Hallelujah! I slept for 8.5 hours last night! Only got up once and rolled over about 26 times, but I was dancing my way through the kitchen this morning.
To make the morning even more exciting, Matt also caught up on his sleep and we enjoyed pancakes together!
He claims to love his tomatoes so much I thought he might enjoy some tomato pancakes
But alas, he confessed he would rather have nectarine pancakes, and the tomatoes disappeared back in the bowl
Our cakes were the Great Harvest Mix – hearty and whole grain – topped with the other love of my life – sunflower butter! Nectarines and chia seeds inside and out.
Matt actually just put together a bundle of our top 3 best breakfast sellers: GH Pancake mix, Cranberry Almond oatmeal mix and Cville Cluster Granola on our website – check it out if you’ve been wanting a variety pack!
To make the morning feel extra, extra special, I also made a mug of Shenandoah Joe’s Mexican Decaf – the weather on the porch was perfect for sipping hot coffee in a tank top : )
Thanks so much for all the great book recommendations on last night’s post!!!! I put tons of them on my Amazon wish list.
I have become obsessed with e-reading. In a lot of ways, it has made reading so much more enjoyable for me (anywhere reading, midnight reading, much more comfortable bed reading) and so much more accessible! Although it is more expensive to download books left and right, I’m reading so much more now and reading = happiness. I love that the minute you finish a book you can download another. And for the first time in my adult life, I’m choosing the books I read. For the longest time, I only read hand-me-down books (which I had a lot of thanks to Karen) and maybe only went to the library or bookstore for something specific once a year.
I was debating buying a Kindle a while ago and ended up buying the Kindle Fire. I HATED it!! I had decided I wanted something with internet access so I could use it during late-night nursing sessions too, but the Fire’s options were SO limited. I wanted access to all of the Android apps and the Kindle restricted those. I missed my Android operating system. I started to do some research and ended up returning the Kindle to Best Buy the next morning and came home with the hair-more-expensive Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 (the 7 inch). I knew I didn’t want something as big as an iPad, so this was perfect and much less expensive.
ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT!!!!!!!!!! It’s wonderful for reading blog comments in bed, checking and responding to emails and of course reading.
Have a wonderful Friday!!
Claire @ Live and Love to Eat says
Beautiful colors for your breakfast this morning! Glad the tomatoes stayed out of the batter! 😉
Katie @ Peace Love & Oats says
Haha I wish you’d made tomato pancakes! I saw the title and was dying to see how they turned out! I bet if you use an immersion blender you could easily puree them into the pancake batter! Hmm… so many ideas now.
Anele @ Success Along the Weigh says
Yay for a good night’s sleep! Those pancakes look amazing!! YUM!
Enjoy your reading and have a great weekend!
Chelsea says
My favorite thing about e-reading is downloading library books that are ebooks to read on my nook. Once you have a library card you don’t even have to go to the library. That way you still get to enjoy free books and your e-reader. You should look into this in your area too.
Tracy says
I have a Samsung Galaxy Tab too! And I absolutely LOVE it!!!! As a side note, most librarys have digital books to loan! My library uses Overdrive software and once you load it on to your Tab its easy peasy to down load a book! And FREE!!!
KathEats says
I have yet to do this – doing it now!
Jennifer says
I use Overdrive, too, for my library books. Definitely check it out! You can use ANY library as long as you sign up for a card with them. It’s nice to not be limited to just Amazon. 🙂
Tracy says
I love it when I find a great read and through the library, it makes me feel like Im part of this wonderful sharing system we have, for all to use. Crazy reminder: over vacation my hubby and I were visiting historical houses in Portsmouth, NH (gorgerous town, much like Cville). On a tour the tour guide talked about the book collection in this one house, and talked at length about the cost of books in the 17 and 1800’s and how only the very rich had books, or even access to them. And of couse we all know this, but at the same time, it seems like such a strange concept to me that books were not available to all! Lucky for us the library system was well eestablished before we were born!!
Heather V says
I was just about to tell you about Overdrive, but someone already had! I’ve gotten all my summer reads as free downloads from the library to my Kindle (I have an original Kindle – I didn’t want to have Internet on it to distract me from reading!) I would highly recommend it. Nothing beats free, and they seem to get new releases fairly quickly. My library lets you check out 7 digital items at a time for a three-week time period. Definitely check it out!
Hillary says
Ditto to all of this. As soon as I realized I could borrow from my library, I was absolutely sold on my Kindle. I really only like to “splurge” on really big books for my Kindle (I justify it by telling myself that I wouldn’t want to lug that huge book around with me!) but for a fun, quick read, borrowing from Overdrive is the way to go!
Kelly says
I use overdrive sometimes too but my library has simple e-book options that I can read through epub or pdf. So simple, fast and free. Plus, you can get emails when any of your requested wish list items becomes available.
Karen says
Thanks Kath for the e-reader recommendation and thanks all for the library loan option…I have been buying way too many books from Amazon, which has been making me feel very wasteful. You can’t beat libraries!
Sarah says
I’m so surprised, I LOVE my Kindle Fire but I mostly only use it for last night Reddit reading and watching Netflix in bed.
Laura @ Sprint 2 the Table says
I did pancakes too – coconut flour and apple though. Love the idea of tomato pancakes! Those would be awesome with creamy avocado sauce!
Lauren says
Oh my gosh you had me a mix of concerned and completely intrigued by the idea of tomato pancakes! I wonder what that texture would be like – would they be too mushy? So interesting, but I don’t think I’ll be trying it any time soon, I’d much rather eat them fresh from the garden =) Nectarine ones though, absolutely love ’em!
Jennifer says
Oh, I LOVE the Android system, too. I won’t use anything else. I have the Samsung Galaxy II phone and the Slate. Love them both!
I think you’ll be very happy with it. 🙂
KathEats says
I cannot wait to upgrade my phone in March!
Maggie says
SO excited to see the variety pack! Have been craving the pancake mix ever since I tried it through Open Sky last year. Order placed and my griddle is waiting 🙂
KathEats says
🙂
Averie @ Averie Cooks says
great tip on the Samsung – love things that make life EASIER.
And 8.5 hrs of sleep at your stage in the game is like an epic amount – congrats on the zzzz’s!
Cait's Plate says
Yay!! I love that pancake mix!! Glad you have sunflower butter back in your life – maybe it WAS the cure to not sleeping seeing as you had it as a snack yesterday!!
KathEats says
Haha true! It worked!
Cait's Plate says
PS – spoke with Mrs. Thomas today. She says hi and congrats on the baby and the bakery success! 🙂
KathEats says
Oh fuuuun!!! Hi back!
Eating 4 Balance says
Oh Man! I was so excited to read your recipe for tomato pancakes. That would have been interesting!
Rachel says
Pancakes look great!! I ran out of fruit today so had to rely on frozen blueberries in my breakfast.. this makes me want some nectarines 🙂
Christine @ BookishlyB says
I have a Macbook, iPhone, iPod, and will probably end up getting an iPad eventually, but I will never, I repeat never, get an ereader. I just love the feel of regular books way too much!
Annette @FitnessPerks says
I had nectarines on the side of my toast today too! YUMM.
Nikki says
Does your tablet let you download samples of books before you buy them? We just splurged on an iPad and iBooks lets you have the first fifty or so pages of a book before you buy it–best idea ever! (Although I too spend more money on books now.)
Jacqui says
I am such a fan of my e-reader as well, but the price of downloading was getting a little crazy (for me, it was too easy to impulse buy haha) until I discovered my local library does e-book rentals!
Basically, I simply had to get a library card & install the library’s software. After that I could browse their ebook collection online and download it right to my kindle!
It works just like the library in that the book auto deletes after two weeks on your device and you sometimes have to wait for titles to become available–but hey–its free!!!
Angela @ Eat Spin Run Repeat says
Hehe when I saw the title of this post, the first thing that popped into my mind was “Wow, pregnancy hormones really DO make you crave weird things!” 🙂
I haven’t ventured into the whole e-reading thing but I do have some of my magazines on my iPad (as well as the copies I get in the mail). Definitely makes packing a carry-on bag for the airport easier!
Katie @ Talk Less, Say More says
Yum! Pancakes are so delicious – I think I’m going to make myself some soon! 🙂
Chelsea @ Designs on Dinner says
After I adamantly declared two years ago that I never wanted an e-reader, I got one for Christmas last year. I love it. And I spend waaaay too much money downloading a new book every time I finish one. But at least it’s money well spent! You’re right; reading = happiness. 🙂
Amy says
Hi Kath! Off topic, but since you are such a lover of beer, I wanted to ask your opinion on which pumpkin brew was the best? I’m just starying to get into beers, and I love pumpkin, but I”m so confused about which ones are good and which ones are just hype. Guidance from an expert???
KathEats says
I cannot WAIT for pumpkin beers!!!
Here’s a post I did on my current favs. We’re hoping to do a big group tasting again this fall and come up with an even longer list: https://www.katheats.com/drinkable-pumpkin
Amy says
Wow! Thank you!!! That is a great list! 🙂
Jess @ JessieBear What Will You Wear says
I LOVE that green plate you’re using for breakfast. TGIF!
Tonya says
Thanks for the Great Harvest purchasing link. Are there other GH items that can be purchased online?
KathEats says
Just those for now
Matt says
Any requests?
Tiffany says
I ordered the granola and it will arrive on Saturday…I am so excited! Thank you 🙂
By the way, I know you have to ask other GH if they carrying the Cville granola but would the name be the same? Lets say you buy the granola in another state and city would it still be called Cville cluster granola? lol
I would love to order your GH bread or sweets.Kath mentioned it would be expensive and difficult with shipping so I completely understand. If in the future there is a way I would love to order some.
KathEats says
I would imagine they’d change the name.
The original was called Lynda’s Granola – I think it’s on the breadboard (the GH owner share forum) by that name.
Kathi says
Yay for sleep! Do you know about pixelofink.com? They have free and discounted ebooks all the time. I get their updates via facebook and they have tons of free books all the time. Happy Friday!
KathEats says
No, thanks for sharing!
Allison says
Still struggling with the baby weight (I seem to hold on to 5-7 lbs during breastfeeding) and my 2nd baby is almost 8 months….I know this is probably difficult for you to start thinking about now but as an RD do you have a plan for losing the baby weight? Do you think you will continue to eat the same way? I’m hungry constantly due to BFing. I’ve tried switching from high protein breakfasts to ones that are more similar to your oats. However, if it is possible, I eat even more as I crave sugar within about 90 minutes afterwards.
Any suggestions (anyone)? Thanks and good luck in the coming weeks!
KathEats says
I honestly have no idea how it will go!! My hope is that I can continue to eat about the same as now (late pregnancy needs and nursing calorie needs are comparable) give or take snacks as needed in the night and things. I think after a while if I’m stuck I might turn to food journaling of sorts, but I will cross that bridge when I get there. That’s always the first thing I recommend to people who are stuck – write down everything, tally it up and see how much you are really eating.
Allison k says
Hello fellow breast feeding mom named Allison! I would say (and note, I am not an RD) that it sounds like you should start by going back to your high protein breakfasts and add in some healthy fats! I used to be an oatmeal eater, but like you, it left me hungry, even when protein and fat were added. Lately I have been eating 3 eggs cooked in coconut oil, with half an avocado for breakfast. This keeps me full for several hours, which as you know, is quite the feat during breastfeeding . I too still have some baby weight to lose. My approach is; cut back on carbs (as they only leave me hungrier, after my blood sugar spikes and crashes) and up my protein and healthy fats. Drink lots of water and exercise everyday. I figure, if I do what is healthiest for my body, my body will adjust. If that means holding on to a few pounds while bfing, so be it. Although, I have plenty of fat stores, so I hope that’s not the case!
Becca says
I’ve learned that the body ‘forces’ you to hold on to some baby weight (maybe 5 lbs or so) while breast feeding because the body doesn’t want you to starve while supplying the baby with food. If you were ever to go without food (which is less likely these days) then this extra weight would have you to still supply the baby with food. It is an evolutionary characteristic of the female body. Plus, apparently you need a certain percentage of body fat to make breast milk…?
But once you’re done breast feeding, those last pounds should come off!
Lara Gastinger says
Like someone mentioned, the jmrl library is great for lending e books free (overdrive). The wait lists can be long but I have had great success! Also, if you are at pump on Monday, we could grab lunch (w/August) if you want!
KathEats says
Going to lib today I think!
Lunch would be fun. Shall we pencil it in?
Sarah says
Glad to see that lots of other people have also mentioned e-books from the library!
Tomato pancakes… could be yummy, but I think I’d do them with cornmeal as a savory dish for dinner, not sweet for breakfast!
Tonya says
They’re definitely good choices! I used your store locater and found that there’s one not far from me in Columbia, MD. I’ll check out their selection, but I’m going to have to order that Cville Crunch!
Cindy says
You will love having the tablet for late night nursing sessions!! My iPad was(and still is) a life saver to keep me up while the babe feeds.
Allison K says
I was so hesitant to get an e-reader. I love love love reading. Prior to having a baby, I read probably 3 or 4 books a month. Obviously that has slowed down now. My husband got me a nook, and I do love it for Travel (packing more than one book, or a big hardback from the libary was a pain), and it is perfect for newborn nursing, when you are literally nursing 40 hours per week.
I don’t like reading reference books on it though.
Kristina says
I just bought my first jar of sunflower butter a couple weeks ago and I LOVE it!! It’s so good stirred into yogurt or over cereal. Thanks for the great suggestion!
Jenica says
I actually just saw a recipe for tomato and basil muffins. Perhaps that would be a way to consume a bunch of your tomatoes (and do a breakfasty twist with them too!)
Kathy W. says
a little late, and it’s not fiction, but I highly recommend “Wild” by Cheryl Strayed. You will feel like you’re hiking the Pacific Crest Trail, too. Scary, sad, uplifting (AND a bonus encounter with a hottie guy near the end) 🙂
Spice Chicken says
What is it about the sunflower butter? I haven’t tried it myself, so I’m curious: do you love the taste and texture, the nutrition, or…?
KathEats says
Taste and texture….. Incredible!
Spice Chicken says
Thanks, I’ll have to try it. What is your favorite brand?
KathEats says
Trader Joe’s – with Sunbutter a very very close second
Elizabeth says
I am surprised you like reading so much on your tablet! I have a Kindle and an iPad and I couldn’t imagine looking at the shiny iPad screen to read for more than 20-30 minutes. I LOVE my Kindle so much for reading because it is light as a feather and has no glare what so ever. Just like looking at a piece of paper.
I wish so much I could be down to one device…but the screen glare on tablets just doesn’t work for me and reading. Glad you love your solution, though!
KathEats says
I’m sure the Kindle screen is far better, but I couldn’t justify both so I went internet friendly
Pat says
Funny how we are all different – I love reading on my iPad! I also read free e-books from my library. And for my birthday, since I don’t need much, I ask for gift cards to buy more e-books. 🙂
Liz says
Yay for e-readers & digital books! I have always been a reader – I read about 2 books/week & always bought way too many & then didn’t know what to do with them when I was done (because many of them I wanted to keep). I had a Nook 2nd generation & currently use a Nook Tablet & an iPad. Can’t live without ’em! The screen definitely has quite a bit of glare on the iPad, but I do really enjoy reading on it & the Nook Tablet doesn’t give me any glare problems. I do still have my old Nook (e-ink) for sunny, beach purposes 😉
Nikki Varela says
I love e-reading as well!! I live in Tucson AZ and our library has program where you can rent electronic books! Pretty cool! Might want to check with your local library!
Angel7 says
I would have never thought of the tomato pancake combo, but would try it since I love tomatoes 🙂
http://faithfulsolutions.blogspot.com/
Alison says
So glad you got great sleep! I’ve been so sleepy today…woke up at 7, ate breakfast, went back to sleep…then 4 o’ clock comes around and I’m still exhausted! So I took another nap.
Anyway! Those pancakes look so yummy and wholesome. I think I’m going to make some for my family tomorrow using your whole wheat yogurt pancake recipe, in fact! I may just add some banana and peaches in there 🙂
andrea says
I have an original Kindle (bought when we lived in China so I could keep reading), ipad and I also use the kids kindle fires sometimes too. I can use any of them – I am perfectly fine using the old kindle as it really is just reading as i get distracted at times on the others…too easy to pop to internet! but I like have the options as we travel, kids can play on ipad, i can use one of theirs, etc. So i Normally download book on a couple of devices. I still like a real book but now we live in Taipei, so back to limited choices and $$!
Dannii @ Hungry Healthy Happy says
Tomato pancakes sound weird. I mean, I LOVE tomatoes – but that is too far even for me 🙂
Christina @ The Beautiful Balance says
I just started downloading books to my iPad and it was such a great decision. It is so easy to bring with wherever I am, always to have something to read when there’s down time.