Chickpea Blueberry Pancakes

Okay this is my first entry into the recipe files. Why did I choose this one? Maybe because it is such a hit in our house, requested on a frequent basis by my son Sasha. I have played with pancake making for years, and I am turned on by creating flour products that are gluten and dairy free, which these are. Got the inspiration from a meal at Zucca, my favourite Italian restaurant in Toronto. They make a chickpea foccacia that makes me salivate when I think of it.

Let me know any questions that you have about the recipe. Would also love your feedback.

Chickpea Blueberry Pancakes

The best pancakes that I have ever made, they have been received by all with rave reviews. They are thick and fluffy, but be sure to cook them long enough before flipping. They should be almost dry on top before you flip.
Makes about 16 medium sized pancakes
1 c. chickpea flour
¼ c. tapioca flour
¾ c. buckwheat flour
1 tsp xantham gum
2 tsp non-gluten baking powder
1 tsp sea salt
2 tbs unrefined coconut oil, + extra for frying
1 c. rice milk, soy milk or almond milk
1 ¼ c. purified water
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
3 eggs, separated
½ – 1 c blueberries (fresh or frozen)

Sift all dry ingredients together.
Melt the coconut oil over low heat. Do not boil or smoke. Let it cool.
Separate the eggs, dropping the yolks into a large enough bowl to hold all of the wet ingredients. Keep the whites aside for now. Mix the oil in with the yolks. Then add the rest of the wet ingredients in with the egg mixture.
Add the wet to the dry slowly, mixing as you go.
Fold the blueberries into the batter.
Use a beater to whip the egg whites until they form a stiff peak.
Fold them into the batter.
Place a skillet on low-medium heat with enough coconut oil to melt to cover the bottom of the pan. When the oil is heated enough to create a slight bubbling of a dab of batter dropped into the pan, the skillet is ready.
Flip the pancakes when they are dry on top and nicely browned on the bottom.
Serve with real maple syrup or your favourite fruit sauce.
Option: These pancakes are also excellent with sliced apples and 1 tsp of cinnamon in addition to or instead of the blueberries.

Large Radiant Women

I was searching for another site when I stumbled across www.radiancemagazine.com , a site and mag for large, well-endowed women. My curiousity sent me exploring through some of the back issues.

I was moved by two articles from the Fall 1997 issue. Wonderfully Endowed by Jeannine Dettoney, is her journey to love her big, beautiful black hips and butt and the women in her life and culture who inspired and dignified her beauty.

I was reminded of one of the stories in Women Who Run With the Wolves, by Clarissa Pinkola Estes, a book that I read over 10 years ago. I might be slightly astray with the details but the crux of the story stayed with me. She recounted her own story about her body esteem being challenged by being in the presence of the thin, white girls that she went to school with and the American culture that supported that white notion of beauty. It was not until Estes went to visit her extended family of Amerindian/European/Hungarian roots that she realized that her body type was part of her heritage, and she was trying to fit a naturally large body into a thin representation of beauty.

Reading Wonderfully Endowed, as well as two other articles that moved me, Big Beauty, One Photographer’s View (Fall 97) and Confessions of a Radical Registered Dietician (Spring 95), reminded me to do a check in on what is most important in the work that I do. I have asked some of my clients if they were healthy but had to choose between losing the weight that they want to lose yet not being more peaceful or being at peace with themselves but not losing weight, which would they choose? All of them have chosen peace over weight loss.

As a coach and a nutritionist, I feel compelled to help them achieve both, but that is my learning too. I need to find peace with not being able to change what may not meant to be changed. Despite all my research into how people create real transformation in their lives, there are some things that just need to be accepted for what they are, especially our bodies.

A woman who lives healthfully, mind, body and soul in a large body is a powerful woman, and one that our culture needs more models of.

‘Being With’ My Body

We live in a small house east of the downtown core of Toronto. It is a sweet place, one that I believe reflects our warmth and our love of beauty. But it is small, and none of us have space of our own. Recently though, there was an added blessing to the house. The large apartment upstairs that we rent out, was vacant for 8 weeks. After 2 weeks of being empty, a light bulb went off over my head, and I moved my stability ball, portable stereo, CD’s, labtop and files up there. The living room is about 160 sq. ft., enough room for me to dance, have a little space to meditate and write and lots of room to do my coaching work. I thrived. I danced almost every day, started this blog, designed a workshop, coached, read the better part of 3 non-fiction books, meditated, slept, offered a movement/collage workshop for three coaching colleagues and created a larger space in my mind for my work and my life.

Now that I am back downstairs, cramped, with no room to move, except maybe the space between the dining room table and the wall or the kitchen, I am trying to put it into perspective, and find meaning beyond my own experience. This is what I am reflecting on:

My body and my home are both spaces that I occupy. My body I am with for the complete range of my life, my only constant companion throughout. So with it, I am dedicated to loving and being with it. Finding the acceptance, forgiveness, patience, compassion and kindness to occupy that space as gracefully as I can. With my home I am in a finite relationship. It has served us well for a time, but the end is nearing and so I am seeing how my visionary capacities are being engaged, as I prepare for change. I do not know yet how or when it is going to happen, I just know it is happening soon.

With what we cannot change, we need to settle in and find peace in the ‘being with’. With what we can change, we need to engage all of our mind’s capacities to take action.