the most perfect (and most easy) gluten-free pancakes!

after several fails to replicate a nice saturday morning pancake recipe with gluten-free substitutions, i was quite excited to try a mix given to me in amongst a whole basket of vegan, gluten-free treats! (yes, i do feel incredibly blessed and touched to receive such a perfect gift!)
the mix is by a company i hadn't seen before and i wonder if it's available only in the states for now? called the cravings place, i am convinced they make a wonderful product to have on hand for brownie emergencies and the like (yes, i have also tried the brownies and they were also ridiculously easy to make and delicious!). all of their products are made in a dedicated gluten-free, wheat-free, dairy-free, egg-free, and nut-free facility and they package items containing sugars (ie the chocolate chunks in the brownies are not yet completely beet sugar-based, some products still have cane sugar) separately in the case you are avoiding sugar! most impressed.
the pancake/waffle/biscuit mix contains: whole grain brown rice flour, non-aluminum baking powder (sodium acid pyrophosphate, bicarbonate of soda, non-GMO cornstarch, mono calcium phosphate), vanilla bean powder (vanilla beans, corn-based dextrose), sea salt, baking soda, and xanthan gum. it's not organic unfortunately but i appreciate very much that the corn is non-GMO. and i can't say pancakes are something i make more than once a year so i will forgive myself for the "conventional" production.
i was amazed by the simple, no-fail directions. basically: scoop some of the mix in a bowl and stir in cold water until smooth and desired thickness (ie more water for a thinner pancake) and let sit for a few minutes. i love a thick, fluffy pancake and so i kept my dough slightly runnier than a glop. and wow, they cooked up so fast and they were heavenly light, fluffy things! i put some bananas and farmers market maple syrup on top and finally, i have achieved some gf vegan pancake perfection!
 
now, next time i will have to try creating my own recipe!

getting rid of your cold...

morning vitamin C smoothie: parsley (couldn't resist as its iron should be more easily absorbed with all of this vitamin C!) and filtered water, camu camu, freshly squeezed orange juice (eek! so amazing! from the juiciest sweetest oranges ever!), mango, papaya...

 and then frozen bananas and some frozen raspberries...

 and later we did several shots of what organic lives puts in their cold/flu shot: e3 live, celery, ginger and camu camu!

coughing and sneezing = gone!

bananas and chocolate!

i don't know what i would do without bananas. frozen for smoothies, smushed up with cacao bits and coconut for a snack, fruit on the run... they are just the best!

tonight paul was saying he wished he could dip his banana in chocolate, so, grateful for the inspiration, i started throwing things into the vitamix.

i put about 4 spoons of cacao powder, a heaping spoon of coconut oil, a heaping spoon of almond butter, a few hunza dates, a number of splashes of almond milk (had to keep adding because there wasn't really enough in the blender to mix things around - as it were, there are still some chunks of dates).... anyways... it was so good and i'm convinced this is my raw chocolate pudding recipe. and i'm definitely going to start making it on the regular!

last morning in the cafeteria and on to incheon and narita airports!

last breakfast... last of my chia cereal, sundried tomatos, rawmesan, italian crackers... my chef friend gave me some oranges too. yippee!!!

i'm grateful to my go raw bars and gopal's nori sticks for getting me through the flights and waits to get home.

my vgml meals on japan airlines:

i couldn't eat all the white food! yuck! and the fruit salad was exactly like those fruit cups in the tin... gross! didn't touch the cherries. the dinner (middle picture) was definitely the best. it sucked that my least favourite selection was the one that was repeated.

my meat-eating friend still wished he had requested the vegan meal though! 

korean middle school cafeteria winter-styles day 20

my last full day at the school... i finished off my last package of rawgles, sliced some banana on top of my chia cereal (i have enough for tomorrow), and the salad was nice like last night and i added *roasted* nori again. i'm bringing home a full package of my raw nori. i just couldn't be bothered to make sushi much this time!

 my head chef friend presented me with a carrot rose... it tasted extra amazing. i miss eating carrots. i don't have much more than a few strips in a salad when i'm here!

 lunch... one lady working in the cafeteria said the kimchi was vegan but my head chef friend later told me it wasn't. i didn't expect it to be so i hadn't eaten any but took some to be polite. carrots and cukes were exciting! plus the last of my oil and vinegar atop of the salad with the last of my garden pesto crackers! and a banana snagged from breakfast. YAY!

 dinner.. a strange pairing... there was hot pot with fish intestine and such in it which of course i didn't partake in. the salad was served up in spaghetti which ended up being a sweet and red pepper paste spicy sauce that was animal free. i put 1/2 of the remainder of my sundried tomatoes and rawmesan on top expecting it to be the pasta sauce i had before. but it was fine. and i had taken the *roasted* nori - i ended up wrapping it in the leaf i picked up with the oranges. then i finished off the olives i brought, with help from friends ^_^ i gave one to the head chef to try and he couldn't finish it!

korean middle school cafeteria winter-styles day 19

breakfast... raw bagel and coconut oil, oranges, salad with *roasted* seaweed and chia cereal with bananas and cacao nibs.

 lunch... the last of my cacao nibs on top of a banana from darren. spicy lettuce stuff with rawmesan on top, salad with sundried tomatoes.

 dinner... the end of camp special buffet. the salad had more of a veggie selection and there were 3 fruits at once! other than that... not many options for me! i took some spaghetti noodles and french fries to pretend this was a great dinner for me too but yuck. i added jovan's raw element garden pesto crackers for some excitement.