.
My recipe this week is another one that indulges a passion of mine: Pancakes. In case you haven't figured it out by now, I LOVE pancakes and I'm all about trying different recipes. This one is my current favorite for several reasons.
1. You make it in the blender, so I can just do it in my Magic Bullet and only have to wash that and the spatula (I am not passionate about washing dishes)
2. It's got a good balance of protein and complex carbohydrates that seems to keep me full longer than some of the other recipes I've tried.
3. They're fluffier than a lot of whole grain pancakes.
4. I generally have everything I need to make these on hand.
5. This recipe is so easy to modify, I've tried it with several different flavors and it works well with all of them.
I was so proud of myself for how pretty these came out. Pretty food tastes better, it's science.
I've made this recipe 4 times , so you'll see some parentheses with variations that I've tried, along with some different flavors at the end.
Ingredients:
-1/2 cup rolled oats (old-fashioned or quick, it doesn't matter, it all gets blended)
-1/4 cup cottage cheese (or Greek yogurt)
-1/4 cup applesauce (or half an overripe banana)
-1 egg (or 2 egg whites)
-1 tsp baking powder
-1/2 tsp cinnamon
-1/2 tsp vanilla
-1-2 T milk
-Dash of salt
Optional: Sugar to taste if you want your pancakes a little sweeter. I like to let my topping do the work when it comes to sweetness, but it's up to you.
Directions:
1. I recommend giving the oats a few seconds in the blender to grind them up before adding everything else in. It helps the thick batter to mix a little better.
2. Add in the rest of your ingredients and blend until you have a nice consistency. Be patient as this is a thick batter and it may take a little extra milk to get blended.
3. Let the batter rest about 5-10 minutes This allows the oats to thicken up (kind of like they do when you cook them) and the baking powder to start working its magic.
4. Make pancakes. You should know how to do this by now if you read my blog. This recipe makes 4-5 pancakes 3-4" in diameter. I recommend keeping them small to ensure they cook evenly. Top with whatever your heart desires and enjoy!
Variations:
-Cinnamon Roll: This is the one pictured because I think it's the prettiest. Double the cinnamon and top with some cream cheese frosting. My frosting is just cream cheese, vanilla, and some stevia with a bit of milk to thin. Put it in a bag, cut the corner, and make the pretty spirals or just spread it on there and make a nice stack.
-Thin Mint: I had just gotten a box of thin mints, sue me. Add 1 1/2 tsp cocoa powder and eliminate the cinnamon. Top with whipped cream and crushed thin mints.
-Lemon Poppyseed: Eliminate cinnamon. 1 tsp poppy seeds, 1/2 tsp lemon flavoring, and a splash of lemon juice. Like a little lemon cake for breakfast.
-Chocolate Espresso with Peanut butter: Eliminate cinnamon. Add 1 1/2 tsp cocoa powder and 1 tsp espresso powder. Top with peanut butter.
I'll probably make a thousand more variations on this recipe because it's so simple and delicious and I am passionate about pancakes! I hope you have something in your life that you get excited over, because if you do, I'd love to hear about it.
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