Rischa's Rants, Raves, and Ramblings

Low Carb Vanilla Almond Pancake Poppers & A Story

How about another recipe? Yes? Okay!

(Skip to bottom for recipe)

Well, first let me preface this with a little story. A story about a girl with a little too much junk in the trunk. A girl who could no longer squeeze a leg into her skinny jeans. A girl who had more badonk than Beyonce and J-Lo. A girl who....okay, you get the point. So it was time for this pancake and pizza loving girl to try a new diet. This diet is for people who can't handle sugar in ANY form. The Atkins Diet. Ugg....isn't that the one that doesn't let you have sugar? Yep! That's the one! The one the girl had put off trying until I.....errr....I mean SHE...had tried EVERY other diet under the sun.

The girl should have listened to her doctor in the first place. You see, her doctor told her many months before that she had PCOS and was probably insulin resistant and should try a low carb diet. But this girl, being the sugar addict that she was, didn't listen. She said to herself, "I can find some other diet that will let me have my wonderful, yummy, oh-so-fabulous sugar and still lose weight." But sadly, the girl was wrong. She tried and tried until she got to the point of jogging 3 miles every day and eating like a rabbit and still only maintained her weight. This made the girl sad. So finally, she called her doctor and asked for the medicine her doc had recommended so many months before and started cutting back on sugar; Sweet, wonderful, mouth watering sugar. As the months passed the girl began to drop weight slowly, but consistently. The stubborn girl realized her doctor was right and she started to feel good about herself once again. Then the girl hit a plateau. No more weight was being lost. So after a bit of denial, the girl realized it was time to get serious. She decided to purchase the book, "The New Atkins for a New You" on Amazon. The book arrived 2 days later and she devoured the pages as if it were Red Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese icing. One grocery shopping trip later she was ready to get started. Since that day she has begun to lose consistently again and is now fitting into her skinny jeans. No more over sized badonk for the happy little girl. The moral of the story? Go for the thing you want most. If that thing is cupcakes and doughnuts, fine. But if the thing is to look good and be healthy, you just might have to sacrifice.

Oh, what a dramatic blogger I am today, right? Ha! I promise I will eventually get to the recipe mentioned in the title. Just a little more reading first.

Keep in mind that I'm NOT very domestic, so actually baking and using recipes is a big deal around here. I can cook dinner for my family and I follow directions well. (Not physical ones....I get lost going to the store, but tutorials, recipes, etc... I have that under control) I just don't like spending time in the kitchen. So this new lifestyle has been quite a change for me. I've had lots of help from web sites, friends (thank you Christa and Candice) and books. Where was I going with this? Oh yeah, the recipe. Back to the point. This isn't just MY recipe. I had tried 2 pancake recipes that were okay, but not great. The first one tasted good, but the pancakes fell apart while making them. The second recipe had an aftertaste because of all the fake sweetener and was really thin making it hard to form any sort of shape. So I told my friends, Candice and Christa, I wanted to combine the two next time I try. Candice, who I was chatting with the other night after my second failed attempt, decided she wanted pancakes that night and combined the two recipes. She came up with a recipe that she said was good, but still thin. So I added extra meal and subtracted a bit of sweetener and found the winning pancakes!! This pancake lover couldn't be happier. Now, let me just say that this is not MY recipe alone. I think Candice did all the hard work of coming up with measurements. THANK YOU, Candice! And Christa came up with the idea to use less sweetener. Actually, her words were, "Why do you need sweetener at all when you're just going to drown the things in SF syrup afterward?" LOL So last night I got my new Pancake Popper Pan out and tried the following recipe:

• 2 Tablespoons Vanilla Whey Protein Powder (I use Top Care purchased @ Winn Dixie)
• 2 Tablespoons Unblanched Almond Meal (from local Health Food Shop, or you can make it)
• 1/2-1 Teaspoon Splenda For Baking
• 1/2 Teaspoon Baking Powder
• 1 Egg
• 1 Tablespoon Water
• 1/2 Teaspoon Oil
• 1/2 Teaspoon Maple Extract

Mix all ingredients, turn heat to medium and let pan preheat, butter pan, pour batter into whatever size you'd like and cook until you see the bubbles forming on top. This recipe gave me 7 poppers. I do not have the exact carb count or any nutritional information for you. I may or may not figure that up later and post about it. Hey, I told you...I'm not domestic and any time not spent cooking or even thinking about it is good to me.

If you're interested in actual poppers like I made you'll want to go to Target. The pan is around $20 or less, but you won't regret spending a little cash on it. Using this recipe with this pan makes the perfect little bite size snack or breakfast alongside a few strips of bacon. I had the remaining poppers this morning with maple bacon. 

If you're looking at this pan and wondering how to flip them, you just use a fork to do that. It's easier than I thought it would be when I bought the pan.

Don't ask me why this image is upside down. I opened it in PSE and it was right side up. I look at it in the preview screen on Typepad and it's right side up. I post it and it's upside down! GRR! Oh well, you can just stand on your head I guess. lol It's a shitty cell photo anyway, so you're not missing out on much. Same with the other photos.

If you make these let me know how yours turn out and how you like them. And again, a big thank you to Candice for coming up with and sharing her measurements! If I didn't have your recipe to go off of I'd never have come up with this one.

By the way, for those of you who can not find pre-made Almond Meal you could always make it yourself. I've done it, so I know you can do it. Here's a link with a video I found to help.

30 Days of Tumblr Day 18 — Something random.

Day 18 — Something random.

Oh goodness. The "Something Random" option would show up on a day that I have ZIP going on, wouldn't it? I mean NOTHING! We've all 3 taken naps today and the most exciting thing I've done was step on the scale. That's always a fun moment in the day, isn't it? Ha! I lost another pound, though, so it wasn't terrible.

Anyway, so since I have nothing exciting to yap about today I'll show off some of the photos I've been taking with the new Hipstamatic app on my phone. It ages your photos according to what film, lens and flash choices you make. I think my favorites are the John S Lens, the Ina's 1969 Film, and the Dreampop flash. There are LOTS of possibilities! I've always enjoyed aging my photos in Photoshop, but this takes out all of those steps. Check out what some of the folks on Flickr have done with theirs!

Flickr Hipstamatic Search

And now here are some of my photos from the past couple of days worth of play.

  

See how fun? It takes what would be an ordinary photo and makes it vintage and fun!

Best 2 bucks I've ever spent!

xo

Rischa

Amazon, Videos, & Classes

First up: Videos! I've been thinking of doing Vlogs instead of typing out my thoughts here at the ole blog. I like watching vlogs and I'm guessing I'm not alone in that. It's more interesting to actually SEE the person and put a face with the rambles rather than having to read their writing and visualize what they're wearing. Hehe...teasing a little there. Well we are a bunch of lazy Americans, right? That's what everyone keeps saying about Americans is that we're lazy, right? Ha! I don't believe that shit and neither should you, but it does come to mind when talking about watching vids over actually using your noggin to read something. Even so, I'm doing the videos. Oh, and you don't have to be American to watch them. That was just me being silly. It might not be soon as I really need to learn to make more interesting videos. I have only made 1 so far and it's far from professional. It's pretty low budget looking, actually. I enjoyed it very much, though. I think what I'll do is use my YouTube channel and embed it here soit will generate some of the traffic from YT to here, as well. I'll do the same for the art blog IF I ever am able to get back into my creating. I miss it SO badly. It feels like I'm losin' my skills...however few they may have been.

Which brings me to my next topic. A new Portraits class. Ahh...Aren't I good at tying these meaningless paragraphs together? I'm patting myself on the back as we speak. Anywho, I had told myself I wasn't taking any more classes for a while. And really I haven't, but this one particular class will be lots of help to me I believe. It's a portraits class. I really enjoy doing portraits. I specifically like doing folk art, prim style portraits. I think it's my favorite thing to do. If you're unfamiliar with what I mean, have a look at Rachel, who I completed months ago.

 

She embodies my taste more than anything else I've done. She's simple, folksy, primitive looking, and it was fun to do. I have lots to learn, though. I'm not going to pick apart my above work because I do love her as she is, but I see things that could be improved or changed if I knew other techniques. I don't think I will ever be to the point where I don't want to learn how to do something more effectively. I would be bored if I got to that point. So I will more than likely continue to take classes and buy books.

Hehehe...I did it again. I added that last sentence in the previous paragraph JUST so I could go on to this paragraph and show you my new books from Amazon.

The Creative License

 

& the one I'm looking MOST forward to...

Altered Surfaces

 

I looked through Altered Surfaces while at Michaels and wanted to get it so badly that day. I knew it would be cheaper on Amazon, though, so I waited. It's a short book, but it's packed with info from what I've seen of it at the store. I got a couple of other books, too, but they're not that exciting. Just a couple of diet books and a cookbook. Oh, and 2 Moleskines which I'm looking forward to filling with portraits and which will be "Altered Surfaces" very soon.

I almost forgot to do my little bit of bragging. I've been making sales at my CafePress shop. It's a bit surprising to me that I've made sales there since I've yet to even advertise, but hey...I'll take it! Hehe

'til next time peeps!

Rainy & Sickly Day

Today couldn't suck harder if it tried. Well, I suppose that's a fabrication. It could be a hurricane outside and I could have a stomach problem to go with my cold. Anyway, today still sux! I've been fighting off this cold for weeks, but it finally won our little war. I'm "in the bed" kinda sick now. The DayQuil isn't touching this junk and I'm suckin' up the nose spray like it's crack and I'm a crack whore. It's also thunder-boomin' outside. I guess it's a good day for it since I'm in bed. I'm not missing out on anything since everyone's stuck inside. Also, rain can be quite relaxing to the bed-bound person. The thunder has gotten loud lately, though. The dogs are pretty miserable, too, as they haven't gotten to rid themselves of the morning energy burst they normally get. It's 3PM and they've only gone out briefly once all day long. That reminds me of 2005 when one of the hurricanes hit and they were inside for over 24 hours until it was safe to go out. They held it like champs! They didn't get far outside our door, though, before they all squatted. LOL If they could have they'd have said, "Ahhhhhh".

Geez, how did that last paragraph come about? I ended it talking aobut Pee? Really? Must be the cold meds. That's my story.

So on to something different. I skipped the gym yesterday and it isn't looking like I'll be going today, either. I was on such a roll that I really hate that I couldn't go. I haven't skipped 2 days in a row since we signed up. I was about ready to start running on the treadmill, too. I think I've built up enough endurance that I could take a few minutes of running at a time. I didn't want to start running right away and just totally blow my bad knee. Have I mentioned how bad having RA sucks lately?! I've had it over 11 years and it still ain't fun.

I haven't been a very good blogger lately. I know this isn't news, but what I mean is that I haven't been using images. I know people like to see images in blog posts. I do, too! So I better start using my camera again. I'd rather use my own images than someone else's. That's not to say I won't ever use images from Flickr or wherever else, but I enjoyed using my own. The entries lately are looking pretty dull, though, don't you think?

Joel may be traveling back down to the Naples area soon. I'd love to be able to go with him. It's so hard to do that for us, though, with all of our critters. I have no one around that would make a good sitter. I really loved Naples, though. It's beautiful and the place we stayed was awesome! I think it's the best place I've EVER stayed. As a bonus, it was around the time of our anniversary, too. Joel's Mom even sent us a basket to help us celebrate. Very cool of her, eh? Anyway, it sure would be nice to be able to hop in the car with Joel to go on these biz trips with him. I could take my easel and some paints or at least my sketchbook and enjoy some relaxation in a new place.

That's about all for now. The nose spray has kicked in so I'm going to try and get some rest for a while. If you've got chicken soup, you know where to send it! ;-) Later!

PS. For my next post I'll talk about Videos and my Amazon purchase.....

Nyquil Take Me Awayyyy

Yeah, I know it's Calgon, but tonight Nyquil is taking my troubles away I hope. Nose? Clogged! Head? Aching! Throat? Making me cough! I'm hoping that I'll be ready to dose off by the end of this entry.

So it has been a while....sue me! :-P I just haven't been in the mood for blogging. Not that there really is anything to blog ABOUT anyway. Hmm...blog topics? Oh, I know!

True Blood; Are any of you watching it? If you don't watch the show just skip to the next paragraph now because this one won't make much sense to you unless you're a fan. I can't tell you how much I love this show! And, no, it isn't because of Erick and his sexy eyes, hair, bod, and everything else! Although, it doesn't hurt. Jason and Bill aren't bad, either! Wait, where was I going with this? Ha! Teasing....I remember. I wondered after the premier season if the show could keep up with how action packed it was last year, but I'm not worried any more. I mean HOLY CRAP! Did you all see that half man half bull tonight? And WTF is in that stuff Pig Lady is feeding everyone? Oh, and who all thought Sucki was a moron for slapping Erick? I mean HELLO! He's a vampire, you dumbass! I know she's supposed to be our fearless heroin, but come on....she was coming off a little on the dumbass side there, which reminded me of her brother. It sure isn't hard to talk Jason into changing his mind, is it? If I wasn't getting sleepy and could remember all the names on the show I'd keep going with my theories, but it's getting harder and harder to concentrate. So I'll move on to the next paragraaaaaaaaph.........NOW!

Joel and I watched "Hung" after TB went off and were not impressed. I mean, really....it's about a man that's down on his luck with a big third leg. You don't even see the main character in the show! It hides behind a zipper the whole time. Not that I'm wanting to see the thing, but if it's centered around how huge it is then....well.....it's not good to have an invisible main character, ya know? Donny, the guy that the show is really centered around is only interesting beCAUSE of his "you know". Other than that he's just a football coach with a crap life. Most Pilot episodes pull you into wanting to see more. This one just made me want to watch True Blood, Nurse Jackie or Weeds to get that one out of my system. Seriously depressing show! Since it comes on after True Blood I'm sure I'll see it again. If that happens and it looks any more interesting the second go around I'll be the first to admit it has improved. It could happen I guess. For now, though, I won't be DVRing it.

So to let you know I'm not some couch potato that just sits around watching TV all the time I should probably report that I've been going to the gym for about 3 or 4 weeks now. Joel and I joined Anytime Fitness in Leesburg. It's working out very well for me. Joel has been having some health concerns and is seeing about it. He's only gone 3 times I think. I hope he can start going with me soon, though. It's more fun when he goes. He'll be seeing the doctor tomorrow morning to get some test results back. Wish him luck. I want our next 10 years together to be healthy ones. Which leads me to my next paragraph...

Joel and I celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary a little over a week ago. Well, celebrated might not be the best description of what we did, but we were together and we were happy with that so it was a success in my book. I had a doctor's appointment and some lab work done, so that wasn't exactly a dream come true, but the rest of the day was purely fun. We spent it in Orlando shopping, eating, and just enjoying one another's company. We ate at Bahama Breeze, which is our new favorite. We gave each other the gym membership. Haha...what are you supposed to get for your spouse after 10 years? We're not traditional. 

I had some other thoughts that were going into this blog entry, but right now I"m thinking about the back of my eyelids and how comfortable this bed and my pillow is so.... 

Can't Sleep

I can't sleep, so I thought I'd post an entry in my poor, neglected blog. Sooo....what to talk about. Since sleep is what I'm after at the moment, let's start there.

I try every night to get in the bed at the same time as Joel. He decides he's going to bed and 5 minutes later he's snoozing. By the time I take the dogs out, close both computers, wash my face, brush my teeth, check all doors, get into my Pajamas, etc... It's too late. I really wish I could simplify my life so I could just say I'm doing something and DO it right then and there.

Speaking of simplifying my life, I really do need to do that in ALL aspects of Rischa-ville. Did I just say "Rischa-ville". How lame! Must be the sleeping pill. Anyway, first let's start with my email lists; I get about a thousand emails a day from different subscriptions. Most of them I mass delete. Why do I do this? What am I looking for out of these lists? I waste an awful lot of time sorting. I even have folder after folder to help organize them all, but I still waste a ton of time going through them all.

Second; Pets. I love each and every one of my pets. I REALLY do. Just like everything else, though, I go overboard. I take in every stray or sad face I see. I'm like the old lady that lived in a shoe, but with critters. I can't even go on business trips with Joel or visit family with him because I can't leave them behind. I have given serious thought to finding homes for my parrots. I love them so much, though, it makes me cry to even think of it. Let's say I did find a new home for them, though. I could then have my own room to work on my art rather than sweating my ass off out in the garage, where my current studio resides. I could also move my sewing desk and computer desk in there.

Oh, and then there are my treasures; I have various collections that are just stored in boxes in the garage and the attic. Don't get me wrong, Joel has some, too. I can't speak for him, though. Back to the point, I have bird houses (can you tell I have a thing for birds?), Precious Moments figurines, Piggy banks, shot glasses, and other small collections that I don't even display and bring me no use or pleasure at all. Why?! Some of them were given to me, but I did bring it on myself by starting these little collections to begin with. I don't even like these collections any more. They're just fun things to collect for a while and then they begin to collect dust, so I box them up.

I guess the question I should be asking myself right now is, "What is missing in my life that I overdo everything?" Is it a boredom thing? A perfectionist thing? A challenge? What the hell? This is my struggle for the moment. At times I think to myself, "delete everything!" That would include email lists, collections, or anything that complicates my life. The, other times, I think to myself, "What if I regret it later?" What to do, what to do?

Ahhh well, moving on....

I've been thinking of joining a Gym lately. There's one called Anytime Fitness that looks promising. I like going for walks and bike rides, but it always rains in the evening here. I set my alarm for a bit earlier this morning thinking that I could go early before it got hot out, but it stormed!! Grrr! What's a flabby girl to do? I bought an exercise DVD by Jillian Michaels, that Biggest Loser chick, but she had me doing jumping jacks, push ups, squat thrusts, jumping rope, etc... I can't jump up and down on these arthritic knees! I tried it and my knees hurt for a week. I also could feel that the workout was an awesome one, though. My muscles were that good kind of sore that you feel after you've worked out. I wish I COULD do it every day. I just can't, though. My rheumy would fuss at me if I did. On a more productive note, I have started logging everything that I eat and drink. I downloaded an application that helps you track your calories on my iPod Touch. It's really great because you can do a quick search for your food and they have a list from all restaurants and grocery stores to make it easy. It's really a great little weight loss tool.

I think I'll go surf the net a while until I feel like I can catch those illusive "Z's". I can tell that it's getting harder to concentrate on writing so my sleeping pill is surely kickin' in. See ya next time....

Oh and P.S. Don't judge me by the grammar used above. I'm not even gonna proofread this entry. It's too long and I'm too lazy to do it.

Getting to know your friends 2009

Instead of sending this each time I get it, I thought I'd post it here...

Welcome to the 2009 edition of getting to know your Friends. 'press FORWARD' then change all the answers so they apply to you, and then send this to your friends including the person who sent it to you. The theory is that you will learn a lot of little things about your friends that you might not have known!      1.  What time did you get     up this morning? 9:15 2.  Diamonds or pearls? diamonds 3.  What was the last film you saw at the cinema?  I don't remember. I prefer HBO on my home TV since we pay so much for it already. LOL 4.  What is your favorite TV show? Weeds 5.  What do you usually have for breakfast Coffee with either cereal or grits. If Joel's home then pancakes. 6.  What is your middle name? LeClair (after Great Grandmother) 7.  What food do you dislike? sushi & guacamole 8.  What is your favorite CD at moment. Don't listen to CD's. I have a play list I listen to on my art blog, though, if I want music. My favorite is piano music with no lyrics. Otherwise I listen to talk radio. 9.  What kind of car do you drive? A Tucson (compact SUV) 10.  Favorite sandwich? Grilled Cheese 11. What characteristics do you despise? Dishonesty, narcissism, snootiness, know-it-alls 12.  Favorite item of clothing My blue satin night gown 13.  If you could go anywhere in the world on vacation, where would you go? Australia .14 Favorite brand of clothing? Fruit of the Luim or Hanes (comfy stuff lol) 15.  Where would you retire to? Where I live now, Central FL 16.  What was your most recent memorable birthday? 32nd 1/17/2009 17.  Favorite sport to watch? Dog agility (good answer, Fern! I'm keeping that one) 18.  Furthest place you are sending this? Not sending it. Putting it on my blog for all to see. 19.  Person you expect to send it back first? No one since I'm not sending it, but Mom will be the first to comment. ;-) 20.  When is your birthday? Jan. 17 21.  Are you a morning person or a night person? Definitely night! 22.  What is your shoe size? 8-1/2 23.  Pets?  Many 24.  Any new and exciting news you'd like to share with us? Hmm...I'm starting an online business, but I already shared that. 25.  What did you want to be when you were little? I don't remember when I was really little, but I had planned to be a Psychiatrist when I was in High School. I don't know if I told anyone that back then, though. 26.  How are you today? Happy as can be 27.  What is your favorite candy? Hedgehogs that Candice sends me at Christmas. 28.  What is your favorite flower? Orchids, Daisies, Tulips, Bouganvillias....oh, just one? lol 29. What is a day on the calendar you are looking forward to? Hmm...I guess the day of the neighborhood yard sale. March 12-14th. Kolby comes home from GA then, too. 30.  What is your full name? Rischa LeClair Heape 31.  What are you listening to right now? The running water from the turtle's aquarium filter and my dogs snoring. 32.  What was the last thing you ate? Pancakes (Joel was home till 12 today. lol) 33.  Do you wish on stars? sure do 34.  If you were a crayon, what color would you be? Magenta 35.  How is the weather right now? Perfection!! Sunny....not too hot, but warm. Mid 70's. 36.  The first person you spoke to on the phone today? Kolby, my handsome son 37.  Favorite soft drink? Coca-Cola (which I can't have....dieting *sobs*) 38.  Favorite restaurant? Palm Tree Grill 39.  Real hair color? Dark brown with Auburn tones. 40.  What was your favorite toy as a child? Caroline doll and then my He-Men action figures. Yay for tom-boys! 41. Summer or winter? Summer, but prefer Spring 42.  Hugs or kisses? Depends on who. Both from my fellas (Kolby and Joel, of course) 43.  Chocolate or Vanilla? Chocolate ALL the way! 44.  Coffee or tea? COFFEE!!! 45.  Do you want your friends to email you back? Always 46.  When was the last time you cried? Last night, but it was something sweet. 47.  What is under your bed? Dust, magazines, and whatever Penny has dragged under there. 48.  What did you do last night? Watched tv with Joel, blogged, talked to Candice, took photos, etc... 49.  What are you afraid of? Loss 50. Salty or sweet? Sweet if I have to choose just one. 51.  How many keys on your key ring? 3 52.  How many years at your current job? 16 (Mom) 10 (Wife) Artist.....just started 53.   Favorite day of the week?  Friday     54.   How many towns have you lived in?  5   55.   Do you make friends easily?   Online friends, yes. In person, not really. I never really go anywhere to make friends any more. 56.   How many people will you send this to?  Again...not sending.   57.   How many will respond?   None....not sending, ya know. ;-)

Comic Strip

Another funny that I found while blog-hopping...

Cyanide & Happiness @ Explosm.net

And on that note....I've lost 3 lbs! Woohoo! LOL