Happy Sunday, all! This weekend I am full of mixed emotions – happy and sad at the same time. Why is so hard to let go of “stuff?” The husband and I are on a mission to plow through a list of things we want to do to our house. On that list, I begrudgingly agreed to sell my bedroom suite that we have been keeping in our guest room. We decided to sell it for $500 which was ridiculously cheap for such high quality furniture, but we needed it gone fast to get started on projects in that space. I put a post on Facebook and it was sold in less than two hours, and picked up and gone in less than 24 hours.

I got that furniture when I moved back to Nashville after a rough patch in my life in ’05. It went with me from my downtown Nashville apartment to crashing in a basement belonging to my late friend, Gary. From there, it went to a house that my best friend, Ted, let me pick out for him sight unseen in the Germantown district of Nashville (he was living in Africa). After three years there, it went to my future husband’s house. Finally, it ended up in the house I now call home with FotoJo and our two boys. Throughout a lot of changes in my life, that bedroom set was the one thing I “owned.” I knew I had a bed wherever I would land. It was kind of like the “everything’s gonna be alright” furniture. High quality and familiar no matter where it was. After settling in our new home, it was replaced by a bigger and better set and and sat pretty much unused for that three years except for the occasional house guest. We now have big plans for that guest room – a Murphy bed so we can utilize the room more efficiently and a place for a massage chair that we have always wanted to buy. In order to make room for change, I had to say goodbye to something I loved. Isn’t it that way with so many things in life? It’s hard to explain to other people why you hold so tightly to material things, but it shouldn’t make you feel bad to have those feelings. Only you understand why your “stuff” means so much. At the same time, you have to allow yourself to grow and change, and that means sometimes letting go and moving on. The lady that bought the furniture just bought a house in Nashville and I know she will take good care of the set. I hope it becomes her “everything’s gonna be alright” furniture too.

Geez, who knew I could get so deep about furniture? How about we lighten this post up with some yummy pancakes? I’ve been experimenting with these ‘cakes for quite a while and I think I’m pretty close with this recipe. Before you make these, however, I need to give you fair warning. If you are expecting these to be the same texture as your Cracker Barrel pancakes, don’t even bother. They are more egg-y than fluffy, but they are tasty and very moist. Best of all, they soak up your maple syrup in the most perfect way. I have even eaten them topped with some savory meats like Beef Barbacoa to add a unique twist to dinner.

Important note: Because these are heavy in the egg department, you absolutely must cook these at a medium temperature or they will burn.

Modern Day Fox Paleo Sweet ‘Tater Cakes

(Makes 10 – 3″ pancakes)

INGREDIENTS:

1 1/4 mashed sweet potato (about one large potato)

3 eggs

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

2 TBSP Tapioca Flour

2 TBSP Coconut Flour

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp baking powder

Big pinch of salt

DIRECTIONS:

First, cook your sweet potato until soft and peel skin. I used my Instant Pot and put my potato in my steamer basket. I added one cup of water to the stainless steel liner pot, and set the pot to 25 min HP with QR. The peel slid off easily. Mash the potato until smooth and let cool.  When cooled, mix in eggs and vanilla extract in a medium size bowl. In a separate small bowl, mix the remainder of the ingredients. Then, stir the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until thoroughly blended.

Preheat a lightly greased griddle or frying pan over medium heat. Drop batter mixture onto the prepared griddle forming 3.5″ pancakes, and cook until golden brown (approximately 2 minutes per side), turning once with a spatula. It is important to cook over medium heat so that pancakes do not burn. Recipe yields about 10 3.5″ pancakes.

If you like some crunch in your cakes, add pecans in the batter or on top! I love to top these with Enjoy Life dairy-free chocolate chips for a breakfast dessert!

21 DAY FIX counts – 2 pancakes equal 1 YELLOW, 1/2 Red