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Boy, Sunday just flew by and was packed with a lot of food!!  Hope you had a nice Super Bowl and/or Sunday.  I wasn’t really rooting for anyone in particular and only watched maybe the last part of the game (the most thrilling part!), but it was kind of nice to see the underdog win.  Sorry Colts fans!

The day started out really nice with a casual and easy breakfast of

blueberry flax pancakes!  FlaxMatters.com sent me a few of their flax products to review and I was eager to give them a try.  What makes their products unique is the patented processing that separates whole, plump seeds from damaged ones.  By eliminating the damaged seeds, their flax is made to be shelf and nutrient stable for up to 2 years.  Flax seeds are also a great source of ALA-Omega 3s.  While these aren’t quite as beneficial as DHA/EPA omega-3s, I still believe they should definitely be included in a heart-healthy diet as they are also packed with beneficial and filling fiber in addition to healthy fats.  They even have flax products with DHA/EPA omega-3s as well!

The Flax Pancake & Waffle mix had a nice nutty flavor from the addition of flax and whole grains.  It was also a cinch to make!  I decided to double the recipe since we enjoy pancakes for leftover peanut butter sandwiches and ended up with 10 pancakes total.  Yum!  This would even be doable on a weekday.

I also tried their Milled Golden Flax with Blueberries.  I loved how there were little bits of dried blueberries in there in addition to the smoothly milled flaxseed.  I even added a little bit of this to the pancakes, and it would be a great addition to oatmeal, yogurt or smoothies.

Here’s what went into this batch:

• 2 cups Flax Pancake & Waffle Mix
• 2 cups NF milk
• 2 eggs
• 2 tbsp canola oil
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 cup Golden Flax with Blueberries
• 1 banana + frozen blueberries added while cooking

Simply mix all the ingredients together and cook (1/4 cup batter for each) in a pan or on a griddle about 5-6 minutes per side 🙂  As they were cooking on the griddle I put a few sliced naners on top and a sprinkling of frozen blueberries.

Here’s my GIANT pancake spatula!  It works really well 🙂

We topped ours with NF Greek yogurt, mixed with a little Wallaby vanilla yogurt, and some more flax.  With a fried egg on the side.

I then had the ingenious idea to spread a little bit of peanut butter on top with the yogurt . .  heavenly!  I’m all over the good fats this morning.

Afterwards, while I should have been working on school stuff, I transferred over some more recipes to the recipes page and decided to get a quick workout in on the bike trainer.  After our downpour on Saturday, I think we are supposed to have even more rain this week!  It was a really good sweat session, all while I watched DVR-ed Oprah.  I loved her diabetes episode, so very informative and wonderful of her to bring the tragic reality of this deadly disease to the country.

• Bike Trainer Stats:  1 hour, 14.01 miles, 550kcals (I think this overestimates?) —- It’s nice to have the Garmin cadence sensor and I actually really liked having the timer going because I was able to do some interval training as well as harder hills.  I hate working out and not knowing my time frame sometimes!  I really want to work increasing my avg pace to 15-17 mph.  I think I’m going to go for the Napa Metric Century!!!  I just have to first okay it with work and make sure I can stay with my aunt who lives there.  So excited!!

After a nice sweat session, I re-fueled with a smoothie bowl, topped with some tasty granola (can’t get enough Gina!).  I also had a leftover spanakopita.  I didn’t want to eat too much since it was almost time to leave for Kristen‘s Super Bowl party!  Woo-hoo!

This one contained (for 2):

• NF Milk, Wallaby plain yogurt
• TJ’s frozen mango, raspberry, blueberry mix
• 1 scoop chocolate whey protein powder
• chia seeds
• scoop peanut butter

It was delish!

Oh my gosh, there was so much food at the party!  Kristen’s family always has such a wonderful spread of really great food.  I had to control myself from eating too much since my friend also invited me out to dinner later that evening.  It was sure tough!  Here’s just a few of the choices, yes just a few:

With all the selection, it was so hard to decide!  Here is what my plate looked like.  I ate most, except the pasta salad.  It was all delicious!  I also had a bite of the football cake 🙂

It was a really great party and it was nice to catch up.  Thanks Kristen!!!

After the game (wow, what a game!), I dropped Chris off at home and headed to the next eating session 🙂  A good friend invited me to dinner at a restaurant in the Palms called Nove Italiano.  Oh boy, this place was chic!  I get all excited trying restaurants like this since I don’t get to go that often, and we sure received the VIP treatment.

I started out with a glass of their Cabernet on the list.  It was nice and full, bursting with luscious fruit and a rich finish.

Then the food kept on coming!

Chickpea Tuna Crostini — I had one

Panzanella Salad with a wonderful variety of heirloom tomatoes and hearts of palm.  This was my favorite!  I had two small plates full.

Fire-roasted cheese pizza — I had one slice.

Agnolatti Ravioli with spicy ricotta and walnut pesto.  This was a close second!  I had 5 raviolis.

Since we received 2 complimentary drinks, I decided to order more of a dessert drink called Strawberry Balsamico.  Oh man, is there really alcohol in here??? lol  Sooo good!  After dinner and lots of great conversation we walked around the PlayBoy Nightclub, although there wasn’t too much action at 10:30pm.  It was neat to just check it out.

Such a great night!!  I am definitely feeling it this morning as the alarm was blaring and I groggily rolled out of bed at 5:30am, dang it!  ah such is life and I’m hoping to get an afternoon nap 🙂  I can’t even tell you how many calories I had yesterday and I’m perfectly ok with that, time to get back on the wagon, savor the wonderful experience and move along 🙂

Gina’s having a random giveaway of peanut butter, pilates DVD and coconut milk, check it out!!

Thanks for reading, hope you all had a nice weekend!!