October 6, 2018

Pancakes offer a special nostalgia for me; one of easy Saturday mornings filled with Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network. I also have fond memories of the gloomy month of June back home in California, which I spent binge watching Law and Order SVU (whoops) while munching on a stack of chocolate chip pancakes drizzled with Trader Joe's maple syrup. Or perhaps the affinity for pancakes comes from years of ditching class in high school to wait 2 hours in line at iHop, just for a free stack of buttermilk pancakes. Regardless of where your love for pancakes stems from, one thing rings true: pancakes are a timeless staple that have graced breakfast tables and countertops for decades, even centuries. From airy and fluffy to thin like a crepe, across the board savory, sweet, salty or all of the above, there's a pancake for everyone. I recently ordered three entire boxes of Kodiak Power Pancakes from Amazon and received a text from Sean as he picked them up from the PO Box, "Babe, do you realize you bought enough pancake mix to feed a village?!" Naturally, I decided to indulge in a breakfast-in-bed spread during our recent trip to Steamboat Springs, Colorado, complete with a generous stack of chocolate chip pancakes, pepper-crusted bacon, OJ (with a dash of champagne), and a bowl overflowing with fresh berries and sliced bananas. Cooking breakfast was more than just the food on a plate, it was a time for us to relax, laugh, and enjoy cooking while forgetting about all responsibility at that moment. Here's the recipe for what we whipped up - get the frying pan out, turn on the 'toons, and treat yourself to a weekend breakfast in bed! Chocolate Chip Pancakes with Pecans Ingredients: Kodiak Cakes Power Cakes Almond Coconut Milk Crumbled Pecans Chocolate Chips Berries to taste. Maple Syrup Eggs. Instructions: Add 1 cup Kodiak Pancake Mix to bowl. Add 1 cup Califia Farms Toasted Coconut Almond Milk Blend. Mix in 1 egg. Stir ingredients together, adding more pancake mix or coconut almond milk as needed. Cook on medium-high heat until bubbles form on top, flip over and cook until golden brown. Add blueberries, chocolate chips, pecans, bananas, really anything of your choice! Drizzle with maple syrup. Enjoy. **Recipe is serving for 2 people - but really, who pays attention to serving sizes?! #treatyourself Now, we couldn't JUST have chocolate chip pancakes and pancakes only. Oh no. We had premium side dishes of pepper crusted thick bacon, a decadent fruit bowl filled to the brim with blueberries, strawberries and bananas, coffee, and of course "adult" orange juice with an equal parts ratio of champagne. These days, it is so easy to get caught up in the fast pace of life, always be traveling, always have somewhere to be or something to do. One weekend, kick back, relax, make yourself a plate of Kodiak Power Pancakes and watch your favorite TV show, you deserve it!

Weekend Tip: Breakfast in Bed with Chocolate Chip Pancakes