As pancakes were on the menu tonight! More on that later :)

First off, welcome to my blog! After many months of reading health, wellness and travel blogs – I was inspired to start contributing my thoughts and feeling on the topics and Iowa Girl Eats was born! Check out my uniquely Iowa views on eating well, running often and traveling far. Drop me a note anytime you’d like and enjoy!

Today I definitely had a case of “The Mondays”. I was tired, pretty cranky, and not really ready to face the week ahead. I perked up a little after a morning walk with my mom. We go every morning that it’s nice outside (for Iowa that means above 35 degrees) – she and my dad live 6 blocks away from my husband Ben and me! After that I made a huuuuuge bowl of oatmeal with milk, a banana, a teaspoon of brown sugar, toasted almonds, TONS of cinnamon and a splash of vanilla. I enjoyed my breakfast while catching up on the busted economy on the Today Show. Ugh, I just love watching The Today Show in the morning while eating breakfast and watching the sun rise in the sky. 5:00am – 8:00am is my absolute favorite time of the day. So after a big bowl of oatmeal + the Today Show I was ready to start my day.

After making it through (just barely) I was totally dreading a workout, but after indulging in a few too many Starbursts Favereds (OMG have you tried these??? A whole package of “red” Starbursts – amazing) anyways, I knew a workout was definitely in my best interests. I really wanted to run outside becuase it was almost 60 degrees out today! But wind gusts were up to 28 mph, so I thought mmmm no dice, and I headed to the gym. 30 minutes of elliptical, 3 miles on the treadmill and a 20 minute walk later, I was in my kitchen making…..Banana Bread Pancakes!!!!!

Now, I love breakfast for dinner – but the husband? Not so much. Well, he works late a couple nights a week and I take those nights to make whatever I want J Tonight it was:

Banana Bread Pancakes

  • Krusteaz Fat-Free Buttermilk Pancake mix
  • Small, mashed banana
  • 1 oz chopped, toasted walnuts
  • TONS of cinnamon (I love cinnamon)
  • Splash of vanilla (I love vanilla too )

I love this pancake mix. All you need to do is add water – couldn’t be simpler! I cooked these puppies up on my flat top skillet, paired them with some Smuckers sugar free syrup – which by the way, is an amazing sugar-free syrup…super thick – topped ’em with a little MORE cinnamon (!!) and I was in faux banana bread pancake heaven!!

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The recipe made 6 pancakes, but I could only eat 4 – they were enormous. Let’s be honest though, I’ll most likely go back for the last two later tonight.

On tap for the evening is some trashy Gossip Girl (don’t judge), Dancing with the Stars (Shawn Johnson lives in my town!) and relaxing. A fabulous end to a slow start Monday.

Talk tomorrow!