La Copa de la Vida

I love soccer.

Don't you want to hang out with me?

Really. It’s a shame I don’t see much percentage in having anything other than basic cable, because I’d probably watch soccer all the time. I’ve watched almost every game of this World Cup so far, and despite the officials trying to make things difficult, I actually managed to watch two games at once this morning. I was planning on watching Mexico play Uruguay while watching the stats on France vs. South Africa, but got sucked in before I could turn the F/SA game off. My brain almost exploded. I don’t know how sports fans do it; I couldn’t handle simply having a PIP thing going on with only one set of sound, so I had both computers running with the sound on for both games. And I intend to do it again this afternoon. If they find my body with brains trickling out my ears, you’ll know what happened, so someone please explain it to the police.

This has been a great World Cup so far, although it’s really only picked up steam in the past few days. There were so many 0-0 and 1-1 draws I was beginning to wonder if it was going to be worth watching until it got to the Group of Death. But things are shaping up quite nicely – France is going home, and Italy and the USA are still in the mix, so I’m happy.

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Yesterday, I noticed that one of my tomato plants had managed to sneak in getting pollenated without my knowledge. So, today we start….

Tomato Watch.

The squash is still not flowering, so no vegetables for me. Yet.

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To all you lurkers out there – Yes, you. *points* – I know you’re here, reading and looking at pictures. So comment already.

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Since I have a little extra time on my hands, I have been trying to plan to cook more heart-healthy foods and whole grains. I love pancakes, but with the butter and the sugar and the white flour, they end up being not so healthy. So here is my alternative. They’re not light and super-fluffy (there are no eggs), but they are pretty tasty, if I do say so myself.

This recipe calls for freshly ground grain, and the measurement is for whole grain berries (kernels). I use spelt, but I imagine wheat or kamut would work as well. Grind the grain until it is relatively fine, remembering, however, that the finer the grind the higher the glycemic index. I use my Magic Bullet with the chopping blade (the flat one). If you are unable to grind your own grain you can try substituting whole wheat flour. I haven’t done so myself, so I don’t know exactly how much flour you would need. 1 cup of grain generally grinds out to be between 1.5 and 2 cups of flour, so start with 1 c of flour and work from there…

Whole Grain Pancakes with Strawberries

3/4 c whole spelt berries

1/8 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking soda

3/4 tsp baking powder, scant

1/4 c Splenda

3/4 tsp cooking oil

1/4 tsp vanilla

1/2 c soy milk

4-5 strawberries

Grind grain to desired consistency. Place freshly-ground flour in a small bowl and add the salt, baking soda, baking powder, and Splenda; stir dry ingredients to mix.

Make well in the center. Add oil, vanilla, and soy milk. Stir until combined. Allow the batter to set for roughly 30 seconds, then dip out onto griddle on medium-high heat, using a 1/4 cup measure. Be careful not to stir the batter after the initial mixing or the pancakes will be flat and dense. Recipe makes about 3 palm-sized pancakes.

Cook pancakes until center is done – it will vary depending on the heat of your griddle. While pancakes are cooking, de-stem and slice strawberries. Remove pancakes from griddle and stack on top of one another, layering strawberries in between.

Enjoy!

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