Another Birthday for Jesse!!! And Stephen's isn't far behind :/

Over the past weekend, Jesse celebrated her birthday. She undoubtably did not enjoy making that leap of age into the late twenties. I really have no room to talk, I'm already in my late twenties and have accepted that I'm not going to get younger in age by number, but I can get younger, faster, and stronger in ability of mind and body.

I never realized what kind of girl I fell in love with, apparently I didn't notice she is a four year old trapped in an aging body who is over the age of twenty one. What makes me have this comment?? Oh just the fact that the breakfast she asked me to make her on her birthday morning was a banana cake batter protein pancake with sprinkles baked inside, topped with bubble gum flavored icing, sprinkles, & candles.

Even though she is a kid when it comes to her birthday, apparently I have blonde hair that is just colored wrong. Last night I cooked a dinner for Jesse and my parents. How simple is cooking chicken wrapped in bacon?? Not only did I mess it up, I burned the heck out of the first two pieces of chicken.

My only defense was that I was using my cast iron skillet for maybe the third time, used a little too much extra virgin olive oil, and had the temperature raised too high for too long (I didn't think the skillet would heat up that quickly).

I will admit that there are no pictures of my disaster, only because my plate did not resemble the fact I was eating chicken wrapped in bacon, but Jesse made some delicious twice baked potatoes. She'll have to give the recipe just in case you don't already know how to do it, like me.

Unfortunately for the two of us, we've been rather busy and fell off the healthy eating and working out schedule we had created. Fear not, we will be jumping back on the wagon after this weekend and/or whenever we get back from Houston for my birthday weekend.

Celebrating National Food Holidays

I was reading this post at Life's a Bowl when I learned that it's National Pancake Week! I mentioned this in yesterday's post, but today Stephen and I finally made the protein pancakes we've been planning to make for weeks.

PB2 Banana Protein Pancakes:

Ingredients:
1/2 c oats
1/2 c egg whites
1/2 scoop vanilla protein powder (we used Jillian Michael's Vanilla Creme Shake)
1 mashed banana
2 tbsp PB2 powder
splash unsweetened almond milk

These were amazing! Nice and fluffy (I read that sometimes protein pancakes are anything but), topped with 100% pure organic maple syrup and and fresh fruit (blackberries and strawberries for me, blackberries and blueberries for Stephen. We are slightly obsessed with berries at the moment).

In case you're curious, I also firmly believe that National Pancake Week calls for these Salted Caramel Pancakes (also from Life's a Bowl). If only I had the sugar-free salted caramel Torani syrup...

Today is also National Cook a Sweet Potato Day. Stephen and I are obsessed with roasted chipotle powder sweet potatoes, so cooking a sweet potato was not. a. problem!

Prepping sweet potatoes and having an appetizer.
We were hungry post-workout!

Well, not a problem until I burned them! My mom called, so I got distracted :/ 

Good thing it's National Cook a Sweet Potato Day,
not National Eat a Sweet Potato Day!

Since we're on the topic of national food holidays, Stephen's birthday is National Chocolate Covered Raisins Day. He's stoked! Me? I'm kinda meh. Definitely feeling National Pancake Week and National Cook a Sweet Potato Day instead.

I don't have a national food day on my birthday, March 10. Should we make one? How about National Mushroom Day? National Biscoff Spread Day? What does it say about me that these are the two days I  choose for my birthday-meets-national-food-holiday day? 

I had way to much fun reading Allison's post. Clearly.

Question: What's your favorite food holiday? Is there one on your birthday?

Nope. Nap.

Did you know? It's National Pancake Week!

[Source]

Stephen and I fully intended to celebrate tonight with our very first attempt at protein pancakes. We've planned to make them for weeks, but life always gets in the way.

Like today. Instead of pancakes, we are going to grab dinner with Stephen's parents. I'd say that's an okay reason to skip pancakes, right?

Before dinner, Stephen and  I have a run planned around the LSU lakes, but Stephen still went to the gym on his own this morning.

I received his MapMyRun push notification, which spurred this conversation:

It's been one of those days.

Question: What's your favorite pancake? Since we're newbs at protein pancakes (okay, pancakes in general aside from Bisquick), we need tips!