Banana Pecan Pancakes

Today's pancakes were from a new recipe and they were delicious! :)

Banana Pecan Pancakes

1 cup unbleached flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
3 bananas, pureed
1 1/2 cups soy milk
1 tsp. white vinegar
1 Tbsp. canola oil
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 cup pecans, chopped

Add the vinegar to the soy milk and let sit for 5 minutes. Meanwhile mix together the flours, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. In a separate bowl, mix bananas, soy milk, oil, and vanilla. Pour wet ingredients into dry and mix together. Pour 2 Tbsp. of batter onto griddle preheated to 350, sprinkle pecans onto pancakes and cook until batter bubbles and pancakes begin to brown around edges. Flip and cook 2 minutes more. Enjoy! ***You can add the pecans to the mix, but my daughter prefers her pancakes without the nuts, by adding them on the griddle you can customize each pancake. :)

Adopt A Road

In an effort to do our part to clean up the world, my daughter and I "adopted" our road. Our city has a program where you can commit to cleaning a section of road; they provide the trash bags, trash pickers, and bright yellow shirts to help make you more visible. They also mark the road with an "Adopt A Road" sign with your name on it. You must agree to do several clean ups a year and report them to the city. The coordinator of the program told me that when people see you cleaning the road, it makes them think before littering and that you will notice over time that the road will be cleaner over all. I hope that if others see us cleaning our road it will encourage them to do the same. I know it has made an impact on my daughter already- the other day when we were walking the dog she asked for a bag to clean up the trash we saw on our walk. Imagine if everyone did this how much less trash we would see in our neighborhoods and waterways!

Basic Vegan Pancake Recipe

Well it's Sunday again, which means Pancake Day. Today we had just our basic pancakes with fresh strawberries. The recipe is vegan, but can also be made with eggs and regular milk. I really recommend trying the egg replacer though - it saves you 55 calories and 4 grams of fat per egg and in pancakes you can't taste the difference. This recipe can easily be doubled or tripled to feed a crowd :)

Basic Pancakes

1/2 cup organic unbleached flour
1/2 cup organic whole wheat flour
1/2 tsp. salt
2 Tbsp. evaporated cane juice ( or sugar)
2 tsp. baking powder
1 1/2 tsp. Ener-G egg replacer mixed with 2 Tbsp. warm water (or 1 egg)
3/4 cup soy milk
2 Tbsp. vegetable oil


Combine flours, salt, sugar, and baking powder in bowl. Whisk egg replacer powder and warm water together; add milk and oil. Slowly stir liquid mixture into dry ingredients and mix completely. Pour 2 Tbsp. of batter onto griddle preheated to 350 and cook until batter bubbles and pancakes begin to brown around edges. Flip and cook 2 minutes more. Enjoy!

Free Rice

My latest internet addiction is the Free Rice website. This is a great website that builds your vocabulary while donating food for the poor. Since its launch on October 7,2007, the site has donated 14,165,837,150 grains of rice! The site asks you a word and gives you 4 choices to pick from. For each word you correctly define, the site donates 20 grains of rice through the United Nations to help end world hunger. It's a win-win situation - you challenge yourself to improve your vocabulary and food goes to those in need! What could be better than a FREE earth-friendly solution. :)

Pancake Day

Sunday mornings are pancake time in our house. Pancakes are my daughter's absolute favorite breakfast item! Today's pancakes were Vegan Banana Buckwheat and while they were not a favorite of my daughter - she likes bananas, just not in her pancakes - my husband and I enjoyed them.

Banana Buckwheat Pancakes

2 cups plain soymilk, divided
2 tsp. lemon juice
1 cup organic buckwheat flour
1 cup unbleached organic flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. egg replacer powder
2 Tbsp. canola oil
1 Tbsp. maple syrup
1 banana, thinly sliced

1. Mix 1 3/4 cups soymilk with lemon juice and let stand 5 minutes.
2. Combine flours, baking powder, salt, and baking soda.
3. Whisk egg replacer and 1/4 soymilk in small bowl. Add to soymilk mixture. Whisk in oil and maple syrup.
4. Stir flour mixture into soymilk mixture. Fold in bananas.
5. Pour 2 Tbsp. of batter onto griddle preheated to 350 and cook until batter bubbles and pancakes begin to brown around edges. Flip and cook 2 minutes more.

Recycling

We take our recycling seriously in this house :) We have your standard recycling bins - bottles, cans, and newspaper - and more. We also have bins for paper and cardboard. We recycle junk mail, catalogs, school papers, receipts, etc - virtually any clean paper that comes into the house. We also recycle food boxes, and cardboard packing and boxes. To keep the cardboard bin under control we break down the boxes before placing them in the bin. The local library which we visit weekly has recycling for paper and cardboard in their parking lot, so we just drop off our recycling when we go to pick up books. We also have a compost bin where we "recycle" banana peels, egg shells, coffee grounds, leaves, etc. We've been composting for a few months, so I should have some nice compost ready for our garden this spring. With all these efforts we have noticed a significant decrease in how much stuff actually ends up in the garbage can. Too bad I can't convince Waste Management to charge me based on actually usage! To find out about recycling in your community go to http://earth911.org

Our Journey...

My daughter and I have been on our journey towards a greener life for quite some time. This year our goal is to share our experiences with others and to encourage more people in our circle and out in the world to start on their own greener path. The blog name - Chartreuse Life - comes from our desire to live a brighter (smarter) green life. One of my frustrations with being more eco-friendly is the high cost of some green options and the long search involved in finding green options that are more affordable. As we find great and affordable green options we will share them with you. Our goal for the year is to live our life remembering Gandhi's saying - "You must be the change you wish to see in the world." Thank you for joining us on our journey.