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Friday Favorites – October 12th, 2018

Happy Friday!  It has been quite the week over here. It has been an exhausting but fulfilling week.  Work kept me challenged in the best way this week but things on the home front left me exhausted.  Katie has a pretty bad cold that has kept both of us up for at least two hours each night. We saw her pediatrician yesterday for her 15 month check-up and he confirmed that it is a bad cold. Unfortunately, at this age there aren’t many things you can give infants to help with the cough and post nasal drip so all we can do is comfort and continue to push fluids and give Ibuprofen or Tylenol in addition to the natural chest rub and cough syrup we are using.  Luckily, we don’t have any plans this weekend other than a casual date night in Brooklyn tonight. Since cooler weather has finally arrived, I think we’ll get into the fall spirit by buying some pumpkins, baking and spending a lot of time outside. Hopefully the fresh air will help Katie feel better!

gourds

Now, let’s dive into this week’s edition of Friday Favorites, including recipes, articles, posts and other things that caught my eye this week.

  • I picked up the ingredients for this healthy white chicken chili at the grocery store yesterday. Filled with mushrooms, beans and ground chicken, this healthy white chicken chili recipe has a ton of flavor and is always a favorite in our household.
  • Did you know that baking is one of my favorite ways to relax? I’m hoping to find time to bake pumpkin bread and these soft pumpkin cookies. I mean how can you go wrong when a recipe promises chewy pumpkin cookies with salted maple frosting?
  • Since I left my favorite Fresh lip balm on the airplane last week, I took that as a sign to order two new tints for the season – spice and petal.
  • I’m focused on improving my mental game in advance of next week’s half marathon. Therefore, I’m spending my spare time reading Deena Kastor’s memoir, Let Your Mind Run and reading multiple race recaps from inspirational running friends like Charlie and Janae.
  • Just when I needed something to make me smile earlier this week, my friend Leslie shared this homecoming video on Facebook. Holy heck this dance team is incredible! I love the theme and the fact that everyone was cheering and clearly in awe.
  • Last week during my brother’s wedding weekend, I received multiple compliments on not only the dress but also my eyelashes aka mascara. As many of you know, I have very short, stubby lashes and have rarely found a mascara that will both lengthen and provide ooomph without making me look like a crazy lady. This L’Oreal mascara goes on easily, without clumps, and miraculously comes off when I wash my face. I’ve tried many mascaras that are double and triple the cost but this one is my favorite since it adds length and volume with a perfect consistency.

I’m hoping to hop back on here later this weekend to share a few of my favorite wardrobe items for fall as well as tips for traveling with a 15-month old. But now, it’s time to shutdown my computer and say hello to the weekend! Have a wonderful weekend friends!

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Paleo Pumpkin Pancakes

Pumpkin Paleo Pancakes

Happy Monday! Here’s a delicious, healthy Fall recipe you can make this weekend, courtesy of my sister-in-law Meg and her husband Russell! Originally posted in 2014, the post and recipe have been updated a bit.  Come back tomorrow for a recap from yesterday’s Dare to Bare event in NYC! 

Hello again! Over the past two years my husband Russell and I have both had great success following Paleo-like diets off and on, especially when I originally lost 10 pounds in one month.  Since then, we have evolved our eating style, maintaining a healthy balance which often includes Paleo friendly recipes.  We’ve made a lot of omelets and frittatas in the past, but now that the leaves are falling and the air is crisp, we wanted to cook something that reflected the fall season. What better than a warm stack of fall themed pumpkin pancakes?

meg-and-russell

We struggled to find a recipe that was fluffy and tasty enough to stand up to a regular pancake. Some of our first batches, while tasty, left us with results that we could only describe as “scrambled pancakes”. We thought we were cooking them wrong because they were so crumbly and dense. To remedy this, we tried cooking them at a lower heat for a longer time, we tried different types of flour, and different wet and dry ingredients but couldn’t replicate the consistency of the traditional pancakes we grew up with. After scouring the web and trying parts from numerous recipes, we finally figured it out. Baking soda. Not all Paleo recipes call for baking soda, which is one of the things that makes these pancakes so fluffy and DELICIOUS!

pumpkin paleo pancakes

Paleo Pumpkin Pancake Recipe

Ingredients:

  • 2 large eggs
  • ½ cup pumpkin puree
  • 2 tablespoons of sugar free syrup
  • ½ teaspoon allspice
  • ½ teaspoon cinnamon
  • ⅔ cup almond flour
  • a dash of kosher or sea salt
  • ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
  • ¼ teaspoon baking soda
  • ½ cup pecans

Instructions:

  • Heat a small skillet over medium heat with a touch of coconut oil. Add pecans. Toast for about 3 minutes or until pecans are fragrant. Be careful not to burn the pecans – shake the skillet frequently. (Note – these are for the topping. Feel free to leave them raw if desired or not use them at all).
  • In a large mixing bowl, whisk together eggs, pumpkin, syrup, cinnamon, allspice, and vanilla until well blended.
  • In a separate bowl, mix together the almond flour, salt and baking soda.
  • Stir the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients, making sure there are no lumps.
  • Lightly grease a griddle with your fat of choice (we used coconut oil) and turn on medium heat until a drop of water sizzles on the griddle.
  • Pour the batter onto the griddle in whatever size pancakes you like. Cook until bubbles form on the top of the batter. Carefully flip and cook the other side.
  • Stack and top with pecans and sugar free syrup (or whatever fun fall toppings you choose!). We also dusted ours with a bit of cinnamon.

*Note – you will see in the picture we served these with bacon (which makes every meal better). During our Paleo challenge, we learned that most bacon you can find at the grocery store is cured in sugar. We recommend Organic Sunday Bacon by Applegate which has less sugar than most and is cured in Paleo friendly, organic cane sugar.

If you love this recipe as much as we do, please share it on Pinterest, Twitter or Facebook!

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ashleyd /

Paleo Pumpkin Pancake Recipe

pumpkin paleo pancakes

Here’s a delicious, healthy Fall recipe you can make this weekend, courtesy of my sister-in-law Meg and her husband Russell! Originally posted in 2014, the post and recipe have been updated a bit. 

Over the past two years we have both had great success following Paleo-like diets off and on, especially when my sister-in-law originally lost 10 pounds in one month.  Since then, she and her now husband have evolved their eating style, maintaining a healthy balance which often includes Paleo friendly recipes.  We’ve made a lot of omelets and frittatas in the past, but now that the leaves are falling and the air is crisp, we wanted to cook something that reflected the fall season. And what better than a warm stack of fall themed pumpkin pancakes?

meg-and-russell

We struggled to find a recipe that was fluffy and tasty enough to stand up to a regular pancake. Some of our first batches, while tasty, left us with results that we could only describe as “scrambled pancakes”. We thought we were cooking them wrong because they were so crumbly and dense. To remedy this, we tried cooking them at a lower heat for a longer time, we tried different types of flour, and different wet and dry ingredients but couldn’t replicate the consistency of the traditional pancakes we grew up with. After scouring the web and trying parts from numerous recipes, we finally figured it out. Baking soda. Not all Paleo recipes call for baking soda, which is one of the things that makes these pancakes so fluffy and DELICIOUS!

pumpkin paleo pancakes

Paleo Pumpkin Pancake Recipe

Ingredients:

2 large eggs

½ cup pumpkin puree

2 tablespoons of sugar free syrup

½ teaspoon allspice

½ teaspoon cinnamon

⅔ cup almond flour

a dash of kosher or sea salt

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

¼ teaspoon baking soda

½ cup pecans

Instructions:

  • Heat a small skillet over medium heat with a touch of coconut oil. Add pecans. Toast for about 3 minutes or until pecans are fragrant. Be careful not to burn the pecans – shake the skillet frequently. (Note – these are for the topping. Feel free to leave them raw if desired or not use them at all).
  • In a large mixing bowl, whisk together eggs, pumpkin, syrup, cinnamon, allspice, and vanilla until well blended.
  • In a separate bowl, mix together the almond flour, salt and baking soda.
  • Stir the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients, making sure there are no lumps.
  • Lightly grease a griddle with your fat of choice (we used coconut oil) and turn on medium heat until a drop of water sizzles on the griddle.
  • Pour the batter onto the griddle in whatever size pancakes you like. Cook until bubbles form on the top of the batter. Carefully flip and cook the other side.
  • Stack and top with pecans and sugar free syrup (or whatever fun fall toppings you choose!). We also dusted ours with a bit of cinnamon.

*Note – you will see in the picture we served these with bacon (which makes every meal better). During our Paleo challenge, we learned that most bacon you can find at the grocery store is cured in sugar. We recommend Organic Sunday Bacon by Applegate which has less sugar than most and is cured in Paleo friendly, organic cane sugar.

If you love this recipe as much as we do, please share it on Pinterest, Twitter or Facebook!

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