Year 2, Day 337: Second Dinner

Of all the fatherly tasks I enjoy, making pancakes with Ruby has got to be near the top. I like any kind of cooking or baking we do together, but pancakes are especially fun since now we use Kodiak and they taste good and she likes them (and so does Magnolia). It also feels very much a like a 'weekendy' thing since there's no way I'd have time to do it during the week. Even with just one cup of mix I always end up with a few leftover and I always end up eating at least one (and today was no exception).

Breakfast
Kashi
1 Kodiak Pancake (with Super Chunky Peanut Butter)
Coffee

Snackzaplenty
1 Apple
1 oz. Boston Lite Popcorn
2 oz. 50% Jalapeno Cheddar
1/4 cup of Almonds/Cashews
A few bites of clementine

Lunch
Scrambled Eggs
Lox
A few bites of a Quesadilla (Joseph's Net Carbs Tortilla and Cheese)

Dinner
Flounder
Snap Peas
Pork-Burger

It's strange how often I actually used to feel entitled to have a "second dinner." I think Emily coined the phrase, but it means when you sit down to a real full second meal because for one reason or another your first 'dinner' didn't comport to the standards we had, either real or imagined. This happened, embarrassingly, quite often, but now I know that you really have one chance each meal period to consume some calories and whether the food was tasty or not; satisfying or not, if you consumed your calories, you had your meal. In the old days we would say about a particularly bad meal "that sucked, let's have something else later." Those days, thankfully, are over.

Year 2, Day 316 Saturday with Pancakes

At a recent trip to the mall, I found myself wandering through the polished, perfume-y aisles of Williams-Sonoma. As I allowed my eyes to travel and rest on all the wonderful things, I started to fantasize about making the world's greatest pancakes, something I used to try to do with Ruby, but often failed to live up to my standards. This was mostly because I was using Aunt Jemima mix from a box and that I was using a crappy electric stove. Well I still have an electric stove but this particular day I was interested in the Williams-Sonoma offerings of pancakes mixes (and there were plenty). I remembered a dear friend, now deceased, who ran off with my waffle maker. Lost in reverie, I was approached by a helpful sales gal. I told her my goal and asked if she could advise me. She told me what the differences were but as she described the last product, Kodiak Cakes, she rang my bell. She said "they are made with whole grains." What? I didn't know you could make healthy style pancakes, I thought they were only composed of nutritionless white flour! Quickly I grabbed a box and I was on my way. In what has to be one of those 'the universe is sending you a message that you should make pancakes," Emily had purchased a double-stove-top grill, giving us that all important wide flat surface to make pancakes on. I've made them twice for the girls now and there have not been any leftovers.

Between you and me, they still need some work, but good maple syrup can make up for a lot of shortcomings.

Breakfast
Kashi Go Lean!
Heritage Flakes
Blueberries
Banana
Unsweetened Soy Milk
Coffee
(with Bear Naked Granola)

Snack
1 Kodiak Pancake (no syrup)
about 30G of Boston Lite Popcorn
2 oz 50% Jalapeno Cheddar
2 Olives

Lunch
Brisket, Chicken, Burnt Ends
Pickles
Salad with Feta

Dinner
Brisket
Broccoli
Carrots, Celery, Onions

Today I also piloted the "Bear Naked" granola, meaning that there were two foods with cutesy animal names in them in my diet. Though I have long-eschewed granola, this caught my eye because it was labeled 'low-sugar,' aka no taste whatsoever. I am sad to say that opening the bag and tasting it did not change my previous opinion, and Ruby's taste-test of it ended in her offering me her tongue, coated with low-sugar cereal, with the assumption that I would somehow wipe it off, which I refused to do. I will probably tried it again, but it's an acquired taste, no doubt.