Here’s a great way to warm up to full-on Thanksgiving flavors. Apples are the iconic fall fruit, and there’s nothing much more comforting on a cool morning than the soul-warming smell of cooked apples and cinnamon.
The hardest part about making the fresh apple pancake you see above is turning the pancake from fruit side up to fruit side down in the frying pan and then back to fruit side up to serve on a plate.
No problem.
The step-by-step directions you can get here show how to make those turns as easily and safely as possible using either a pan top (as shown below) or large plate (shown in the recipe).
Here’s what you need for ingredients and…
…equipment.
Click this link or any picture on this page for a complete, easy to follow step-by-step picture book recipe.
The other day I mentioned that I keep a vat of fresh whipped cream in the fridge. That vat went dry just after I wrote that. So, what a great opportunity to whip up a new one – and add flavor, all fun and very easily. As shown below, all I did was add a good shake of ground cinnamon (I do that all the time now) and use coconut sugar instead of regular white table sugar.
Whipping then took only 2 minutes as I’d used heavy cream right out of the fridge and a frosted glass measuring cup I’d put in the freezer over night.
You’ll notice in the last shot above that I didn’t whip the cream until it was firm enough to keep the ejected hand mixer blades standing. All fine. That’s the consistency I like, as it dissolves more easily in coffee, works great on anything else I top with it and makes it easy to pour into a “vat” I put in the fridge for easy access anytime I want it.
Click any picture on this page for step-by-step picture book Fresh Whipped Cream directions that you can vary however your personal taste desires.
Fruit, yogurt and more? Sure, always more! With full-on flavor – that’s half the fun of it. What you see above is what I put together to rocket-fuel up or an excellent hop on the bike with good buds this morning (below) – and with no need to refuel on the way.
You can get the base recipe I used, Summer Multi-Fruit Salad, by clicking either this link or any picture on this page.
To mix it up a bit, here’s what I used for ingredients and…
…how I put it all together – fruit first; then nut butter, cookie butter spread, jam; Greek yogurt & ground flaxseed with nutritional yeast…
The key word to an energy sustaining rocket fuel breakfast: opposition. Opposition here means counterbalancing complex instant “get up and go” energy carbohydrates with longer burning proteins and fats that provide “keep the drive alive” sustained energy.
One of my favorites that wraps that combination all in one – with full-on flavor – is fresh fruit pancake like the cherry peach pancake shown here.
The best part about this pancake is that it’s nothing like traditional spongy, syrup-sucking flapjacks. No sir/ma’am! These pancakes are rich in protein, have just enough flour to keep them together as they cook in the pan and are packed with fresh fruit. Now, you won’t picture book directions for this specific cherry peach pancake because the only difference between it and the cherry pancake picture book recipe you can get here is the added fresh peach slices on top of the pancake as shown below – and, of course, you can substitute those peaches – or cherries – with any fresh fruit you like.
Click this link or any picture on this page to get the full cherry pancake step-by-step picture book recipe, and either have that pancake exactly as shown in the recipe (though cherries might be tough to find right now) or improvise with any fresh fruit you like.
Last post, Rocket Fuel to Power Your Body in Motion, showed very much the same breakfast I had this morning before popping out for a bike ride with good Hickory buds shown below.
Most importantly, this cold drink tastes great! At the same time, it’s moderately caffeinated and provides a good shot of potassium, through coconut water, which boosts metabolism and pays off big time for any endurance physical activity: cycling, running, hiking, walking, full-on yard work – and more. (I usually drink 2 tumblers (about 20 ounces X 2) full of that drink before a ride and then supplement with water on the fly – and never come home dehydrated.)
For optimal results, I highly recommend brewing the coffee and making the chocolate mix in the evening so that it can cool in the fridge overnight for an ice cold drink in the morning.
Rockets, power, motion! Please tell me you find that “let’s go!” motivating! When it comes to fuel to power endurance exercise/any physical activity to keep your body in motion, the key is making sure to take in fats, protein, some carbohydrates and fluids – and having them all with full-on flavor.
Here’s what I had recently for the hop on the bike shown above with terrific good friends.
The fats, from whole milk Greek yogurt, whole milk kefir, almond-peanut butter and freshly made whipped cream, combined with protein from egg and whole grain flour in the fruit pancake, Greek yogurt and kefir gave me slow-burning sustained energy. The carbohydrates: a little sugar in my iced coffee/chocolate/coconut water drink, cookie spread on my pancake slice and fruit, dried fruit and jam in my fruit and yogurt mix, gave me instant energy to start my ride. And front-loading fluids with 30-40 ounces of iced coffee/chocolate/coconut water got me going well hydrated so that I just needed to top off with water while I rode, and the potassium in coconut water helped both prevent cramps and improve energy metabolism.
Of course, everybody’s body and fuel requirements are different, and only YOU know YOU. That means it’s most important to pay attention to what YOU eat and drink and how that affects YOUR physical performance, no matter what kind of physical activity YOU do. Still, though the fine details differ person to person, the base components are the same: carbohydrates for quick burning energy, a good shot of fat and protein for long-burning, sustained energy and plenty of fluids to start off well hydrated.
The next few posts, starting with iced coffee/chocolate/coconut water (killer good!), will show how to make each of the 3 pieces shown above that I have regularly – and always with a little improvised variety for flavor fun, before hopping out on the bike.
Top left & right: In DC for National Bike Summit. Bottom left: riding Fiesta Island with good Navy bud, Stormin’ Walker. Bottom right: “on the fly” improvised fruit pancake.
Here’s an “on the fly” example. Was in San Diego last week at my Navy big brother’s place and made this improvised strawberry, blackberry and banana pancake for breakfast.
I’ve certainly made lots of fruit pancakes but never one with strawberries, bananas and blackberries. No big deal.
The keys to improvising are having a good, reliable, easy to remember base recipe and trusting your taste to make what you want. Also no big deal – but a lot of fun.
My base recipe for fruit pancakes: apple pancake. If you’re an apple fan at all, I think you’ll find that pancake both fully-flavor-satisfying and one that will let answer the question, “I wonder how it would taste if I made it with _______?” As soon as you ask that question – and you’re willing to take a little leap in faith – you’re off to the “on the fly” improvised races!
Last post was about a crepe I made with nut butter, cookie spread and raisins, as my dear ol’ mom used to say, “JIC”. And that “JIC” was “just in case” I needed it to refuel on a 60 mile North Carolina ride. And though I didn’t need to refuel on the ride, that full-on flavorful crepe sure didn’t go to waste. No way!
Crepe with nut butter, cookie spread; fruit with yogurt, jam & dried fruit; and coffee
Last weekend I used half of that leftover crepe for breakfast, as shown above, along with fruit, yogurt, jam and dried fruit and a vat of coffee – and, you bet, both the crepe and coffee got a good shot of whipped cream. Again, that breakfast – and a good meal the night before (equally as important) –
…sustained me just fine for another 60 mile less hilly ride, as shown above, with no need to chomp on the nuts, raisins and dried coconut I bagged and shoved in my pocket, again, “JIC”. Ha, Mom!
Last post – I know, quite a while ago – showed how to make fresh crepes, which are just as easy to make as flapjack pancakes but are way more versatile, as shown with just a few examples above.
Whether you use your own crepes or pre-made store bought crepes, the top middle version, filled with nut butter and jam and topped with yogurt and whipped cream is very easy to make, killer flavorful and great power fuel for any kind of strenuous activity because of its combination of simple “get up and go!” sugars from the jam and cookie spread (optional), complex carbs from the flour in the crepe, protein from the egg in the crepe, Greek yogurt and nut butter, and fats from nut butter, yogurt (if you use whole milk yogurt) and whipped cream.
Here’s what I use to put together a crepe like this: homemade crepe (which can be substituted with a prepared, store bought crepe), then from left to right: whole milk Greek yogurt, almond butter, cookie spread (optional – I love both added flavor and light crunch!), jam, raisins and whipped cream.
Crepe with nut butter, jam, yogurt and whipped cream ingredients
Start by spreading nut butter, cookie spread (optional) and jam down the middle of the crepe.
Spreading nut butter, cookie spread and jam down the middle of a crepe
I fold over one of the crepe thirds and add a dab of nut butter to the middle of that third and then fold over the opposing third, as shown below, to keep the crepe folded in place when I warm it in the microwave oven.
Using nut butter to keep the folded crepe thirds together when warmed in the microwave oven
Warm the filled crepe in the microwave oven for 20 seconds.
Warming the filled crepe for 20 seconds in the microwave oven
Finish buy topping the warmed crepe with yogurt and whipped cream.
Finishing with a good shot of yogurt and whipped cream
This crepe just by itself is great. Here’s how I have it before a good crunch on the bike that keeps me satisfied completely with no need to refuel on the fly for distances of 30-50+ miles with plenty of North Carolina hills along the way.
Pre-ride crepe with nut butter, cookie spread, jam, yogurt and whipped cream
Though France is well known for the premier cycling events of the year, the men’s and women’s gutsy, rip fast Tour de France, they are even better known for full-on food flavor.
One of my favorite go-to French foods is fresh crepes, which are, no kidding, just as easy to make as flapjack pancakes but much more flavorfully versatile and a great physical activity power source.
Here are the needed ingredients.
Click this link or the photo below to see a short, thumbnail sketch video showing how I made fresh crepes to take on a bike trip last weekend.
Click this link for a complete, very easy to use step-by-step picture book Crepes Made Easy recipe.
November 15th, 2024 
