Just trust me

First of all, thank you for your patience. I am back from the preparation, the wedding, the honeymoon, and the aftermath of settling back into a "normal" routine (if anything I do can be considered normal).

Tonight I share with you a crazy, zany, only Emily (but you should still try it because it's rockin' good) vegan pancake recipe - complete with photos. I know it sounds like nothing you would ever want to eat, but just trust me on this.

Emily Pancakes:
This is not so much a recipe as it is a philosophy. It encompasses taking a bunch of left over breakfast stuff and throwing them into your pancake mix. But I'll share with you the technicalities incase you need structure like that.

• 1 1/2 cups pancake mix (homemade or box - either way I reccomend whole wheat)
• 1 cup already prepared oatmeal (mine was Trader Joe's multigrain prepared with almond and some with fresh blueberries mixed in)
• 2/3 cup raw cereal (*This is going to be a long parenthesis* The story behind the raw cereal is long and fairly uncomplicated, but it's also fairly uninteresting. It has to do with a doctor's visit, a new food processor, and the urge to go a little more granola. Basically, raw cereal is pecans, broccoli, cauliflower, baby carrots, and an apple pulsed in the food processor until it's cous cous size. Then you give it a dash of cinnamon, pour in some almond milk - I love almond milk - and eat. And I know you're shaking your head wondering why in the world anyone would want to try that, but I did, and so I did, and that's how we ended up here. *End parenthesis*)
• 1 Banana (to mash)
• a little water to thin out the mix (if needed)

So you start by mashing a banana in a large bowl. Then dump in your left over oatmeal (about a cup) and some of your left over raw cereal (about 2/3 cup) and stir it all together. Then add in 1 cup to 1 1/2 cups pancake mix until your batter is thick but workable for pancakes like so:

I had way more mix, but at this point I had already cooked up half my pancakes.

Then warm up your griddle or skillet, give it a shot of Pam and drop a little batter on it and cook both sides until done.

Voila!

See? They don't look scary, so they? If you'll just trust me, these puppies are really good. John had some for breakfast this morning, and he even thinks so. Plus, they're way healthier than normal pancakes. I like mine with some fresh ground peanut butter on top and/or sugar free syrup.

YUM!

And that is all.
About the pancakes that is.

I'm going to share with you a little picture. This, dear friends, is what it looks like before I head out to take on the grocery world:

My coupon piles, store flyers, and grocer lists abound. And I know it looks like a slight bit of insanity (and it might be - I mean, this is me we're talking about), but if you take yesterday as an average example, you'll see it's pretty awesome. I went to the grocery store and spent $36.68 on groceries for this week. I saved $19.29 in special grocery pricing (in other words, because the items were on sale), and a whopping $48.95 in coupons alone. I saved more in coupons than I spent on my groceries. Without them my total would have been $85.63.
I don't know about you, but that is well worth my time. :o)

If you don't get the paper, check out these printable coupons:
Coupons.com
Smart Source
Red Plum

Happy shopping!