Flopped Cheese Whole Grain Pancakes

Serves about 6

1 c. Flour, white or whole wheat
1 ¼ c. oatmeal
2 tbs of wheat bran, oat bran, or wheat germ
2 tbs of whole flax seeds
2 tsp of baking power
1 tsp of baking soda
1 tbs honey, brown sugar, or raw (turbine) sugar
1 tps of vanilla sugar or ½ tsp of vanilla
½ tsp cinnamon
2 plus c. of flopped cheese, flopped yogurt, buttermilk or soured milk
2 eggs
½ tsb of olive oil

Put everything in a bowl and mix until combined. Cook in a large frying pan or griddle until you start to see bubbles in the top and the edges are starting to dry bottoms should be golden brown. Enjoy!

Cook’s tips: slightly under cook the pancakes, then reheat them in a toaster for weekday quick breakfasts. Enjoy them topped with honey and peanut-butter for a very filling breakfast.

Why all the funny stuff instead of just Bisquick?

The oatmeal and bran add fiber, which has been linked to preventing GI tract cancers and preventing heart disease. The flax seeds offer Omega 2 and 6 fatty acids, which are usually found in fish and are good for the heart. Olive oil is another source of heart healthly fats. As for the flopped cheese/yogurt…. Its just something I end up with from time to time and use in place of buttermilk. As the saying goes “waste not want not.”

Barrel Gardens, Home Depot and Men

Great title, huh? I now have a garden planted in 1/2 of a 55 gal barrel that I brought back from visiting the folks. It sits on the back of my house where a propane tank use to before everything went electric. Its full of tomatoes, peas (for eating the vines, not the pods!), squash (patty pan and butternut) and I'll add basil and cucumbers once they have gotten large enough to transplant.

So in order to plant my wonderfully little plants I needed to go buy dirt (which I think I hate buying almost as much as I hate buy water). So where does dirt come from? If you answered God, nature or the ground, your wrong! It comes from Home Depot, in the gardening section, right were God left it after He used all He needed for Eve. That being said, I went off to Home Depot to get 6 40 lbs bags of potting soil, some rocks and pete moss for my garden (which is costing me more and more money...). While Home Depot did have the dirt I wanted it was missing one thing... a guy to carry all 240 lbs of dirt out to my car and help me load it. I remember reading once that Home Depot is a great place to pick up guys, I think that they were lying. Also, this is the South, well at least I think Florida is south, so one would think that at least one guy somewhere would offer to help me with my 240 lbs of dirt. Actually, come to think of it, it was rather liberating to take care of my own dirt. Nothing like getting a good work out lifting 40 lbs in and out of a car and pouring it into barrels. Yup, come to think of it, its a good thing that no guy was hanging out at Home Depot just waiting to help me with my dirt cuz if he had I'd have had to go to gym later to complete my weight training for the day:-)

P.S. April is looking like another Month of a $100 since I'll be heading back to the Keys for a week in May.

And its back to the Gov grind... and Spring Break

Yup, that's right, its been 2 months since I last worked for the Feds and I've going back to gov, but this time is State. I've hired by the Florida Department of Health to do some data entry for the next 3 months, until the end of May. I think that its going to be interesing and I'll get to interact (virtually) with the state epidemiology for Maternal and Child Health. Also, there is the added bonus of being able to pay rent and spend a bit more then $100/month for everything.

I'm just one week away from Spring Break, I'll be heading to Key Largo and Miami for a long weekend with my cousin then heading back home for the rest of the week.

Note: I ended up going $20 over budget for last month's challange - living on $100. I figure that that's not to bad.

I'm not trying the $100 thing again since well its Spring Break month and since I got my car some new breaks and a tire rod, I'm already well over budget, but at least all of the strange sounds have stopped!